How many fish can I have in a 32 gallon?

[marinegeek101]

Hey everyone,

I would like to know how many fish can I put in my 32 gallon. I have 40lb of live rock, 2 percula clownfish, and I was wondering if I could get 1 decorated firefish- 1 madarine goby or sixline wrasse- and maybe something like a watchman goby. Do you think its too much? I also have a few snails, hermits and one linkia, I was also thinking of getting a conch snail. Also do coral banded shrimps have bad rep?

 

[BIG-G]

I would say no to the mandrine goby these fish are notorious for not feeding well (they tend to eat only live prey) the others should be ok. as for the coral banded shrimp they only tend to be aggresive to there own kind.

 

[marinegeek101]

My LFS said that they do very well if you have lots of live rock. Is there a difference eating habit wise betweeen the psychadelic and the madarine. Also I would like to know if there would be a way for me to have a tang? Dont know which kind is hardier and can live in a 32 gallon because they are very active and fun to look at?

 

[mmkeeper]

Do you have a fuge with your tank? You need to an unending supply of pods for the manderin dragonette.

 

[marinegeek101]

I dont have a fuge

 

[jezzeaepi]

For long term care of a mandarin you need a really large population of pods and a refugium for them to live. From what I have read on the forums, a 75 gallon tank + a refugium seems to be the standard. Anything less and the mandarin will quickly decimate the population before it has a chance to reproduce and recover. Then your mandarin will starve and die within a month or two=\

 

[Meche]

I think the Tang Police would only be happy with at least a 55gal (4ft) for a yellow tang, most others would require a 125gal (6ft), and the Naso genius would require huge tanks. What do you say RonJ?

 

[NC2WA]

I have kept my fair share of tangs and a minimum tank size I would put them in is 100g due to the nature of the tangs constant movement. For a naso tang I would consider 125-150g the minimum.

Unless you can feed the mandarins a constant supply of pods (ie, a fuge), then this fish should not be considered as it most likely will not survive for a long period of time (~ 2 months max).

For a 32 gallon, gobies, firefish, clownfish, certain types of fairy wrasses are the types of fish I would be looking to stock this tank.

Kirk

 

[kendog261]

Hey everyone,

I would like to know how many fish can I put in my 32 gallon. I have 40lb of live rock, 2 percula clownfish, and I was wondering if I could get 1 decorated firefish- 1 madarine goby or sixline wrasse- and maybe something like a watchman goby. Do you think its too much? I also have a few snails, hermits and one linkia, I was also thinking of getting a conch snail. Also do coral banded shrimps have bad rep?

You could keep all this in your tank with not much of a issue if you keep up with your water changes and have a good skimmer. As for the madarine you need lots of pods, how old is your tank? I have one in my tank and I go to the LFS that sells pods and by some every couple weeks to make sure It is well fed and it is doing well.

 

[marinegeek101]

My tank is about 6-7 months old

 

[kendog261]

My tank is about 6-7 months old

I would wait longer if you cant get a supply of pods

 

[marinegeek101]

Oh ok thanks everyone

 

[jezzeaepi]

"I would wait longer if you cant get a supply of pods"

Time has nothing to do with it if you dont have the fuge + LR to sustain the pod population. In your case you happpen to have someone else who cultivates pods for you. If your LFS stopped cultivating pods tomorrow, your mandarin would eventually starve to death. Thats the idea of the fuge. It cultivates pods for you.

 

[morgan]

ive had a sailfin and a large moon wrasse in a 32gl while they were small no problems id say u could get away with 7 fish depending on size gobys are nice ive kept mixed cloloured ones it was nice i had my onwn team of gobys

 

[marinegeek101]

Well what I read was that Sailfin tangs grow the largest.

 

[returnofsid]

I have gotten away with a Mandarin Goby in a 46 bowfront with refugium. I was pushing the envelope when I tried it. I definately wouldn't recommend a Mandarin in your tank. Especially with a 6 line wrasse. The wrasse will compete for the same food source that the Mandarin needs to survive. IMO, your tank and your amount of LR will never be enough to sustain a Mandarin's needs. The tank is just too small to be able to contain enough live rock to grow enough pods. I'd wait until you move into a larger tank....trust me...you will. I started with a 29 gal, added a 46 bowtank and just yesterday, completed setting up a 75...lol. I'd love to put my mandarin in the 75 but will have to wait at least 6 months before the pod population in it equals what I have in the 46 bowtank. Also, NO to the tangs. They all get way to big and are way to active swimmers for that size tank. Again, I tried a tang in my 46, it failed. They're also notorious for getting Ich. A tank your size is pretty small and anymore than 3 or 4 small to medium sized fish and you're going to be stressing out the system.....which will make a tang even more likely to catch ich. With the pair of Percs, I'd definately say you could add a 6 line wrasse and the firefish. I wouldn't go any further than that...unless you were to purchase a herbivorous blenny for the mix...or something similar.

 

[Meche]

Well what I read was that Sailfin tangs grow the largest.

Where did you read this? It is my understanding that the Naso genius has the largest tangs, specifically Naso vlamingi; it can grow up to 36".

 

[jakleen]

i would get the fire fish and the goby(small yellowgoby,red cap gob yor you can also get bicolor bleeny) . definitly no mandarine. sixline wrasse are very very active ,they constantly look for live prey too. you can have the six line wrass too; majority eat fozen food,but in my 12 years experience i only had 1sixline wrasse that ate flakes. keep up with water changes and install a proteinskimmer if you already do not have any. goodluck. jakleen

 

[moortim]

I just thought I would throw my experience in here as well. I had a scooter dragonet in a 55 that I tried really hard to keep happy, I had a refugium and I added new pods frequently, my tank was reasonably well established but the poor guy still never seemed to get enough food and eventually died. I would not recommend getting a mandarin without a larger tank, lots of rock and more time for it to mature.
Be patient, mandarins aren't going extinct and someday when you get a bigger tank you can get one. The same goes for tangs, I bought my 55 gallon tank used and it already had a sailfin tang in it. The poor fish grew to 9 inches in like a year and a half before I got it and died soon after. There is a lot of good advice on here about both of these types of fishes, all we have to do is follow it. Our desire to have certain fishes needs to be controlled by our desire to keep them healthy.

Tim

 

[steve-s]

Hey everyone,

I would like to know how many fish can I put in my 32 gallon. I have 40lb of live rock, 2 percula clownfish, and I was wondering if I could get 1 decorated firefish- 1 madarine goby or sixline wrasse- and maybe something like a watchman goby. Do you think its too much? I also have a few snails, hermits and one linkia, I was also thinking of getting a conch snail. Also do coral banded shrimps have bad rep?

In a tank this size I would stick with two fish at most. A smaller anemonefish species would be fine but do not opt for the larger ones. Any more and the tank maintenance will become a chore eventually rather than a weekly water change or so. Skip the Linkia and conch idea completely. Both would starve in such a small tank. If you want color/movement, add a decorative shrimp species and skip the hermits.