33 Gallon Stocking

[just_a_fish]

I am new to saltwater aquariums, and I have a 33-gallon tank that will need stocking soon. I am hoping for a community reef tank, so is there any easy fish and corals i should add to my tank?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

These threads should give you some ideas. Also welcome to Reef2Reef!

33 gallon stocking plan

Hi all, I’m new to reefing and have just bought a 123L / 33 gallon tank I am cycling! Was hoping to get some advise as to whether my fish would work together and would coexist happily in a tank this size phase one: To start I was planning on a black and white clownfish ocellaris, a regular...

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Stocking fish in a 33 gallon tank

Hi, today I just added a tail spot blenny in my tank. My plan was to get a firefish goby (or 2), but my lfs didn’t have any today. I’m now at 3 fish total in my 33 gallon tank. I’m not sure how I would feel about a mandarin goby yet and I’m not getting a fish if I have doubt on my ability to...

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[Rick]

Here was my old 33g great size nano tank!

 

[Biokabe]

For a 33 gallon tank, you're looking at 4-6 fish total, and mostly you'll want fish that are either bottom-dwelling or cave-dwelling. The more open-water fish are going to feel a bit stifled in a smaller tank, so you want fish that are happy with a limited territory and don't feel the need to swim a lot.

So with that as a general guideline, there are a few types of fish that are great for something in the 30 gallon range:

• Shrimp gobies (under 4-5" long)
• Most other gobies under 4" (avoid sand sifters other than Rainford/Hector)
• Firefish
• Clownfish (ocellaris/percula/skunk)
• Damsels (Chrysiptera genus)
• Blennies (under 4")
• Smaller basslets
• Some flasher wrasses
• Possum wrasses
• Some dwarf angels (Coral Beauty, Pygmy Cherub)
• Some hawkfish

For corals... size doesn't really matter, but flow, filtration and lighting all do. You can keep more or less whatever corals you want, but check for compatibility with the fish you want to keep. For example, if you want to keep acropora corals, I'd avoid clown gobies. Those gobies love to perch on acros. In a larger tank, their perching tends to get spread out among multiple corals and so it doesn't really impact much. In a smaller tank, they tend to overperch on just a few corals, and that can lead to tissue damage and death for the corals.

The one thing I would say to avoid is anemones for a 33 gallon tank. You can keep them just fine, that's not the issue. The issue is that anemones tend to split, and those splits can easily overwhelm a smaller tank.

 

[Minifoot77]

What size 33? I have one that is 4 foot

 

[just_a_fish]

What size 33? I have one that is 4 foot

I have the max nano g2. It is 20 inches tall and about 19 inches wide and deep.

 

[BigDangler]

I have the same exact tank.. Right now I have 2 clowns, a hector's goby, and a royal gramma (who is larger and a PITA) .. wanted to add some kind of wrasse but think I'm good for now.. Oh and also a cleaner shrimp.. That's about it.. 4 to 5 fish will get big quick in such a smaller tank.. They all have to have their owns spots..

 

[Marine Betta]

I am new to saltwater aquariums, and I have a 33-gallon tank that will need stocking soon. I am hoping for a community reef tank, so is there any easy fish and corals i should add to my tank?

As long as you monitor the parameters and are able to keep everything stable, you could add another fish or two. If you focused on nano gobies, like a red head goby, you could probably get away with 10-12. If you want something with more impact, I’d go with something like a bangaii cardinalfish, a shrimp goby of some sort (Randall’s are one of my favorites), a smaller species of wrasse like the pink streaked. Possum wrasses are great little fish, but they can be finicky at first and will rely on copepods and other organisms on live rock which depending on the age of the system may be an issue. A royal gramma or orchid dottyback would look good as well. And then I would consider either a starki damsel or a flameback angel. Either of these two would more than likely be the boss of the tank. My starki is a model citizen, but he is in a 120 gallon tank, but they are some of the least aggressive damsels. Flame backs and cherubs can be mean too. A springeri damsel would work too, and they’re typically well behaved and MAY provide the added benefit of eating flatworms. I would not do both a starki and a springeri together in a tank of that size.

What lights are you running? There are a lot of beginner friendly corals to choose from. Most soft corals are a good start, but you may want to stay clear of prolific growers like Xenia which can overrun a tank of that size very quickly. Green star polyps can usually be successfully isolated on a rock. Zoas are usually easy, colorful, most are not too expensive, and there are a lot of varieties to choose from. An easy lps to start with is a trumpet coral. If that does well, you can then go into frogspawn and hammers. Some corals like acans and favias are fairly easy too, but I would use extreme caution if you add an angel. They love to pick at these corals for their slime. Even really well fed angels can’t seem to resist it. I would stay clear of most sps to start with the exception of pavona, cyphastrea, and leptoseris.