Too much fish?

[fishy987]

Just wondering if I have too many fishes in my setup:
- 60g w/ built in wet/dry filter (Rio 2100
powerhead)
- Venturi protein skimmer
- 60lbs live sand
- 40lbs live rock
- Power compact lighting: 55w x 4
Fishes:
- 3-4" juv. emperor angel
- 4-5" queen angel
- 3-4" majestic angel
- 3" tomato clown
- 3-4" lemon peel
- 3" coral beauty
- 4-5" lion fish
- 2 small damsels
Inverts:
- 5 turbo snails
- 2 sally lightfoot crabs
- 5 red leg hermits
- 5 blue leg hermits
- 2 margarita snails
Corals:
- Bubble
- Frogspawn
- Flowerpot
Any help would be appreciated!

 

[jim672]

fishy987,
Welcome to the Board.
There's a rule of thumb about how many fish are too many.....one inch of fish for every 5 gallons of water. Using that formula, you should have around 12 fish inches. Using the actual numbers you supplied, you have or will have about 30 fish inches.
If this is a sincere question, I'd recommend you take a number of the fish back to whereever you bought them....quickly.....before you have a real disaster. Start with the lionfish. They will eat whatever they can fit in their mouths including other fish and inverts like snails and crabs.
Jim

 

[bluemarlin]

Wow, thats a whole lotta fish for sure. All great species but way too much for your tank. I agree with Jim672. Take what you can back to the store.

 

[tru conch]

i am just wondering how all those angels interact with eachother? do they fight at all? i have only had luck with keeping one angel in a 75g, if i added another there was always fighting.
but i would take back the lion, and the larger angels (queen, emperor) and try to get a trade value for them.

 

[drew_tt]

definitely take back the large angels... they will outgrow your system and have specific needs...
what kind of lions are they? Id take them back if I were you... if theyre dwarves of some sort its up to you though...
the damsels might be a bit too aggressive, but with the damsels, the two small angels, & clown, it sounds like a nice tank to me... maybe you could add one or two more smaller fish...
if you took back the damsels and had a small shoal of chromis... that would look good
Drew

 

[fishy987]

Originally posted by tru conch:
<strong>i am just wondering how all those angels interact with eachother? do they fight at all? i have only had luck with keeping one angel in a 75g, if i added another there was always fighting.
but i would take back the lion, and the larger angels (queen, emperor) and try to get a trade value for them.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well, the queen angel will bite at the majestic quite often so I'm planning on taking the majestic back to the LFS along with some other fishes in my tank. To my surprise, the emperor angel is the queen's best friend. The emperor acts like a cleaner wrasse and will actually eat parasites off the queen! The queen is a nice looking fish but is also very aggressive

 

[tru conch]

Thats cool that the two large angels get along. it never ceases to amaze me what can happen in an aquarium.

 

[musipilot]

The inch rule of thumb is a good one...but theres a better one. Watch your water parameters. If your tank is overloaded, you will NEVER be able to get 0 nitrite, or under 40 nitrates. The angel thing has been addressed, I'll leave that alone. My point, is that the inches rule is dependent on a certain amount of filtration, probably an average. If you have a larger filtration capacity (for example, filters rated for 200 gallons total on a 55 gallon tank) you can in theory keep more fish. BUT...the only sure thing is the water quality, thats your true indicator.

 

[fishfood]

Well i never have had the joy of keeping a large angelfish but here is what comes to mind when i read this: 3 large angels who have a listed max size of 12, 16, and 10 inches all in a 60 gal tank??? Plus everything else that is listed. That seems to be way past pushing it. I'm just curious as to how long you have had all of that in there?

 

[fishy987]

Originally posted by Fishfood:
<strong>Well i never have had the joy of keeping a large angelfish but here is what comes to mind when i read this: 3 large angels who have a listed max size of 12, 16, and 10 inches all in a 60 gal tank??? Plus everything else that is listed. That seems to be way past pushing it. I'm just curious as to how long you have had all of that in there?</strong><hr></blockquote>
i've had this setup for about 3 months. i change 10g of water every 2 weeks and the nitrates seem to stay around 20-30. nitrite and ammonia are always at 0 and i never have any problems with the pH.

 

[iechy]

I'm fairly new at this. I know that water readings are the most important consideration but when talking in terms of inches per gallon I'm guessing that body type comes into play as well. For instance, would I be right in assuming I could keep more 3 inch long firefish in a tank than 3 inch long angels (considering only capacity here not compatibility)? I am planning on putting many small fish like gobies and such in my tank to give it some action and was hoping this was the case. Also, how do inverts come into play with this? Do they let you add more fish because of their cleaning abilities or do they also increase the bio-load? Just wondering.

 

[blutang]

Also, watch your corals, because your fish are using up the "good stuff" in the water. You'll never see an aquarium do very well with a heavy load of fish and an equally heavy load of coral. Unless you have the best possible filtration and skimming possible. Even they it can be difficult.
Later!

 

[clarkiiboi]

Iechy, I just read a post on this. Yes there is a difference in a (say) 3" firefish and a 3" angel. Bioload is a major consideration. As for clean up crew, yes they add to bioload also, but they consume the other waste and dont produce as much waste. Its tick for tack.