If you’re like me, you want one of everything you see in the stores whether fish, corals or inverts!  What to choose?!!  So many to choose from!  This dilemma is a great downfall of many hobbyists.  Overstocking issues as well as fish incompatibility.  Let’s talk about fish compatibility.  They all come from the ocean & many of them school in great numbers on the reefs (we see this on tv!) so shouldn’t we be able to have any of them, in any numbers in our tank & have them get along?  The answer is no.

The livestock we see in stores come from different areas all around the world.  Though some animals are found in multiple regions, only a few are found in all regions.  Many animals come from specific areas only.  This means they may never have seen (or have had to deal with) another animal from another world region.  Some will accept a “stranger” and others won’t.  Then there’s the schooling factor.  We see groups of hundreds swimming together in the wild…can’t we put more than one of the same fish in our tank?  In most cases, no.  In the wild these fish have an established hierarchy that cannot be duplicated in our tiny tanks.  When subjected to our glass boxes many fish will fight another to the death to establish their dominance.  A good example is the Tang family.  Let’s use the Yellow Tang as an example.  Again, they school by the hundreds in the ocean but put more than one in your tank at different times & you’ll be sure to see constant fighting – most times resulting in death!  Yet put a different type tang in at the same time with the Yellow & most often you’ll see them accept one another!  We are finding in some cases though if multiples of a particular Tang species is added to a tank all at the same time there is a chance of them creating that hierarchy.  Bewarned though, your tank must be large enough to give them the space they will need to do this!

There are still people out there that will tell you that you can’t have more than one tang of any species in the same tank.  As is seen at AquaCorals…this just isn’t true.  BUT, there are tricks to making them accept one another.

A final note...I have found NO reef safe species of Butterflies or Trigger fish!  What may act peaceable when little many times becomes a tank mate killer, coral munching, clam killing menace when older!  Not a matter of "If" but rather "When.  Bewarned!