How many fish are too many?

[ScottD]

I feel like I’m getting at the end of the road of fish in my tank. It’s a 135 gal cube (3’x3’x2’). So far here is what I have in the order they were added:

2 clownfish
1 royal gramma
1 carpenter wrasse
1 tailspot blenny
1 line spot wrasse
1 gold headed goby
4 banggai cardinals
2 exquisite wrasse (supposedly a male and female but not sure, one may need to be rehomed if they don’t settle in)


I’d like to add a whitetail bristletooth tang.

If there’s still room was thinking about maybe a Scott’s fairy wrasse or a yellow wrasse.

Am I at my limit?

 

[littlefoxx]

I would not add any tangs to a 3 foot tank… my two cents

 

[ScottD]

I would not add any tangs to a 3 foot tank… my two cents

The 3’ dimensions is why I was thinking about either a bristletooth or tomini tang that only get 5-6”. My brother in law has one in his 90 gal (3x2x2) tank and it’s done fine in there.

My lfs suggested a sailfin tang. I just smiled and said ok let me think about it. Quickly looked it up when he walked away and saw it gets to 14” and said oh heck no, not in my tank.

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

My influences are terrible influences. @tbrown right? More fish!

 

[tbrown]

Leopard Wrasse

 

[littlefoxx]

The 3’ dimensions is why I was thinking about either a bristletooth or tomini tang that only get 5-6”. My brother in law has one in his 90 gal (3x2x2) tank and it’s done fine in there.

My lfs suggested a sailfin tang. I just smiled and said ok let me think about it. Quickly looked it up when he walked away and saw it gets to 14” and said oh heck no, not in my tank.

I still say minimum 4 feet for bristletooths, 6 is always better in my opinion and experience

 

[Nor'easter Reefer]

Leopard Wrasse

I should've known!

 

[vlangel]

Maybe a tang is not right, although I had a tomini in my 56g tank for years before I felt I needed to rehome it to a bigger tank. However, if your scape has the right kind of territories, and you have adequate processing of nutrients; I believe that your tank can definitely support more fish. I have 12 fish living very compatible in my much smaller tank.
4 of your fish, (the cardinalfish) are occupying the top third of the tank which probably is fairly open. Maybe the clowns hang up there too but they don't require much swimming space, just a territory that they can call their own. The wrasses probably cruise throughout the tank looking for pods. In my opinion you could add a dwarf angel like a Coral Beauty, a firefish goby or 2, maybe a Midas blenny (although your current blenny is a bristletooth so there may or may not be aggression between the two). If you have caves or ledges and hiding places you definitely could have more gobies. I have a ywg and 2 masked gobies and even my tank could probably have a couple of clown gobies or citrin gobies added. I will say that fish are my first love and my tank is designed to support as many fish as possible. It is important to me that they all live in harmony however because nothing disrupts the peace and serenity that a tank can provide like aggression between fish!

 

[ScottD]

Leopard Wrasse

I might be persuaded into one of those. I’ve been slowly dragged into the darkside of wrasses, what’s a couple more haha.

 

[ScottD]

I still say minimum 4 feet for bristletooths, 6 is always better in my opinion and experience

Thank you. What would you recommend differently then a tang for algae removal?

 

[ScottD]

Maybe a tang is not right, although I had a tomini in my 56g tank for years before I felt I needed to rehome it to a bigger tank. However, if your scape has the right kind of territories, and you have adequate processing of nutrients; I believe that your tank can definitely support more fish. I have 12 fish living very compatible in my much smaller tank.
4 of your fish, (the cardinalfish) are occupying the top third of the tank which probably is fairly open. Maybe the clowns hang up there too but they don't require much swimming space, just a territory that they can call their own. The wrasses probably cruise throughout the tank looking for pods. In my opinion you could add a dwarf angel like a Coral Beauty, a firefish goby or 2, maybe a Midas blenny (although your current blenny is a bristletooth so there may or may not be aggression between the two). If you have caves or ledges and hiding places you definitely could have more gobies. I have a ywg and 2 masked gobies and even my tank could probably have a couple of clown gobies or citrin gobies added. I will say that fish are my first love and my tank is designed to support as many fish as possible. It is important to me that they all live in harmony however because nothing disrupts the peace and serenity that a tank can provide like aggression between fish!

Thank you. I will have to check out those fish. I haven’t looked much into gobies other than tried a diamond and it got spooked down my overflow and by the time I found him, it was too late. I then got the gold headed goby instead of a mother diamond and it has been doing a lot of sand cleaning for me. So far my nutrients have been fairly stable at ~20ppm nitrates and .15ppm phosphates. I also have also upped my feeding so I need to check again to see how they are doing.

