Overstocked?

[egwich]

I have a 55 gallon. It was given to me for free and I was planning to get into freshwater but knew I would regret not trying salt. So I did salt instead. I made the perfect decision as I love it. With that being said I've made some bad newbie decisions. No quarantine which led to flukes from a Cardinal (who died a few days later all other fish survived). I didn't leave enough room for my skimmer so I had to find a different model to squeeze between my wall and tank. Lastly, I took LFS advice as word of god. Told me a Kole Tang would thrive in a 55 gallon. So I bought him! It's been about 3 or 4 months and he's doing great. I'm moving in about six months and I'm upgrading to a minimum 150 maybe more. In the meantime am I overstocked?

2 ocellaris clowns
1 Kole Tang (2.5 inches)
1 royal gramma
2 cleaner shrimp

 

[Captain Quint]

For now, you are not overstocked. Sizewise of fishes.

About the time you have your 150ish tank ready your Kole will thank you. It is small right now as you stated and the 55g is okay for the short term. But will need more room before you know it.

Can't wait to see your new build.

 

[HB AL]

Not even close to being overstocked.

 

[Old Fritz]

At the kole tangs current size you dont have any problems. Overstocking is very opinionated. When i had my 55 i had a lot more fish than you, it didnt look overcrowded but the bio load was fairly large. The problem with what you read online with tank requirements is they vary a lot. And the recommended tanks size is a combination of bio load, fish size, aggression, and juat how much they swim. For instance a kole tang will technically fit in a 55, but it would be a little cramped especially because of how much they swim. I also take online listings of recommended tanks sizes with a grain of salt because sometimes they will recommend a 30 or 40 gallon for a clown. Essentially it cimes down to how much maintenance you want to do and the lifestyle of your fish. Obviously having a 55 with a bunch of tangs is going to have a larger bio load and more work, and possibly some aggression in such a small tank, but also how would you like to be cramped in a tank where you can swim to one side of the tank in under a second. There is a lot to say about minimum tank size and overstocking, but as long as the stocking is kept reasonable and you kwep up with maintenance there really shouldn't be any problems

 

[egwich]

At the kole tangs current size you dont have any problems. Overstocking is very opinionated. When i had my 55 i had a lot more fish than you, it didnt look overcrowded but the bio load was fairly large. The problem with what you read online with tank requirements is they vary a lot. And the recommended tanks size is a combination of bio load, fish size, aggression, and juat how much they swim. For instance a kole tang will technically fit in a 55, but it would be a little cramped especially because of how much they swim. I also take online listings of recommended tanks sizes with a grain of salt because sometimes they will recommend a 30 or 40 gallon for a clown. Essentially it cimes down to how much maintenance you want to do and the lifestyle of your fish. Obviously having a 55 with a bunch of tangs is going to have a larger bio load and more work, and possibly some aggression in such a small tank, but also how would you like to be cramped in a tank where you can swim to one side of the tank in under a second. There is a lot to say about minimum tank size and overstocking, but as long as the stocking is kept reasonable and you kwep up with maintenance there really shouldn't be any problems

Before I put the Gramma in I put a Bicolor Angel in there and my Kole Tang killed him in about a day. My Kole also chased my Gramma around for maybe one day but now gets along with him swimmingly (no pun intended ).

I really like Goby's but I heard Kole Tangs want to kill Goby's 99% of the time since they're competing for the same food.

Any suggestions on what would be a good addition?

 

[ca1ore]

Not overstocked from a bioload perspective, but a kole tang is a push in a 55, and will be more aggressive than if it had more space. Bicolor is among the more timid of dwarf angels. You could try some fairy wrasses, as long as your tank is covered. Kole will most likely ignore them.

 

[Maritimer]

I really like Goby's but I heard Kole Tangs want to kill Goby's 99% of the time since they're competing for the same food.

I've had no problems between my kole or Indian squaretail tangs and my gobies - blennies, however, are another tale. (Even in my 220, the starry comes in for a bit of hazing - nothing he can't handle, though.) Algae blennies seem to be a target of Ctenochaetus tangs, but gobies generally aren't grazers - they're pod-pluckers and plankton-catchers. I should think that a shrimp-goby pair might slip under the kole's radar.

The tangs generally ignore the midas blenny, which might also be a future consideration.

~Bruce