Curious: Can our tanks be larger than the effective space some fish use in the wild?

[Zionas]

This is a question that I have been wondering about for a while, and I would be very interested to hear what my fellow reefers have to say. Now, it is plain and obvious that in terms of space, not even the largest aquariums can recreate the amount of effective space used by some very active fish like Tangs, Angels, Butterflies and so on. However, when it comes to some other species of fish like Clownfish, Gobies, Hawkfish, the Marine Betta, Basslets, and Blennies etc. Can our tanks actually be LARGER than the “effective” space they occupy / use in the wild? Bottom dwellers, fish that lack swim bladders, generally poor swimmers, and shy and slow fish generally don’t need large tanks and some can even fit in nano tanks. This makes me wonder. Even if given say a public aquarium, undersea tunnel kind of setup, would some species of fish we keep only stick to a very tiny part of their allocated space?

In other words, would a pair of Clownfish, a Goby, or a Basslet stick to more or less the same amount of space whether in a 20-gallon tank or a 200,000 gallon tank?

 

[Big G]

Bump

 

[Fishbird]

Yes, I think so. I will try to find the paper I read about ocellaris territory size but the upshot was that their territories typically ranged from 1-3 sq ft. Many of the cryptobenthic fish (gobies, blennies and the like) have very small territories. I still think one has to consider carrying capacity and one has to remember that in the wild, if a fish wants to move its territory, it can, but I am only adding fish to my tank if I can give them enough space to have a natural territory size.

 

[Zionas]

That’s quite interesting to know. I’d also like to mention Cardinalfish, not all but species like the Pajama, Flame etc. They are out in the open but really don’t move a lot, so if they have a territory I’d also imagine it to be small. Another reason why I am curious to find out is because I want to make sure the larger, free swimming fish I’ll get have enough room without too much conflict with my small fish.

 

[Lasse]

Clownfish, a Goby, or a Basslet stick to more or less the same amount of space whether in a 20-gallon tank or a 200,000 gallon tank?

IMO - yes. If clown fish adapt to an anemone - they will be there. Some of the smaller gobies just stay around a coral, cave or so.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[ca1ore]

Occasionally yes but mostly no. Clowns are about the only one I can think of. Damsels will mostly stick to their spot, but not entirely.

 

[Zionas]

Thanks for all the replies coming in. I was originally pretty keen on having many large fish but I’ve changed my mind due to considerations of the space they use. That’s why my current, more or less finalized plan has mostly small fish and just 5 large fish, with one of them, the Marine Betta, not very active for its size.


The species I have in question are:

Ocellaris Clownfish

Yellow Watchman Goby

Marine Betta

Royal Gramma

Pajama Cardinalfish

Flame Hawkfish

Long Nose Hawkfish

Most wrasses (4-5” in size)

Flame Angelfish


These will be the small fish going into my tank except the Comet.

 

[9975]

The only time my clowns would leave their little area was if I was on the other end of the tank. They would follow me begging for food

 

[Zionas]

Awww that’s cute.