Is it possible to group Fish Species into groups based on the required parameters using compatibility charts?

[jta117]

Hopefully, the question is self-explanatory but to provide a bit more context; My bachelor thesis is based on designing a sort of Smart Aquarium that is able to self-regulate most parameters. Ive already figured out all the parameters It would need to regulate and now Im researching around for two things: 1) This question and 2) how parameters are related to each other and how they affect each other. The second one, im finding a bit more success in solving and so far I have a lot of information about. However this part is proving to be a bit difficult.

Unless theres some company or software which already did all the work and has documented the parameters needed for each species of saltwater, then that means I would have to do this myself. Right now, the most efficient way that appears to me is using a compatibility chart and based on that create groups of fish species that fit together and then i would only have to figure out the parameters for one or two species in each group. Is this way of thinking flawed? Please keep in mind my experience with saltwater aquaria is 4 days of reading forums and saltwater tank websites, so go easy on me haha.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Many years ago, I wrote an aquarium software package that had a compatibility section in it. Very complicated, as even sorting fish by genus didn’t give enough fine detail. Then, fish size has to be factored in. Finally, compatibility is subjective, based on the person’s knowledge base. Finally, there are always those fish that “don’t read the book” and behave completely out of character. In the end, my software could alert people to making grave mistakes like putting groupers with clownfish, but could never get the details for things like clownfish needing to be certain relative sizes to keep from fighting.
Jay