i added a firefish to complete the livestock in my 8g nano yesterday. a really nice looking fish IMO and i read that they do okay with clowns. brought him home and acclimated for temp and salinity (was already about the same as my tank) and transferred the firefish. the clown left her alone for all of yesterday, but today when i fed them the clown was hogging all the food and lunging at the firefish when she tried to get a bite. i tried to target feed, too (i use high-protein pellets) but they floated around and the clown claimed them. i have read that firefish need a meat source for food, and i think if i switch to that from the pellets, perhaps the fighting will cease? also, any food recommendations? what have you guys had success with? thanks!

how many fish do you have in your 8g?
i would have to say the max amount of fish is 1 in an 8g biocube.
i say this only because in reality you only have about 6g's of display space and even less swiming space when you add in LR.

i suggest you pick one of the fish and you take the other one back. clowns will naturally be agressive when in a confined space.

your clown is adi in the tank and the firefish is new,its quite normal for the clown to be more aggresive..
u can try to feed some frozen brine shrimp to try to get him to start eating..this is wat i did...
i have both in my tank,it's been always the clown gets the food first before the pallet gets to the bottom of the tank,so i'll tend to feed a little bit more so tat my firefish gets a share of the food..the extra will be eaten by my shrimp...
wish u good luck with it..

2, the clown and the firefish. i only have about 7lbs of rock so i was told by a friend in the hobby that 2 small fish would be okay. you disagree?

those fish do not stay "small"
clownfish can grow to 4" and firefish can grow to 5"
does it seem small to you now? \
fish, like humans, GROW. they will not stay small forever.
take one out now while you can. otherwise, pay the prices later.
im not trying to scare you. im just telling you the truth.
some people will tell you that you could put 8 small fish in an 8g biocube. but in reality only 1 can be captive in an 8g reef.

I feel overstocked in my 15 gallon already, and I just have a small clown


I'd say that's pushing it. The firefish will more than likely jump ship as well. They dart incredibly fast and with such a small water column that spells trouble.

i will return the firefish if everyone agrees that it should be done, but i am a bit confused, because i have read in many places, including on this site, that 2 fish in an 8g biocube is the max, not over-stocked. i do want to be responsible about this, and will return the fish if i must, but i was genuinely otherwise informed. here is a picture of the tank, rock and all. please let me know what should be done. i stay on top of my water changes and filtration, and have a good CUC that takes care of food waste. all levels are at 0. thanks again.

Part of those general rules of thumb re how many fish rely heavily on which fish you're talking about. Size of the fish, how active they are, heavy poopers or not, etc.

There's a good range of gobies that stay small, and I think a couple of the blennies (tail spot comes to mind). Check out the pico forum for ideas on fish that are working in small tanks.

Not sure if you saw this already:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=74703

+1 to what's been said so far.

Your aggression problems are likely correlated to the amount of territory in the tank. Clownfish, such as your ocellairs, tend to be pretty territorial. The other side of that is that the territories they tend to defend are relatively small. Just not smaller than your tank.

ap123 brings up a good point that the real question here is which fish will live compatibly in an 8g bc? I can pretty much tell you that a clownfish and a firefish cannot. These fish both get too big. In my opinion your best bet is keeping the clownfish. I can't honestly believe that others on this site have have mis-informed you on this issue (though mis-information can happen!).

Looking at your previous Nov. 1st post, ( http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...=214033&hl= )
you asked whether you could add another fish. The opinion of 2 of the 3 people who responded was that you not add the second fish (and LAKS especially can be trusted to give good advice in my experience). Now you know why I'm really not trying to act smug about it, but why ask for advice and then disregard it? If you want further explanations about why someone responds a certain way, ask for it. In my opinion anyone choosing to give you their advice should be able to back it up with facts.

thanks for the input, the store has said that they will accept a return on the firefish. i'm bummed to see it go, but do not want to risk harm to the fish.

in response to ajmckay, i was never mis-informed by any individual on this sight, but from looking at pictures of similar sized or smaller (some of the pico's and 10gs in the monthly reef profiles) tanks, once filled with corals the swimming areas seemed small for the number of fish but everyone seemed to approve. so i wrongfully inferred that 2 fish in a less-filled tank was acceptable.

at any rate, thanks for the advice again. i am new at this and am not trying to endanger any animal in my tank.

Remember that BC and other AIO type tanks may hold 8 gallons of water, but there's only 6 gallons in the display area (the rest is in the back compartment) and less than that when you put rock in. So you probably only have 5.5 gallons or so of swimming space (likely less). If it were a 5.5 AGA with a number of the small gobies, things would be different.

Either way, you're off to a good start I would personally trade in the clown and keep the firefish, but I just don't like clowns much so that has a lot to do with it

Don't worry... as far as mistakes go, this is a really common one, and it's usually easy to fix since a lot of stores accept returns. Good call on returning the fish though. Focus on what you have and get your tank to look it's best. I promise that will keep you busy enough.

I have also seen some of the other tanks you may be talking about which looked to be overstocked, yet everyone is giving approval to. There are a few reasons which might explain this. First off, having a sump can make quite a difference as far as the amount of fish you're able to keep. Certain fish need only a little swimming room, while other fish need lots of room. The key is coming up with a combination of fish which don't necessarily need a lot of room and pairing that up with an appropriate volume of water.

The other big issue here is the experience level of the aquarium keeper. There are professional marine biologists which have aquarium threads here. It's important to realize that an "advanced" aquarist will be able to successfully keep tanks which a beginner would never be able to for whatever reason. They know how to keep parameters in check, how to do the right amount of maintenance, and how to choose their livestock so that everything goes together perfectly. That and they probably spend a whole lot of time on their tanks. I don't know about you, but I have a job so I can only dedicate a few hours per week to my tank max. Personally, I like the whole "set it and forget it" approach. So I try to focus everything I put into the tank on making it more stable. After my initial stocking I try to only change something when there's a problem.

There's nothing to be ashamed about being a beginner. My tank has been up for just over a year and I still consider myself a beginner at many things in the hobby. I'm on this site almost every day for a little bit, so I've been able to learn a lot. If you have a question, or don't understand something, search for an answer and if you can't find one, post a thread.

Good luck.