how many fish are ideal for a 180g reef

[TheReef180]

how many fish are ideal for a 180g reef? already ive got 4 damsils scooter blenny, green madrain goby, royal gramma, pair of clowns, and now a Vlamingi Tang also a gold banded maroon clown that is in quarintain

 

[TheReef180]

should i have a bunch of smaller fish or a handful of larger fish?

 

[mlb75]

I think that is completely up to you, do you want to see a couple large show size fish or a bunch of motion with different schools of little fish. It's all in what you like, that's what's nice about this hobby. The only thing to remember which ever way you go with a higher fish load your upkeep and skimmer effeciency will need to increase.

 

[ben&bobbi]

not up running long enough to know for sure, but

8 blue/green chromis - school nice!
2 false perc clowns
1 sailfin tang
1 flame hawk
3 anthias
1 black/white damsel
1 blue damsel
1 clown goby
1 fire fish
1 purple dottyback

mostly small fish. want a couple more anthias.

 

[clutch]

i wish my chormis schoold, I found that they didn't school once they found out that they not threatened by the other fish. I guess the more fish you the more bio load you have so a good skimmer would be a good start. i agree wit mlb75

 

[meschaefer]

Also a question I am interested in as I plan out my 180 upgrade.

In my research travels, I have heard that you can get better schooling behavior out of chromis when you have one or two very active large fish.

 

[hulley]

I have the following,
yellow tang
purple tang
hippo tang
lawn mower blenny
cleaner wrass
green chromis (had 12 but they killed off each other!)
fire shrimp x2
skunk shrimp x1
assorted snails and hermits

I'm wanting to add a few more smaller fish and would like to add an Achilles tang.

 

[mflamb]

I think we all deal with this kind of question at some time in our reefing life. We want this and that fish, but we also want all of our livestock to be healthy. Wisdom must take over and be the limiting factor. As we all know, through the years, some of our fish will die, and then we will have the opportunity to keep a different fish for the years that it will live. It's definitely hard on most of us to lose a fish, but it is harder when we "kill" them by overcrowding them.