Reef Central Online Community

Go Back   Reef Central Online Community > General Interest Forums > New to the Hobby
Blogs FAQ Calendar

Notices

User Tag List

Reply
Thread Tools
Unread 11/07/2012, 08:48 PM   #1
salty72
Registered Member
 
salty72's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Vermont
Posts: 190
Live Aquaria Question

I have the Marine Fishes 500+ Essential-To-know Aquarium Species Book, the tank sizes of the fish do not jive with live aquaria - for example I was looking at the Niger Triggerfish, the book says min size tank 75 gallons, LA says 180! That's a big difference. Does anyone know why there would be a difference?


__________________
75 gal reef, Maroon Clown, PJ cardinal, fire fish, 2 blue/green chromis, lawn mower blennie, Six Line Wrasse, File Fish, Flower anemone, red star fish, yellow toadstool, green star, hammer, trumpet, z

Current Tank Info: 75 Gallon Reef, 39 Gallon Fresh
salty72 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/07/2012, 09:03 PM   #2
ArrowCrab
Registered Member
 
ArrowCrab's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 166
I can't answer your question, but most of the time LA's fish recommendations seem to be good. I've noticed on the mandarin pages however that their minimum tank sizes are extremely low. Posters on this forum consistently recommend minimum tank sizes for mandarins that are 2 -3 times the size recommendation of LA.



Last edited by ArrowCrab; 11/07/2012 at 09:31 PM.
ArrowCrab is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/07/2012, 09:21 PM   #3
bnumair
Dr. Reef at ur service
 
bnumair's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Tulsa, Ok, USA
Posts: 7,751
Blog Entries: 15
live aquaria is THE source that most reefers use for information like tank size and compatibility.


__________________
Water Quality: NO3 0,Phos 0,Cal 440,Alk 7.5,Mag 1300

"Reef Fast, You Crash, Reef Slow, You Pass" Mike's Reef 3:16

Current Tank Info: 350g DT,95g sump, 50g Frag tank, 4800gph return 4x Sea swirls. 6x AI Vega Color. 200# Pukani rock, dual recirculating skimmer, Biopellet, GFO Carbon rx's, Cal rx. Closed loop. 1.5hp chiller, genesis renew. Apex & RKE
bnumair is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/07/2012, 09:46 PM   #4
salty72
Registered Member
 
salty72's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Vermont
Posts: 190
Thank you all very much - LOVE RC!!


__________________
75 gal reef, Maroon Clown, PJ cardinal, fire fish, 2 blue/green chromis, lawn mower blennie, Six Line Wrasse, File Fish, Flower anemone, red star fish, yellow toadstool, green star, hammer, trumpet, z

Current Tank Info: 75 Gallon Reef, 39 Gallon Fresh
salty72 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/08/2012, 01:28 AM   #5
Reefmedic79
Life and Reef Saver
 
Reefmedic79's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Tavares, Florida
Posts: 6,202
That book is almost 15 years old as well, so a lot of new info and husbandry techniques have to be taken into acount as well.


__________________
><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>¸.
·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><((((º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><((((º>

How much deeper would the ocean be if it didn't have sponges?
P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sid

Current Tank Info: 40 Breeder, 20L Sump, 10G Fuge, JBJ A.T.O, 4" Reef Octopus, DIY Stand & Canopy, RapidLED Dimmable 36 Kit on 3 6" MakersLED Heatsink, MP10es
Reefmedic79 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/08/2012, 08:42 AM   #6
Fizz71
FragSwapper
 
Fizz71's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: West Lawn, PA
Posts: 5,800
The last time I asked one of my fish how big their tank should be it just stared at me. The bottom line is "minimum tank size" is more guesswork than science. There are some things we can formulate like the fact that Tangs are grazers and need swimming room and knowing the normal adult size of a fish, etc. But it's really all about experience and what HASN'T worked in the past.

ArrowCrab's post is a perfect example...mandarin's don't really need a very big tank to be happy which is why LA says 30g is enough, but because they generally need a live food source a 30g tank with other pod predators will not keep the population up enough and the mandarin will eventually starve to death (could take months). Which is why people pull out bigger numbers for the mandarin..not because they need the space, but because experience has shown us 30g just isn't enough unless you plan to buy live food for them all the time.

When in doubt...go with the biggest number you find as a minimum..there's usually a reason for it.


__________________
--Fizz

Current Tank Info: Current system is 8x2x2 240g peninsula setup with a single "chamber" 100g sump in the basement with an RDSB. All corals are 100% home grown from frags of fellow reefers (low natural reef impact).
Fizz71 is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/08/2012, 10:37 AM   #7
MrTuskfish
Registered Member
 
MrTuskfish's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: The Wild Blue Yonder
Posts: 8,887
LA re-did their tank size suggestions a couple years ago. They are generally very good now, IMO.


__________________
If God didn't want us to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat.


Steve

Current Tank Info: 180, 2-240 FOWLRs, 240 reef
MrTuskfish is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/10/2012, 04:56 PM   #8
gmate
MASC Member
 
gmate's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Littleton, CO
Posts: 2,267
This hobby is always changing. The most recent information is most likely the correct information.


__________________
https://www.marinecolorado.org/

180, 90 and 50 gallon reef ready systems. Fragging & trading since 2010.

Current Tank Info: 180g, 90g & 50g frag tank
gmate is offline   Reply With Quote
Unread 11/10/2012, 04:59 PM   #9
Lavoisier
Premium Member
 
Lavoisier's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: Overland Park, KS
Posts: 1,030
I have always found LA to be great source of quality information as well as organisms and equipment. Until I see a controlled study which contradicts LA I will give them the benefit of the doubt.


__________________
"...for it is not necessary that these hypotheses should be true, or even probably; but it is enough if they provide a calculus which fits the observations..."--Introduction (attributed to Andrew Osiander) to On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Sphere by Nicolaus Copernicus.

Current Tank Info: 600g DT, 140g sump, 200g Cryptic, 90g Refugium, 3-400w MH, 2 Reeflo Barracudas, and 3 MP60s
Lavoisier is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:20 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2025, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Powered by Searchlight © 2025 Axivo Inc.
Use of this web site is subject to the terms and conditions described in the user agreement.
Reef CentralTM Reef Central, LLC. Copyright ©1999-2022
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging v3.3.0 (Pro) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2025 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.