I wanna keep about 5-6 different butterfly fish (saltwater) is a 40 gallon tank enough? they grow to a max of

Question

2-3 inches each (species im thinking of) they are said to be docile but I didnt read anything about them being together. Also whats the max I could keep in a 40 gallon tank. And also they are said to be very easy to care for as far as saltwater fish are concerned is this true? (never attempted a saltwater tank)

Answer 1

The number of fish in any tank is an issue of
water quality/ammonia levels. If you go with the
maximun number of fish a tank can support there
isn't much wiggle room for any mistakes you
might make in reguard to water quality. By staying
below the maximum number of fish per tank the "extra"
water offsets & otherwise dilutes any mistakes in water quality. This helps keep fish in good shape. So 5-6
fish at 3 inches would be fine in a 40 gallon tank.
You might want to start off with fewer fish & give yourself
some time to become use to maintaining a saltwater
tank.

Answer 2

no, not at all. But im guessing you will believe what you feel like believing. The people that are telling you that it is not enough are right, they are people who truly know fish. The rest are truly ignorant. common goldfish are meant to be in ponds, they are known to be very dirty an to grow large and live up to 20yrs with proper care. The thing with goldfish is that their growth gets stunted when they are in a small tank, which means that they stop growing while their internal organs keep growing. ofcourse it is okay if you dont really care about the fish. i dont know who ever spread the myth that goldfish were low maintenance, they are one of most high maintenance fish i know (besides saltwater). You need 20gal per goldfish and 10gal for each additional goldfish, since they are babies, i think you could go smaller, but 10gal is too small i think you should go on craigslist online and look for a larger used aquarium for cheap. If for some reason you cannot maintain a larger aquarium (atleast 30gal) then you should maybe give them away to someone that can or use them or give them away as feeders. If for some reason you are stuck with the 10gal (temporarily), i bet you that atleast 3 of them will die out (from new tank syndrome, since you probably wont cycle, the wastes of 6 goldfish is too much to start a cycle on), so then you will have 3 left. You should buy a gravel vacum and vacum the gravel weekly and replace the water with clean water. maybe you should try some tropical fish next time, much cleaner and less demanding.

Answer 3

I wouldn't recommend that many in a 40 gallon. Salt water fish are very sensitive. You should get your tank started first, cycle it then add one fish per month, til you get enough bacteria to maintain the tank. I probably only add maybe 4 in the end. It's not recommended to have the same types of fish unless they look different. Example you couldn't put a powder blue tang with a powder brown. Saltwater tanks are very nice, very expensive, don't be dissapointed if you lose a few in the beginning. Set your price nothing above $30 so you won't feel like you've lost a fortune til you become comfortable with the tank and it's maintence.

Answer 4

No. Butterfly fish get quite large and require at least a 70 gal tank. Keeping that many large fish I would recommend at least a 120 (180 would be better) . The rule of thumb for saltwater fish is 4 inches of fish per 10 gallons of water. Also butterfly fish tend to be difficult to feed in captivity as most of them are very specialized feeders (they generally eat live coral or sponges)

Answer 5

Butterfly fish are not the best canidate for an aquarium they have anywhere from a 10% - 40% chance of surviveing at all, they have a short lifespan on top of that. Some fish are very difficult to care for and you need to research lots more I would put i at least 6 more month or research towards this subject! Get and read saltwater aquariums for dumies (good place to START)

Answer 6

every fish can be kept alive with weekly 5% water changes. i was told that you can keep about 1 fish for every 4 gallons, but i've also seen some 4to 5 inch butterfly fish so becareful. and you dont want to throw them all in at once cause that would cause an amonia spike killing everything. last thing is butterfly fish eat corals.

Answer 7

the rule is for a fish tank; one gallon per inch of fish. So if they grow 3 inches and you plan on getting 6...the smallest size tank you can have is 18 gallons

Answer 8

when i got my fish tank they told me 5 gallons per fish

Answer 9

No!

Answer 10

:(