Most Number Of Fish In A 20 Gallon Long

[GobyMaster]

Hi, I'm new to the marine-keeping business, and I am intreged on setting up a Caribbean Nano-Reef after a recent cruise.
And I was wondering:
What would the maximum number of fish I could have in a tank this size? I wanted the following:

2 or 3 Flame Cardinals (Apogon sp.)
1 Pearly Jawfish (Opistognathus aurifrons)
1 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)

Would that work?
The tank would have a large reef that would dominate the seascape. There would be many corals all over the place, I was thinking these and these. I also though maybe a Green Sea Mat would be a 'centerpiece' coral.
I'm still torn about sand and substrate. I was thinking for substrate, I could have this, but I like both the sand and substrate. What do you think I should get? And for sand, I thought this, only I'd get the reef-crystals package.
All fish and some live rock & corals would be ordered from Etropicals, and the coral packs would be from LiveAquaria.

So, what do you think? Good/bad/unsure?
Let me know.
Cheers,
GobyMaster

 

[Musho3210]

dont get corals online if you have an lfs that sells them. Always make friends with lfs's.

dont buy polyps and zoanthids and sea mats online. If you have a LRC you can very easily get frags of it for VERY cheap and many of the times free.


Online shopping for live stuff is for those with bad lfs near them or no lfs at all. Even if you save money its always best to make friends with your lfs.

 

[Betta5]

Im not sure but in the UK 24"x12"x12" is a 12 gallon. I wouldn't bother with Live sand (LS) unless you arnt going to get LR.

 

[Musho3210]

12 US or UK gallons?

 

[GobyMaster]

U.S. Gallons. I thought that LiveAquaria had really good quality corals and stuff?
Cheers,
GobyMaster

 

[Musho3210]

yes, live aquaria is great, but it will cost a lot and you dont really have the choice to slow stock if you want to save money.

Making friends with lfs's can help you save lots of money in the end, got a blood shrimp for 25% off, got a feather duster with free 3 pounds of rock, got some other freebies like i asked for 6 snails and he gave me 7 for the price of 6 etc, gives me extended warranty even if the store isnt allowed to (i was lucky to make friends with the manager)

Also this way you can actually see what your getting.

Oh and if you have a local reef club near-by ask for some free corals and you shall recieve.

 

[Betta5]

Yeah make friends with a LFS, they sometimes throw small broken off frags in with fish etc. You can also get them to get things in for you too. Dont forget the ??% off because they know you

 

[chefjamesscott]

most assuredly I agree

I went last night to a private lfs to get some food to try on my daughters red devil.

I just moved my brackish tank upstairs now a 70g tall with sand and some live rock and two shells for my 7 dragon gobies, but I wanted to add some fish that move a bit more in the top areas. They had 4 knight gobies there for 12.99/ and a baby arowana for 32.00 when I hit the till the cost for the 5 fish came out at flat $70.00 to me $14.00 is a heck of a saving.

I can not really give any advice on smaller tanks as I got rid of anything under 45g except for my sons firebelly toad 10g

 

[TigerIssey]

This thread is 2 years old.