Fish size to gallon of tank.. How many can i fit?

SabrinaJean

New member
I have a 27G nano tank. DOes anyone know how many fish can fit in my tank? I also have 1 large rose tip, a swimming anemone, 2 baby bubbles anemone and some GSP and Cave star polyps. How many fish can i get? Is it 1inch of fish to 4G or 5G? WBBB
 
It greatly depends on the type of fish you want. Some people say an inch for every 2 gallons in which case you would have to account for the full size of the fish when its fully grown, but because you are stocking your tank with many invertebrates that will be sensitive to organic waste such as nitrate, I wouldn't put more than 3 3-4 inch community fish. For instance you could have a shrimp goby, a sixline wrasse, and a royal gramma. Or a bicolor blenny, a sunset dottyback, and falcos hawkfish. Any combination of mild tempered small fish would work, I just wouldn't put more than 3 or 4 depending on their full size.
 
ignore the fish length per gallon rules, not the best way to judge. base it on a "per fish" basis. As "D" mentioned, really depends on the fish. For that small of a tank, I'd say 2-4 maximum, and keep em small, 2-4"ers. Also keep in mind the size that those anemones will get, especially when cnsidering other invert tankmate (corals and whatnot).
 
Wow!

You need to slow way down.

27 gal nano is a very small tank with very limited sorts of stuff you should keep in there.

GSP is a great starter coral and should do just fine.
Cave star polyps is a made up name. No idea what that might be.
Swimming Anemone refers to a coccinea species that lives in temperate (55-65F) water. (This will die form overheating in a tropical reef tank).
The baby bubbles and the rose tip are both among the easier to keep anemones, but any anemone is very hard to keep alive. (expect them to all die when the swimming anemone dies)

I fear that the person selling you this tank setup might have realized the impossibility of this setup and decided to get out before the tank crashed. There is almost no way it has been set up for very long.

Lets start off by focusing on making sure your tank is suitably set up and can support life for extended periods of time. Then we can make sure all of the existing stuff in your tank will be able to survive. Last we can look at what to add to your tank.

if you could please answer the folloowing.....
what sort of filtration is set up for your tank?
what sort of lighting dos your tank have?
what are your water parameters? (ammonia,nitrite,nitrate,phosphate,calcium,dKH,pH,salinity)
Are you using RO/DI water or tap water?
How long has your tank been set up?

You might seriously consider selling your anemones to an LFS. The alternative is that you will likely end up watching them die (Pretty much ruining your tank).

If you do not already have one, go find a good reef aquarium book. Just about any hardcover at your local LFS should be fine.
 
Yeah I was wondering about the swimming anemone and cave polyps. I've never heard of them, I guess because the swimming anemone is not something people normally keep in the hobby, it just sounded like trouble though haha. Maybe the cave polyps are a type of non photosynthetic coral like sun polyps or the like. Damn craig's list. Sabrina, I would recommend the Consciencious Marine Aquarist if you are looking for a good book.
 
I am expecting the cave polyps to be a NPS. Just about zero chance of it lasting very long.

I had to reference the swimming anemone. I can attest to how cold they like the water. I dove the channel islands and got some sweet pics of some a little while ago. Water was 54F!!!!!!
here is a link to the pics..http://www.airinheresreef.com/Channel Islands Feb 08.html

the Consciencious Marine Aquarist is probably the best book out there for reefkeeping.

SabrinaJean, you can check out my website at www.AirInHeresReef.com and see my current tanks if you like.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12237164#post12237164 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by airinhere

GSP is a great starter coral and should do just fine.
Cave star polyps is a made up name. No idea what that might be.

So is GSP :D, all common names are just "made up" to make life easier on us hobbyist. but I agree, never heard of a "cave star polyp" before. sounds kinda non-photosynthetic though doesn't it, which would make for a more difficult species to keep alive.

Sabrina, I hadn't noticed the Hobby experience you listed, you just started that tank so definatly do what airinhere mentioned and SLOW DOWN!!!, alot of problems that arise in this hobby can be avoided completey with nothing more than a little patience on our parts.
 
