Will I have too many fish?

[Zionas]

I'm planning on stocking my 105-gallon tank (4 foot long, 2 foot wide and tall) and I plan to have up to 15 fish. I have come up with 3 stocking plans, divided into "œLiberal", "œSemi-Conservative", and "œConservative." I would like your opinions on whether any one of these plans will work, whether I will overstock my tank.


"œLiberal" (Plan A):

x2 Marine Bettas

x2 Ocellaris / Black and White Ocellaris

x2 Flame Hawkfish

x3 Pajama Cardinals

x3 Azure / Talbot's / Springer's / King Demoiselles

x2 Aiptasia Eating Filefish

x1 basslet (Royal Gramma, Swissguard, Blackcap, or am Assessor) or dwarf angel (Flame, Multicolor, Pygmy, or Joculator) or butterfly (one of the species that gets up to 6", so something like Klein's or Burgess or Double Saddle or Tinker's)



"œSemi-Conservative" (Plan B):

x1-2 Marine Bettas (if I get 2 I won't get an angel or butterfly, if I only get one I might get an angel or butterfly)

x2 Ocellaris / Black and White Ocellaris Clowns

x2 Flame Hawkfish

x3 Pajama Cardinals

x2 Aiptasia Eating Filefish

x3 Azure / Talbot's / Springer's / King's Demoiselles

x1 angel or butterfly (maybe)





"œConservative" (Plan C)-this scenario assumes pairing won't work for the Marine Bettas or the Flame Hawkfish, as well as reducing the number of fish overall.

x1 Marine Betta

x2 Ocellaris / Black and White Ocellaris Clowns

x1 Flame Hawkfish

x3 Pajama Cardinals

x1 Aiptasia Eating Filefish

x1 Royal Gramma (or maybe a Pygmy angel)

I want my fish to be healthy and happy, so the last thing I'd like is an overcrowded system.

 

[vlangel]

There are more factors to take into account than just overcrowding. I only have a 56 gallon display tank and it has 13 fish in it. I get away with that many fish thriving in such a small tank because I chose fish that like different areas of the tank and I have a lot of live rock with nooks, crannies and hidey holes. I also chose blennies and hobbies predominantly so they are not all big fish although a few are 4". Another factor is I can feed very heavy so none of the fish have to work to compete for food. My tank has a 30 gallon fuge and a 20 gallon sump attached for biological filtration. The fuge is for seagrasses and macro algae and the sump is for cryptic sponges which have tremendous filtering power. My tank has a thriving population of differing sized pods. So for me, I actually want a lot of fish to make nutrients to feed my macro algae and pod populations, plus I enjoy the fish very much. I plan to add a few more actually.

 

[Member No. 1]

Well....

Not knowing what brand of tank you have, typically a 48" x 24" x 24" tank is 120 gallons.

Anyway, I have a 120g and have a Purple Tang, Mimic Tang, Royal Gramma, mated pair of Banggai Cardinalfish, mated pair Lamarck Angelfish and Six Line wrasse. At times i think that's to much.
So in my humble opinion, Plan C

Way to many fish for that tank with plan A or B

 

[Zionas]

My tank is custom built by my LFS. 48”x24”x22” so 105 gallons. My LFS for some reason feels 24” is too tall for a tank. It’ll be cycled using cured live rock.

I’ll go with Plan C then.

For my Plan C, would having a dwarf angel (not just a Pygmy angel) or a butterfly in place of the Royal Gramma, and adding 3 Damsels work?

 

[Member No. 1]

My tank is custom built by my LFS. 48"x24"x22" so 105 gallons. My LFS for some reason feels 24" is too tall for a tank. It'll be cycled using cured live rock.

I'll go with Plan C then.

For my Plan C, would having a dwarf angel (not just a Pygmy angel) or a butterfly in place of the Royal Gramma, and adding 3 Damsels work?

Understand... I was going with your first post "(4 foot long, 2 foot wide and tall)" but none the less still a nice size tank.

As to stocking, how is this tank going to be set up?
FOWLR?
Soft corals?
LPS?
SPS?
Mixed?

That will also determine what fish you can keep.

 

[Zionas]

Understand... I was going with your first post "(4 foot long, 2 foot wide and tall)" but none the less still a nice size tank.

As to stocking, how is this tank going to be set up?
FOWLR?
Soft corals?
LPS?
SPS?
Mixed?

That will also determine what fish you can keep.

It will be a choice between soft corals only or FOWLR. My first tank I won't try LPS, SPS or mixed reef yet because I only want the hardiest species to try my hand at and hopefully keep for a long time before I gradually move to species that require more complex maintenance in the future once I get a bigger tank.

 

[Sk8r]

I have 6 in the same space. Two clowns, couple of blenny/goby, a chromis, a gramma. I plan, when the endless house remodel finishes, to add about 2 or 3 depending on size. I'd like a pearly jawfish, maybe another watchman. They all get along. My tank is pieshaped and 36" deep, so plenty of swimming room, but a lot of head-on meetings. Look at the interactions as you build up population. If they can find a nook to be in almost all the time,(the watchman) they're not going to bother anybody. If out and about and causing surprises, that's a different fish and unpleasant meetings can result if surprised. Just start with your must-need-really wants and work your way up by observation. Every tank is different in how the rocks work, how the fish interact.