adding fish

[barreltwist]

So I got my 90 gallon going and added 2 damsels after having the live rock in the tank for a few weeks. I saw a about 4-5 fish I would like to have on this site, and was wondering how many I should add at once. In order to make the shipping worth it, I would want to add a few, but I'm not sure how many I should add. Can I add 3-4 fish at once? With my 34 gallon I always only added 1 or 2....

 

[gio28]

hi

only add one at once usually unless the fish are a pair or need to be added at the same time. that way your bioload can adjust. also...i would recommend getting rid of the damsels...they are aggressive and will bully more docile fish. they also may lose thier nice coloration as they age and are real hard to get out of tanks. i understand the shipping problem but adding that many fish at once may be bad.

 

[tank a holic]

I hear ya on the shipping,
depending on the fish you are getting, if they are small docile fish I dont see a problem adding up to 3 to a 90 gallon, I added 5 chromis to my 125 with no problems
I would recommend underfeeding for a week or so just to make sure the bacteria growth catches up
It is a common law to only add 1 but like I saw unless you are adding bigger fish you should be ok IMO
I cant emphasize enough that it is crucial not to overfeed and to do water testing foe a week or 2

 

[bang guy]

Ideally, as you seem to already know, adding a single fish every few months is the best way.
If that can't be avoided the second best is to set up several seperate quaranteen tanks.
Last, if you're not a believer in quaranteen tanks, overfeed your display tank, only a little at first and then increase the overfeeding gradually over a couple of weeks. This may cause you some undesireable effects such as an increase in algae and Nitrate, but it has a huge benefit that outweighs to downside. Gradually overfeeding like this will grow the additional nitrifying bacteria needed to handle the extra bioload when adding several fish at once. It will allow the system to adjust much faster than if you just add the fish.
After adding the fish, feed very sparingly or not at all for a week or so (except Anthias or other very high activity fish). Then gradually reintroduce food until you're back to feeding normally.
I strongly recommend the multiple quaranteen tanks though...

 

[fraggle rock]

Couple thing on this
As usual Bang is absoluty right, multi quarnting tanks, aside from the benies of quaritine, it will allow the $$ benifit of lower shipping cost, plus you can ad the nebies at a more biofriendly rate to your DT.
on the the damsels, as a been there doen that, get them ut before you add anything new, that way if you need to take out any rock to aid in ctching your not stressing other tank occupants.