inch per gallon?

what is that?

 

a joke imo.

 

its supposed to give you a guide to which to stock your tank with. But it doesnt always mean thats the right answer for you. I mean its common sense. You dont want a cramped tank, or a fish thats huge in a small tank. What are you trying to stock?

 

ive got a 55g reef tank with 10 fish but they are small fish!!! im going to take some out just trying to decide witch ones.

 

"Inch per gallon," as mentioned above, was a general guide people used to follow when considering livestock (primarily fish) for the tank. FW was inch per gallon, while the SW rule of thumb used to be 1" per 2 gallons.

But much more should be considered when stocking a tank (whether FW, SW or reef). Swimming room (how active a fish is), behavior/aggressiveness, and bio-load (amount of waste a fish or particular organism produces) should all be considered, in addition to full adult sizes, when choosing fish for your tank.

IMO, 10 fish in a 55 gallon tank is a lot, and you are likely overstocked. But we don't know for sure. If you had 10 nano gobies, (generally 2" or less in size, some also will school/shoal) then the bioload and size of these fish are much less than that of 10 wrasses, angels, or tangs.

Please indicate your stocking list so we can help you more appropriately choose the right fish for your tank.

 

3 anthis 2 fire 2 clowns 1 yellow tang 1 flame angel 2 gobies alot of corals 3 cleaner shrimp

 

Holy overstock!

2 Clowns, 2 Firefish, 1 Flame Angel, and 2 Gobies would be more than enough in a 55. The others are just too much.

 

thanks for the advise

 

Im looking at having (in a 55g tank):

2 clowns, Flame Angel, Yellow Tang, Royal Dottyback, Blue/Green Chromis and a Diamond Goby.

Is that overstocking considering ill be using a fairly large miracle mud sump with a pretty big skimmer? and live rock.

 

Replace tang with a foxface and your fine