How many fish can I safely keep?

How many 3to4" fish can I safely keep in my 240g

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No intentions on highjacking your thread >

That isn't a logical way to look to do it, with having a larger number of any 3-4" fishes for which you could and will be faced with a great deal of compatibility issues. I think I nailed down my fish inhabitants list for my 180 and its looking like this: Just to give you some idea>

FoxFace Rabbitfish (Siganus vulpinus)
(Acanthurus coeruleus) Atlantic Blue Tang***
(Zebrasoma gemmatum) Gem tang *** (Will be added at a much later date due to the price tag this fish demands)
Redface moray (Monopenchelys acuta) Pair
Blackcap Basslet (Gramma melacara)
Old Glory Goby (Amblygobius rainfordi) Pair
Yellow Watchman Goby (Cryptocentrus cinctus)
Blue spotted jawfish (Opistognathus rosenblatti)
Yellow Wrasse (Halichoeres chrysus)
Pinkbar goby (Amblyeleotris aurora) **
Canary Fang Blenny/Canary Blenny (Meiacanthus oualanensis)***
Purple Firefish/Purple Dartfish (Nemateleotris decora) *
Fridman's Pseudochromis/Orchid Dottyback (Pseudochromis fridmani)***
2-3 clams

Prior to this I had help in putting together a cleaning crew and all this was for so that I may know what corals be safe or not like polyps and such. Even with the list I now have, I may or might have room enough for few small additions to this list, but that is for later on, I have my main fish inhabitant selection and I will now move to a number of starting corals before adding major SPS corals at a much later date (6 months plus).

Also, I had a Six Line Wrasse (Pseudocheilinus hexataenia) on this list which was removed due to the fact that it will be aggressive to the Dottyback. I hope this helps you in some guidance to what you want to do

Buddy

Thats a VERY subjective question. If you go with the inch per 4 gallons rule, you're looking at 15 at 4" per fish. The 4 inches per gallon rule is about as dated as the "cycle with Damsels" idea though so I wouldn't follow that. It really depends on the species. Some active species require more swimming room and although they might have the physiological space, they may be psycologically restricted. If you're really good with maintenance you may stretch it to more than normal but generally speaking, pushing your luck with a marine tank ends in disaster.

Matt.

I have 11 fish currently in my 29G reef. All are happy, only had 1 fish loss in 5 years and that was due to a heatwave and me being unable to keep my tank cool enough. Most of my fish are pretty small though.

It's more about what fish will get along with each other rather than how many fish.. of course there is a limit. I do a lot of maint on my tank to support everything, 10G every 3 days of SW, weekly filter changes, and monthly media changes.

Just give us a list of fish you like, and we can help stock your tank. You have a lot of room, so it shouldn't be hard to stock.

Yes, do as requested by SuperScro and do as I done in researching and making my own selection for fish inhabitants and then it was broken down by 70% or better to the best I liked in tangs and gobies and such. You need to make the first step in this for it is about the third part of your quest to the type of tank you wish to manage. So first pick out your favorite fish, for this part of the game is hard depending on how many in the same family group you may like. Good Luck And this is as well a part of the joy in starting our own tanks.

Buddy

If this helps any I have a total of 17 fish in my 240,
5 of which are blue/green chromis.
3 are clownfish that NEVER leave the carpet anemone
yellow watchman stays in his hole (seldom see)
engineer goby stays in his hole (see on a frequent occasion)
mandarin - hides a lot
foxface active swimmer
5 tangs that are active swimmers

When the tangs eventually outgrow the tank I plan on getting another 300+G tank to house them (FOWLR)

I'm finally going to ask...

why is the term bio-load used in reef and FOWLR tanks?

I can understand in a FO tank, where the only way to export nitrate is to do water changes.

But with reef or FOWLR tanks, there are plenty of things you can have to use up the nitrate...

Can't imagine a tank with so many inhabitants where it's impossible to keep the nitrate down if you're willing to get a sump with proper set up stuffed with filter feeders and macro algae.

IMHO, the only thing restricting the amount of fish in reef and FOWLR tanks are just matter of territories

That is a very good point and why I am able to support 11 fish in a small 29g. There is still a limit with a reef, the bacteria in the sand/live rock and sump can still only handle so much.

Say I were to have 5 tangs in my tank instead of the 11 small fish I have.. the bio-load would be HUGE.. as well as the fish would be extremely unhappy in that small of a tank.

That is why I stated it is more about what fish get a long with each other, especially in the size tank the poster listed.. up to a point. I wouldn't put 20 tangs in that tank either.. but I could easily fit 40 fish if they were all gobies/dwarf angels/and small wrasses as long as there was a good sump and lots of live rock to help clean.

Even with 11 fish and a nice tank, I still do 20G a week in water changes with Natural Sea Water just to make sure my water is perfect. So nice not having to pay for salt water anymore after discovering UCSB College offers really good filtered sea water for free to the public.. as much as you can take. Of course I still test about once a month.. but nothing is out of the ordinary in my tests on over 4 years out of my 5 years of reefing. (First year was a chore and A LOT of learning).

OMG!! are you serious!! Free sea water!~!~!~!~ Very cool. (how are they able to do this??) I guess for now Im sticking to the ro unit and the salt vats for water changes.