I do have lots of rock with hiding spots all over. When I built the scape I tried to make sure everyone had choices of where they want to hide as I know that helps reduce stress and aggression. It’s funny though all the fish tend to stay in the bottom half of the tank, with the banggai’s staying in the very front 6” of the tank.

What would you recommend instead of a tang for algae control? I’ve tried to be cognizant of what I add to the tank with some fish being there to help maintain the tank.

A couple view of the tank. From the front.

And from the left side.

 

[Lavey29]

Thank you. What would you recommend differently then a tang for algae removal?

I tried a bristletooth in my 3 foot tank and it was stressed from the get go. They need 4 foot minimum. Get a diverse cleaner crew fir algae that includes tuxedo urchins and turbos along with scarlet hermits.

 

[Uncle99]

Yellow tang
Best overall fish and algae destroyer.
At 6 years he’s only 5”

 

[littlefoxx]

Thank you. What would you recommend differently then a tang for algae removal?

A lawnmower or starry blenny! Great at that

 

[ScottD]

I tried a bristletooth in my 3 foot tank and it was stressed from the get go. They need 4 foot minimum. Get a diverse cleaner crew fir algae that includes tuxedo urchins and turbos along with scarlet hermits.

I plan on getting an urchin at some point, just haven’t seen one I’ve liked so far at the lfs.

 

[ScottD]

A lawnmower or starry blenny! Great at that

Either of those would be ok with my tailspot blenny?

 

[vlangel]

Thank you. I will have to check out those fish. I haven’t looked much into gobies other than tried a diamond and it got spooked down my overflow and by the time I found him, it was too late. I then got the gold headed goby instead of a mother diamond and it has been doing a lot of sand cleaning for me. So far my nutrients have been fairly stable at ~20ppm nitrates and .15ppm phosphates. I also have also upped my feeding so I need to check again to see how they are doing.

I do have lots of rock with hiding spots all over. When I built the scape I tried to make sure everyone had choices of where they want to hide as I know that helps reduce stress and aggression. It’s funny though all the fish tend to stay in the bottom half of the tank, with the banggai’s staying in the very front 6” of the tank.

What would you recommend instead of a tang for algae control? I’ve tried to be cognizant of what I add to the tank with some fish being there to help maintain the tank.

A couple view of the tank. From the front.

And from the left side.

I love the scape, you did a good job on it. The tailspot blenny I believe is of the bristletooth variety of blennies so it should be somewhat useful in algae control. Coral Beauty angelfish will pick at filamentous algae. I also have blue or red legged hermits crabs to pick at algae. However my biggest strategy against nuisance algae is keeping ornamental algae in the display. They can be vibrant red and green and many move in the flow. As they grow they out compete the nuisance algae. For it to work one must be willing to keep a higher nutrient tank which your parameters are good with No3 at 20ppm and PO4 at .15ppm for a macroalgae system. Recently my nutrients bottomed out so I bought 5 more fish and I feed them well. I get a little gha on occasion but not much, definitely not problematic. Here are some pics of my tank.

 

[vlangel]

Either of those would be ok with my tailspot blenny?

That's a good question. It might work since your tailspot was in the tank first but the lawnmower and starry are both a bit more aggressive in the bristletooth varieties of blennies. I would think a Midas would be a better risk although not as good of an algae erradicator.

 

[littlefoxx]

Either of those would be ok with my tailspot blenny?

Hum not so sure actually never had a tailspot

 

[ScottD]

I love the scape, you did a good job on it. The tailspot blenny I believe is of the bristletooth variety of blennies so it should be somewhat useful in algae control. Coral Beauty angelfish will pick at filamentous algae. I also have blue or red legged hermits crabs to pick at algae. However my biggest strategy against nuisance algae is keeping ornamental algae in the display. They can be vibrant red and green and many move in the flow. As they grow they out compete the nuisance algae. For it to work one must be willing to keep a higher nutrient tank which your parameters are good with No3 at 20ppm and PO4 at .15ppm for a macroalgae system. Recently my nutrients bottomed out so I bought 5 more fish and I feed them well. I get a little gha on occasion but not much, definitely not problematic. Here are some pics of my tank.

Thank you, I knew I wanted to go heavy on fish so wanted to make sure there was plenty of homes for them. I’ll have to give some thought to macros, your tank looks really good with them. I do plan on putting some corals in eventually when I get my lights setup, but haven’t put them on yet. I’ve also been thinking about running an algae turf scrubber on the tank as well. As of right now I’m not running a skimmer or anything on the tank, that just seems to be where my nutrients have settled so far. I’ve got a variety of snails: turbo, nassarious, trocus, and astrea along with a strawbury conch so far for a cleanup crew. I plan on adding some micro brittle stars as well. Thank you for your help, I greatly appreciate it.