Too Many Fish?

[teddscau]

We're planning on buying more captive-bred fish for our tank. We currently have 4 pyjama cardinalfish, 2 Ocellaris clownfish, a convict tang, a blue tang, a firefish, a striped blenny, an orchid dottyback, an elongate dottyback, and a yellow watchman goby in our 160g. We still want to get 5 pygmy filefish, 8 Banggai cardinalfish, 3 more striped blennies, an electric indigo dottyback, another watchman goby, a sharknose cleaner goby, a coral beauty angelfish, and maybe some dragonets. Is that too many fish for the tank? I know every tank and every fish is different, but what do you guys think?

 

[Rchan89]

I think it depends on a lot of factors. How many fish do you have in each "zone" (top, middle, bottom dwellers) All competing. If you can have that many fish all in the tank without competition then that is going to be a lot of food going into the tank and waste coming out to keep them all fed comfortably. How would you get all of the food in and waste out? I dont think it would be impossible to put that many fish in but would it be sustainable? BRS and WWC did a series on youtube that uses a heavy in heavy out feeding method that may be worth checking out. In my experience, i would think that in a 160 more that 3 moderately fish (~3in) per tank zone would seem like a good fit. Maybe 4 per zone. With that list it looks like a plan for more than 10 fish per zone. How are you currently keeping the tank parameters in control ?

 

[teddscau]

The tangs and blenny occupy pretty much all the zones in the tank; the clowns occupy the back wall; the pyjamas spend a lot of time on the left side of the tank in the middle; the dottybacks like playing in the rockwork; and the firefish and watchman like snuggling in the same cave on the bottom right side of the tank together.

I ordered three striped blennies, an electric indigo dottyback, and a sharknose cleaner goby from New Dawn Aquaculture (along with a weird mushroom and a rock flower anemone), and they should be arrive by Wednesday. I'll be quarantining the fish for at least two months before introducing them to the reef. I hope the new blennies will get along well with my current girl. My girl's good with other fish, including new additions. I'm hoping at least one of the new blennies will be a male, then I can finally try raising her eggs. The girl's constantly pumping out eggs. I'd say she lays eggs at least once a week. She's probably my favourite fish.

My dad does a 25% water change every couple of weeks, plus we run a skimmer, have caulerpa and chaeto, and use NOPOX. We also have a Crocea clam and a massive Japanese long tentacle toadstool. We're planning on getting a Hippopus and maybe a Squamosa as well.