Keeping fish together peacefully?

Recently I lost 4 of my fish. A leopard wrasse to starvation, a pencil wrasse to an unknown cause, a neon goby to old age and a longnose butterfly to cyanide poisoning. One major thing I noticed emediately after these 4 fish died , was that the reaming fish now " bicker ". Back when all 4 fish were alive, the tank inhabitants coexisted perfectly with absolutely no aggression issues. But, ever since they died, I noticed my anthias chases my PJ cardinal, my malanaris chases my possum wrasse and my tang will occasionally nip at my anthias.

It's bizarre, because like I said, they got along with no issues at all before. I feed my tank 2-3 times a day ( so each fish is well fed ) and half of the tank is dedicated open swimming space. The biggest thing that confuses me is that , I see a lot of tanks online and in person , that have more fish than I do, in smaller tanks than mine, who feed their fish less. A lot of time they will keep fish that normally wouldn't coexist well, and yet they do.

So what I am asking is, is there a possibility that the more fish you have, the less fish will target each other? Maybe having more fish will keep eachother in line. As opposed to having a couple dominant fish per tank. Just a theory... Thanks!

 

I think you were prob lucky, and now the remaining fish are reestablishing territories. IMO, you should strive for less fish and compatibility to ensure there survival. How did you lose a fish to cyanide poisoning?

 

I bought the longnose 'fly at my LFS, and I asked them were he was caught, and they told my the Philipines. Now I know that the Philipines is known for practicing cyanide catching, but the fish seemed like his was of optimum health. He was eating within the firt hour and got along perfectly with the others. After about 4 days, he quit eating completely and began showing signs that he wasn't looking so good. He was found dead about 5 days after beginning this odd behavior. After he died I began researching the symptoms and came to the conclusion that he died due to this practice.

 

That sucks dude! But what is your tank size and stock at now? and what was it?

 

My tank is a standard 75 gallon ( 48",18",21" ) with a pair of black O. Clowns, a female lyretail anthias, a male melanaris wrasse, a PJ cardinal, a tomini tang and a yellow banded possum wrasse. The 4 fish that died were a leopard wrasse, pencil wrasse, longnose butterfly and neon goby .

 

That was a TON of fish for that tank. I'd keep your stock levels where they are, IMO. That was a lot of fish with specialized high maintenance feeding habits. I'd keep the stocking level a little lower and easier if it were me. Wrasse and tangs require a lot of care and attention

 

It does sound like alot, but when you actually see my tank it looks almost understocked. I run a 4" deep sand bed, an oversized skimmer and cheato morpha in the refugium, so all levels are good. Most 75 gallon tanks ( even the SPS dominant reefs ) have a larger amount of fish than I do.

 

I have a 55g with half the fish you had and it seems maxed out to me. And a lot lower maintenance fish than yours. A lot of those tanks with a ton of fish in them are backed up by HUGE sumps/fuges equal to or larger than the DT's and have HUGE skimmers and reactors. Good luck to ya, but I have a feeling repeating the same stocking will end up with the same result.

 

The nipping is really not a serious issue and really doesnt do much harm, but I like my tank to be as stress free as pssible