Cheap ricordea or zoas

howdy20012002 · #1 11-09-2011, 05:01 AM

I am not sure what 2 dozen people would disagree with what I said.
I don't know many knowledgable people that would say you can put 6 - 8 fish or more fish in a 20 gallon, sump or not. (which is the numbers I assumed you might be looking at from your post)
however, totally your choice and if you aren't intending to put all the fish mentioned in tank, all the better.
but that is the great thing about this board, there are lots of opinions.
I will keep further ones to myself. good luck
and welcome to the board.
Neal

Nano · #2 11-09-2011, 05:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by howdy20012002

good luck.

not sure if your being genuine or sarcastic I vote sarcastic. thanks. nice to be welcome to this forum by people like you

howdy20012002 · #3 11-09-2011, 05:12 AM

i wasn't being scarcastic, I was trying to give you advice.
individually, these fish might be fine.(pygmy, chromis questionable)
however, together, IMO, they wouldn't be. (fish like having their own spaces, hard to do in 2 feet of space)
but sounds like you don't need or want my advice, so I will keep it to myself.
thanks
Neal

Nano · #4 11-09-2011, 05:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by howdy20012002

I am not sure what 2 dozen people would disagree with what I said.
I don't know many knowledgable people that would say you can put 6 - 8 fish or more fish in a 20 gallon, sump or not. (which is the numbers I assumed you might be looking at from your post)
however, totally your choice and if you aren't intending to put all the fish mentioned in tank, all the better.
but that is the great thing about this board, there are lots of opinions.
I will keep further ones to myself. good luck
and welcome to the board.
Neal

no the opinions come from 3reef and reef aquatics as well as a few lfs in the area. at any rate, my plan is 1clown, 2-3 chromis and a mandarin, and maybe a blenny. thats not a heavy load for almost 40 gallons.

BlueWorldAquatic · #5 11-09-2011, 05:30 AM

Please don't take Neil opinions personally.

We all know what works for us, may not work for others. He's just trying to help.

I still take a lot of advice on these forums, and help out where I can.

Nano · #6 11-09-2011, 05:33 AM

oh no I appreciate where he's coming from, and yes I'm new so i should take the opinions into mind, but as said i have heard from many that 4-6 smaller fish will be ok. thanks though

BlueWorldAquatic · #7 11-09-2011, 05:38 AM

you can have 10+ fish in that tank, just depends on what you get.

small gobies, clown gobies, etc are all fine.

if you have a clownfish, consider an anemone, as it will give him a home, and he won't travel around the tank much.

As I said before, mandarins are tough, most tanks under 20gal can't handle them unless you get a conditioned one. Pods will be depleted very fast, and he may starve.

If you want corals, angels are not a good choice even pygmy, they all can get a taste for corals.

I would not recommend chromis, for their schooling instincts, they require more space.

Honestly, there are only a few LFS that would recommend that many fish in a 20gal tank.

Nano · #8 11-09-2011, 05:42 AM

thank you! genuine advice thats why I am here. I have thought of an anenome, but am afraid of it either stinging other corals or taking over the tank. My concern with the mandarin is starvation, I do have and enormous amount of pods, but understand that its a small tank and they may not be able to reproduce fast enough. I would love a blenny and maybe a yasha, lol I'd like a lot of things just cant have them all

but I would like to have a few fish with some nice color

Funky_Fish14 · #9 11-09-2011, 06:21 AM

You will likely find that an enormous population of pods will dissapear quickly even with a non-pod-eating fish in the tank. (Just the idea of a 'threat' swimming around will diminish their activity and thus also feeding space, reducing the population).

I agree with the Ken and Neal that it is quite a number of fish intended to go in to the tank. The thing is, you certainly may be able to handle the bioload with a sump and good filtration, but like they said, it doesnt mean the fish will be happy (territorially). Also, the more fish pressure you put on the system, the more likely something is to go wrong (which is often more discouraging to new hobbyists than seasoned keepers), and can also promote more things like algae problems, etc... A tank that ends up with problems is not fun, or ugly with algae... then you dont want to clean it. If its not fun, you wont stick with it. You will find patience to be a virtue in the hobby.

About the pygmy angel... it would be inadvisable to put it in such a small tank.

Chromis are cool fish... cheap, somewhat hardy, eat anything, not agressive to other species, school, are active and relatively colourful. The problem you may find (if you look up chromis discussions on this or any board) is that often, schools that are too small(as in under 20) are kept together and it seems they knock each other off until there is 1 left. It seems they are best kept in larger groups. 1 will do fine in your tank, you may wish to try that instead of a small group.

Cheers,

Chris