Add fish

[jon631NY]

I have a 24 gallon peninsula I am looking to add these fish not all at once but let me know what you think. Here is the following : I have a springeri damsel to cycle, I want to add 2 clowns, one pink streak wrasse, 1 gamma royal, kauderns cardinal and a red hawk fire

Give me your insight I have a good amount of rock work

 

[littlefoxx]

Way too many fish for a 24 gallon.

 

[i cant think]

I have a 24 gallon peninsula I am looking to add these fish not all at once but let me know what you think. Here is the following : I have a springeri damsel to cycle, I want to add 2 clowns, one pink streak wrasse, 1 gamma royal, kauderns cardinal and a red hawk fire

Give me your insight I have a good amount of rock work

Hawkfish and wrasse are a fat no in my books. I’ve had several wrasse killed or almost be killed because of that mix.

Adding a pink streak wrasse after damsels and clowns will be a nightmare - I would personally ditch the clowns and damsel and go for the wrasse.

Cardinals you may find to be somewhat boring long term so I recommend watching them in an LFS to get an idea on if you like them.

Royal Grammas are great, definitely a nice pop of colour. They can be boisterous so add them later on.

Have you considered gobies?

 

[littlefoxx]

Also DO NOT do a fish in cycle. Use a bottled source, thats very hard on the fish even if it is a damsel.

 

[Brine]

I believe OP is already a couple days into a fish in cycle. I wouldn't put more than 2 or 3 more nano fish in there; something like an algae eating blenny and a sand sifting goby, think utility over ornamental

 

[i cant think]

I believe OP is already a couple days into a fish in cycle. I wouldn't put more than 2 or 3 more nano fish in there; something like an algae eating blenny and a sand sifting goby, think utility over ornamental

If I’m honest, I disagree with utility over ornamental in a nano. In a larger tank it’s a good idea but in nanos it’s not too great as you can end up with fish that you don’t love very easily.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

Please don't use a fish to cycle, a bottle of bacteria will cycle the tank, no need to torture a fish.

Personally I would say 3, maybe 4 fish in that size tank, so chose wisely. IMO maybe 2 clowns and a cardinal, or a royal gramma, or a goby/shrimp pair.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Why not get a firefish or a goby? I would skip the hawkfish and wrasse

 

[eliaslikesfish]

as everyone else said, pick 2, maybe 3 fish. maybe a pair of clowns and a shrimp/goby pair
or
2 cardinals and a royal gramma or firefish
or
pink streak wrasse and 2 cardinals
or
1 cardinal, 1 gramma, and a firefish

plenty of options, get rid of the damsel though. I have a deep hatred for those things but he doesn’t deserve to suffer for weeks to cycle a tank.

 

[Ben Pedersen]

Way too many fish for a 24 gallon.

In my opinion backed by more then 40 years of experience, is that’s not too many fish for a 24 gallon tank. However, for a 24 gallon tank to support that fish population, it would have to be mature and have lots of places for fish to live (rocks, caves etc.). It also depends on the fish choice. Some fish do fine in a small tank, others don’t.

Also, fish cycling is completely fine. The volume of water is big enough so that there should be no issue for the fish given you don’t over feed.

Here is my over populated tank. Half the fish population is not in the photo. Has been running for a long time… the fish all get along great! Everyone has enough to eat and a place to hide / sleep.

 

[exnisstech]

In my opinion backed by more then 40 years of experience, is that’s not too many fish for a 24 gallon tank. However, for a 24 gallon tank to support that fish population, it would have to be mature and have lots of places for fish to live (rocks, caves etc.). It also depends on the fish choice. Some fish do fine in a small tank, others don’t.

Also, fish cycling is completely fine. The volume of water is big enough so that there should be no issue for the fish given you don’t over feed.

Here is my over populated tank. Half the fish population is not in the photo. Has been running for a long time… the fish all get along great! Everyone has enough to eat and a place to hide / sleep.

Nice. Unfortunately many people go for a look and don't put enough consideration on having enough places for fish to feel safe. Having enough rock or coral colonies with locations for every fish to hide and sleep is critical to success in any tank I think. Every fish I have, even in larger tanks each fish has a place to hide and sleep that becomes thier spot. Not enough areas for each fish to thier "own spot" leads to stress and aggresion as they battle for a location. JMO

 

[littlefoxx]

In my opinion backed by more then 40 years of experience, is that’s not too many fish for a 24 gallon tank. However, for a 24 gallon tank to support that fish population, it would have to be mature and have lots of places for fish to live (rocks, caves etc.). It also depends on the fish choice. Some fish do fine in a small tank, others don’t.

