Too many fish for a 180?

Jersh

New member
I've had this list approved in Snorvich's sticky thread. Now that I'm 8 fish in, I'm starting to wonder if the tank will be too crowded with the number of fish I have planned.

From what I've read its more a question of the certain niches that the fishes occupy, as opposed to a set # of fish. Do you think my 180 would be crowded with this group of fish?

(X)- already own

(X)1 blue reef chromis
(X)pair of ocellaris clowns
(X)1 midas blenny
1 McCosker's flasher wrasse
1 carpenters flasher wrasse
1 linespot flasher wrasse
(X)1 orange-back fairy wrasse
5 ignitus anthias
(X)3 lyretail anthias
bonded pair of longnose hawkfish
1 royal gramma
pair of green mandarin
1 powder brown tang
 
How much rock do you have? Most all those fish except the tang will stay under 4.5-5"
I think your list is a good one and wont make the tank look crowded
 
I have a decent amount of rock work, with lots of caves and holes in the rocks.

http://imgur.com/E4MOgpt

It now has 1/4 in netting top, before anyone says anything about jumping wrasses.
 
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You can add more, pending on the amount of rock you have. I had a blue throat trigger, yellow tang, mole tang, powder brown tang, 10 chromis, 10 Bartlett's, fairy wrasse, springer dotty back, tribal blenny, starry blenny, randals goby, helfrich fire fish, potters, and probably missing one or two.

I have a mixed reef with a fair amount of LR. it still didn't look full cause some fish would hide or prutch. Get a good mix of fish that will swim higher in the Tank, some who are bottom dwellers and some that like to swim through the LR.

You have a ton of room. Just make sure your skimmer and other other nutrient exports can handle your load
 
I'm curious about this. What is the basis for this recommendation?

When people wonder if they have too many fish its usually because they are worried about the bio load. If you keep the feedings "in check" not to overfeed and cause extra nutrients, and you system can handle, then you should be ok.
 
I think the over feeding statement comes from people who feed a large amount of food once a day, So a large part of the food "Could"go to waste. Versus feeding the same amount of food spread over several feedings ,so that more of the food gets eaten at each feeding, less waste. IMO
 
I think the over feeding statement comes from people who feed a large amount of food once a day, So a large part of the food "Could"go to waste. Versus feeding the same amount of food spread over several feedings ,so that more of the food gets eaten at each feeding, less waste. IMO

I agree.
 
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