Hi, I’m Bob Trusky. Welcome to our fishing corals section. Selecting the fish and corals is one of the most important in fun things you could do to have a successful reef aquarium. Don’t over crowd your tank. A good estimate is 1 inch of fish per gallon. So for example of 50 gallon tank should only have about 50 inches of fish.
Estimate the fish from the nose to the tail. If your fish are about two in a half inches that is 20 fish for the maximum total you should put in the tank. The longer and wider the fish, the more attacks the biological filter of the tank.
One lion fish creates far more waste than for dozens of equal length, so 1 inch per gallon is a general guide line and not a hard rule and must be used with commonsense. Don’t commit the fatal sin of 1 more fish. Have a maximum number one you start and don’t go over it. Don’t forget your fish will grow but this is usually off set by natural mortality. Take your time adding fish; don’t be on the rush for this allows for the good bacteria in your tank to build up. If you put too many fish in your aquarium too soon the system may not be able to handle it and you could have a crash, which would, wiped out everything.
Ask the sea officiating before you buy. Check their color and their behavior. The reef aquarium DVD has its own classification system that we have developed just for you. This categories are based on my and the producers opinions back by 20 years of reef keeping experience. There might some people that disagree with us about certain fish and their time permit. But remember not all fish are alike. One batfish might not touch a coral or polyp, where as his brother might act like an underground land mower and that estimates you’re expensive under water garden.
Here is our system. Plan out the type of fish you want in your aquarium. Community fish that for the most part get along or aggressive, fish that have to be strong enough to hold their own, try not mix community and aggressive fish.
There are two even types of fish. Crossover and semi aggressive. This cross over fish will do well and either an aggressive or community tank. Cross over fish tend not to bother other fish and not to be bullied by aggressive fish. The fourth types of fish are semi aggressive. These are fish that are not as territorial as aggressive fish but can turn in to bully given the wrong status circumstances.
So we have four types of major personalities for fish. Aggressive, community, semi aggressive and cross over. Know for the habitat we have three main types, reef compatible, fish only and cautious reef, reef compatible means they won’t eat your corals on vertebrates, where as fish only will, the fish that we call cautious reef can be kept in reef tank. While usually buy more advanced reef keepers. Who know with the difficulties often associated with that particular type of fish.
Make sure you get net carp fish, enough fish that will catch with chemicals. This definitely gives you a healthier fish and helps preserve our reef trough the feature.
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