Also, fish cycling is completely fine. The volume of water is big enough so that there should be no issue for the fish given you don’t over feed.

Here is my over populated tank. Half the fish population is not in the photo. Has been running for a long time… the fish all get along great! Everyone has enough to eat and a place to hide / sleep.

I do stock on the heavier side as well, just not in that small of a tank. Yours also is bugger and mature it seems. Small tanks like that just get super complicated with that many fish, especially new reefers and new tanks. I see what you are saying but for this specific thread it would be too many fish. You also have 40 years experience; doesnt sound like OP does or has kept saltwater before and the picture attached is a brand new tank. Ill stick by what I said for this particular instance about it being too many but I do completely agree with you on all your points and do use them myself in my large tanks. My biocube has a larger than normal number of fish too but theres two year matured rocks mixed with even older mature rocks so what youre saying is for sure valid!

PS beautiful tank! How big is it? Love all the fish

 

[Ben Pedersen]

I do stock on the heavier side as well, just not in that small of a tank. Yours also is bugger and mature it seems. Small tanks like that just get super complicated with that many fish, especially new reefers and new tanks. I see what you are saying but for this specific thread it would be too many fish. You also have 40 years experience; doesnt sound like OP does or has kept saltwater before and the picture attached is a brand new tank. Ill stick by what I said for this particular instance about it being too many but I do completely agree with you on all your points and do use them myself in my large tanks. My biocube has a larger than normal number of fish too but theres two year matured rocks mixed with even older mature rocks so what youre saying is for sure valid!

PS beautiful tank! How big is it? Love all the fish

My comments were pretexted that the tank be mature, that the fish be of appropriate temperament and that the tank have adequate number of places for the fish to hide / live. The OPs tank is not there yet.

I also had a 24 gallon cube several years back that had very many more fish then the poster is planning to put in his. The photo I posted is from my 80 gallon tank.

To the OP, please don’t put more than 4 fish in your tank until it has matured quite a bit more. If you want to speed that process up, get some rubble from a mature tank or get some actual live rock. My post was not intended for you to add those fish instantly to the tank. I hope my comments were not confusing.

 

[littlefoxx]

My comments were pretexted that the tank be mature, that the fish be of appropriate temperament and that the tank have adequate number of places for the fish to hide / live. The OPs tank is not there yet.

I also had a 24 gallon cube several years back that had very many more fish then the poster is planning to put in his. The photo I posted is from my 80 gallon tank.

To the OP, please don’t put more than 4 fish in your tank until it has matured quite a bit more. If you want to speed that process up, get some rubble from a mature tank or get some actual live rock. My post was not intended for you to add those fish instantly to the tank. I hope my comments were not confusing.

Ah okay yeah I thought you were saying it was fine for OP to add them all at once. That makes more sense!

 

[Fishfreak2009]

I would definitely not do a fish-in cycle, as it's hard on the fish. I have stocked tanks as soon as 8 hrs after setup, but I also dose Biospira the first couple weeks, and Microbacter7 daily for a month or 2. I would also not add all at once. Only 1-2 at a time in a tank that size, every couple weeks to let the tank catch up to the bioload

As far as stocklist, the only fish I'd remove would be the flame hawkfish so long as your heart is set on the others. I'd replace it with a couple smaller gobies like a clown goby and a sharknose goby, possibly a geometric pygmy hawk instead (which is actually a small anthias).

Another nice replacement would be some kind of smaller goby (possibly a Randall's shrimp goby or yasha goby paired with a candy pistol shrimp?) and a couple Trimma gobies.

I want to follow this up by stating I tend to stock my tanks much heavier than many people on here.

My current 13.5 gallon has a 3 different Trimma gobies, a firefish, a tailspot blenny, a green banded goby, and a masked goby. Along with a pygmy cucumber, some small shrimp (2 sexy shrimp, 1 Bruun's Cleaner shrimp, 1 bumblebee shrimp, and 2 peppermint shrimp), a Halloween Hermit, 6 red leg cortez hermits, about 10 astraea snails, 10 nerite snails, and 6 nassarius snails).