Stocking Question

[moevilla]

I have a 90 gallon tank with 30 gallon refugium (half full). Ready to add lifestock, want to add 13 chromis. That will be the only livestock in tank besides snail, hermits, and sexy shrimp. Can my water volume handle the bioload?

 

[stovenut]

Assuming you have plenty of live rock for biological filtration, than the bioload will be quite low. Those chromis don't eat much. I would guess that a 6" sailfin tang likely eats and poops more than 13 blue/green chromis combined. I'd say you've got room for more fish as the reef establishes itself.

 

[Chris27]

Your tank won't have any problem handling the load.....

What you will have though is a bunch of dead fish after a short time....

 

[stovenut]

...and he means that the chromis school for a while but as they get older a pecking order develops and those low in the order get killed off in many cases.

 

[moevilla]

I have a 5 inch deep sand bed in the refugium. Approximately 75 lbs of life rock in the display. Aqua C Pro skimmer (rated for up to 120 gallons). I placed an order with Bluezoo for 12 chromis, I already have one chromis. My hope is that all 12 survive shipping but realize that is highly unlikely. Hopefully I will end up with atleast 10 healthy fish.

 

[moevilla]

Well, I have read the same thing about the chromis dieing off. I have also read that a group of them can be maintained for years. I guess it depends on who you ask. We shall see what happens.

 

[Chris27]

...and he means that the chromis school for a while but as they get older a pecking order develops and those low in the order get killed off in many cases.

Yea that....:beer:

 

[Chris27]

We recently put 20-30 in a large tank at the store, and within a few short days the killin' started.

 

[moevilla]

What were the dimensions of the tank?

 

[stovenut]

I put 8 chromis in my 240g reef, along with a few small fish (flasher wrasses, prawn goby, scooter dragonet, and banghaii cardinals). In 2 months I was down to 4. After 2 months, when I added tangs and larger fish, I was down to 2 chromis. I might have had better survival rates with more hiding places. My tank had a ton of open swiming space. But they just picked eachother off one by one.

 

[dzfish17]

From what I've read the larger the tank (125+) and more frequent feeding will help keep a group of chromis alive. You might get lucky and end up with 3-5 when its all said and done.

 

[Chris27]

What were the dimensions of the tank?

Standard 75 Gal holding tank on the fish only system.