How many fish????

I have a Red Sea 34 gallon tank. About 30 in the display area. How many small fish can I get in the tank? I like small clorfull fish that don't get much bigger then 2 inches or so. I have a Green Chromis, A Pajama Cardinal, a Green Manderin Dragonet and a Spotted manderin dragonet. I am thinking maybe 5 or 6 but my buddy who has many tanks says 8-10 easy. Does this sound right. He has had "concerns" with his tanks in the past and I don't want the same "concerns". The folks here at the reef had been right on the money for me up to this point so I wanted to ask the group.

Any ideas for small fish? I like colors and personality.

 

you can read all kinds of different 'rules of thumb' regarding how many fish. the most important thing is to test your water regularly so you know if your bioload is getting too large. you could get away with 8 to 10 fish, depending on how large they will get as they mature, how aggressive they are and other things. remember when you put your rock in you lose that much volume of water. its better too few than too many. one thing i can say for sure is that nobody will be able to tell you you can have this many fish in that tank.

 

I have a 55 gallon and have 3 fish with a total of 4 1/2 inches. I will never have over 5 fish total. (10 inches to 15 inches) Put yourself in the fishes place. How much play room would you want.

 

Most aquarists take the amount of fish to the extreme and over populate their tank with livestock. Your idea of maintaining 5-6 fish in the 2-3 inch range is very doable and should not offer you any problems.
Having said this, you will have to take into account some key variables that, in addition to what ajd916 mentioned, will need to be accounted for.
Water quality, fitration, fish compatibility and husbandry regimine are the biggest concerns and must be addressed when deciding on adding any sort of livestock.
Other issues such as maintaining optimal-stable parameters, selection of healthy fish/inverts/corals and order and time frame in which these animals are added to your tank can also determine the success or lack thereof by you, and your livestock.
May I suggest one or two Flasher or Fairy Wrasses, Chalk Bass, Royal Gramma, Tomini Tang, more green/blue Chromis'(beautiful schooling fish!), Clown Goby and a Blenny.
Good luck to you and your tank!

 

So far people have been spot on, but my concern is with your two mandarins in that small of a tank. Unless they are eating frozen or prepared foods, they will starve to death eventually. Mandarins

 

I agree with what was said above. 5-6 is doable if they're all low bio-load type fish (like the ones mentioned by you and coral reefer).

But you have 2 mandarins? In a 34? Are you dosing thousands of pods a week? This concerns me....

EDIT: oops, didn't see guitar man's post... beat me to it

 

Yes i am using frozen prepared foof for them and plan on adding, if needed, copepods as needed. I am also using a liquid photo plankton a few times a week(recommended by lfs). I am keeping a close eye on the water paramaters to make sure water quality stays right. testing every 2-3 days. A little extra work but it is worth it to me as I absolutely enjoy the colors.

About the types of fish I was told (again the groups input is very important to me as I have gotten great advice) that mandarins do not need much space but food to survive. Alot of live rock ect and copepods. Fortunately for me the lfs is not far and I pass it on the way home so picking up needed supplies and live food is not a problem.

thanks to all for your input and fish ideas.

Tony G

 

I thought of another question. When it comes to the frozen food for the mandarin with 2 of them how much should I put in? Comes in the 100 gram pack with small squares.