Consciencious Marine Aquarist- great book I just finished reading it cover to cover. Lots of great info on just about everything. I paid 40$ for my copy but it is well worth it
 
Sabrina, do an internet search for "Fish Stocking Guide For Nano Reefs" for a rough guide to stocking a tank the size of yours. It really does depend on the type of fish you put in there and the types of filtration that you rely upon. BTW, "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist" is my favorite beginner book: $26.37 from Amazon with free ship!
 
yeah $40 is steap. I think we sell it for about 24 at my LFS. That swimming anemone was really cool airinhere...no pun intended.
 
Here are some pictures of what I have in my tank... but without those fish in the picture


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tank looks great but you will have problems with 2 diff. clowns and a damsel in that tank. i suggest getting rid of the yellow tailed damsel and the clarki clown and getting another smaller percula clown. also a watchman goby would be a good addition and a dottyback
 
cave polyps I would suspect are sun corals (sun polyps) which are found on the roof of cave openings. they are a very low light coral and need to placed inside a cave or shaded from the light for best results. the polyps are yellow and usually only come out at night and need to be fed as they don't have symbiotic algae.

a 29 gallon can normally hold about five 4" fish, that is if its is a tank alone and no live rock and coral. i keep three 3-4 inch fish in mine, a yellow tail damsel, a clown and a lawn mower blenny, thats about all it can handle.
 
Didn't see anything that would be a cave polyp (as far as sun polyps go), but it did look like you have Clove polyps. And that is one big RBTA!
 
Sweet looking Rose bubble anems! Cave polyp is probably your clove polyps. (Nice ones too btw).

Sidenote:Sun corals are completely unconcerned about lighting. They open up to feed based on sensing food in the water. Light has nothing to do with it. In fact the only impact light has on NPS corals is that it can cause algae to overgrow the corals.

You need to use the territoriality and personal space required by your fish to determine how many you could add. There is no formula that is reasonable to use. And you sure do not want to put five fish in that tank that are four inches long. (You dont want to put any four inch long fish in there).

You need to start reading about the behavior and aggressivness of the different species of fish.

I would NOT recommend: Damsels, Grammas, sandsifting gobies, most wrasses, angels, dwarf angels, TANGS, anthias, butterflies, crabs, starfish or anemones.

I WOULD recommend a mated pair of clownfish (they do NOT need anemones to be happy), coral gobies, neon gobies, flasher wrasses, fairy wrasses, firefish, cardinals and softy/LPS corals
 
aww clownfish are sooo unimaginative! Everyone has them! haha. But yea, they are really easy to take care of and so they make really good fish for beginners. I just get bored with them because it seems like everybody has atleast one clownfish.
 
But clownfish are the most iconic saltwater fish we can keep in our tanks. And they are full of personality, and they are easy to care for and they pair up sexually, and they can mate in captivity and the babies can be raised in captivity!

I have False Percula clown and saddleback clown pairs in my 90 gal tanks, a pair of Tomatoe clowns in my bubble reef and a lone misbar maroon clown in my actinic nano. I love them all.

My other personal favorite salty fish is the pajama cardinal. Wholly underappreciated in the hobby. I have 12 in my vietnamese tank and three in my bubble reef. They school, are oblivious to agressive tankmates and just look cool.

I am also looking seriously at Assesors. They come in lots of cool colors, are social fish and can be kept in groups! I am still researching about them, but they are high on my personal list of likely fish for my tanks.
 
I LOVE pajama cardinals. A pj was one of my first fish. I've never kept/wanted to keep clowns although I did have a maroon clownfish for a little because a customer brought him in where I work and I wanted to try him out. Assesors have always interested me to, but I hear they like to hide a lot. I've also heard that they'll hang upside down in caves and under ledges, and that would be cool to see. I think I'm so anti clownfish because I work at a LFS and there isnt a day that goes by when I don't hear "There's Nemo Mommy!" (points to any orange fish). After about 3 years of that I think anyone would swear off of clownfish haha.
 
Yeah, I worked for a year at a LFS and heard lots of Nemo remarks.

And I got bit by half the clownfish we ever got in the store! (My Tomatoes bite me all the time). I kinda think its funny when they bite me. (Even when they draw blood).

Sabrina, the best thing you can do is just research and read as much as you can about the different fish. Eventually, one will grab your interest and then you will know which one to add to your tank.

I have been cycling my tanks for over a year now and am just finally starting to stock my tanks with the more delicate corals and tunicates I really desire to keep. As I find new corals and fish I like, I slowly add them to my tanks.

Never get in a hurry.

Reefing is the journey, not the destination.
 
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