Need help choosing HOW many fish?

My CUC has been decided thanks to Reefcleaners. Plan on adding as soon as tank cycles. Now I'm looking at fish for the future. Since I have a hex I have been reading only 6" of fish because of less desolved oxygen.

After family discussions, we have agreed to 1 horned or midas blenny, 1 royal gramma and 1 scarlet cleaner shrimp. We really would like to get a Green Mandarin as long as I can sustain a copepod colony. Is this to many fish? I count possibly 13" to 15" (if we get a mandarin) Also, would I include my CUC and Cleaner shrimp in that calculation?

Also, I don't pan on adding all at once. What would be the order of introduction?

Brian

 

Yeah, add it over time. I don't count the cuc or shrimp into the counting. You could have about 1" of fish per 2g. I.E. I can have about 28" of fish in a 56g. Maybe a little more if I had an overloaded cuc & a big skimmer. This also depends on fish temperament & desired environment.

What was that about the 6" fish? Is that your largest fish you can have in that tank? What size tank?

Edit: didn't see your signature there. So about 25" of fish would be good. Depending on certain fish & their bio-load you could go more or less.

 

If you have a sump and enough live rock, you could possibly get a mandarin to survive. You may want to keep in mind the new mandarins from ORA which already eat prepared foods. As for total amount of fish, depending on filtration and setup, you could probably add another 1-2 small fish such as ocellaris clowns, yellow tailed damsel, wrasse etc. As you know, the problem with hex aquariums is that the surface to volume ratio is very low, reducing the area for gas exchange. Plus, they don't provide much swimming room, so you will need to take that into consideration as well.

 

I don't think that is good advice generally, and especially here considering the type of tank. I like to stay on the conservative side as the consequences can be severe. How many fish you can have depends on the dimensions of the tank, filtration, maintenance schedule, types of fish you have or want etc. Your 2" per gallon rule is extremely generous IMO.

 

Differant sites I'm reading say that a 55 gallon (long) should hold about a total of 12" of fish, however when you have a Hex 50 as I do that because of less dissolved oxygen you should only have a total of 6" of total fish...confused here

 

Yeah I don't understand why ther is less dissolved oxygen in a hex than a long, if both are of the same volume(technically).

I have always read of the 1" per 2 gal. rule for SW & 1" per 1 gal. FW. Maybe they are assuming you will fill you whole tank with rock? Or maybe considering if you used say a 40g rated skimmer on a 40g tank? I am not sure on why "they" say that little amount of fish.

 

Yes, its the same volume but less surface area than a typical rectangle...which in return is less disolved oxygen. If I had the tpo open or off or had more surface aggitation would this help?

 

It has to do with the amount of air to water surface area. Shorter rectaglular tank has more surface area than a taller hex tank of the same volume.

TJ

** Opps sorry you got in there before I did.

 

Yes more surface agitation helps, but doesn't ultimately cure the low surface area.

I don't like inch/gallon rules, but a better "rule" is 3"-6" per gallon. These rules are typically too vanilla as they can't account for the conditions/configuration of a specific tank. That being said, another "small" fish or two in addition to those two you have listed should be fine. Just make sure everybody is compatible. As has been stated, shrimp/CuC don't count against your bio-load, they actually help reduce it. And I agree, you'll have a hard time sustaining a mandarin (long term) without a sump/fuge; I wouldn't try it.

 

Good advice. The actual volume of water, if temperature and salinity are the same, can hold the same amount of dissolved oxygen, but as the fish use it, it's much harder to replace it with a small surface area compared to the volume of the tank.