How do you tell when you are overstocked?

[arandacole]

Other than getting opinions from people more knowledgable... is there a way to tell?
I have a 90 gallon with
1 large Yellow Tang
1 large Maroon Clown
2 Green Chromis
1 starterfish (forget what they are called)
1 yellow starterfish (again, no idea what it's called - all the fish came with the tank)
I'm currently QTing a small Coral Beauty.
I'd like to add more Chromis later on down the line. (3-6 months down the line)
Also is it just the fish that you think about when overstocking or everything (inverts and corals too)
Thank you!
Love,
A

 

[elguapo]

when your fish start trying to kill each other and your entire tank crashes due to filter overload......never fun

 

[jdragunas]

lol, while that is a great indication, i'm sure you want to know before all of that happens, right?
they say to have about 1" of fish per 4 gallons of water. As your tank matures about 1" per 2g's would be ok, but your fish will also grow, so that doesn't really mean more fish, it just means your fish are allowed to grow.

 

[hatessushi]

It was my understanding the a good indicator is 1" per 5 gallons of water. So with a 90 gallon you would have 18" of fish after full grown. If it was 1" per 2 gal. then 45" is way to much. If course a 90 gallons isn't exactly 90 gallons and every tank is a few gallons less then what the totally full capacity is. This is just suppose to be ballpark number.

 

[jdragunas]

i had a 55g with 25" of fish, and it was fabulous. Like i said, play it by ear!

 

[cougar]

IMO it also depends on the fish. A group of schooling fish will require less space than a tang or angel. Also a fish that swims a lot, like the tang or angel, will require more room than a grouper or lion that just sit. So the range of 3-5 gal per inch of fish all depend on the type of fish in the tank. The only other concern would be filtration.