Carolyn
Yes. You counted correctly.
I always overstock my tanks.
Before I moved my 55g reef had 15 fish in it. For over 2yrs.
My 75g has nearly that many now. It's been up and running for a year and a half, with no problems.
I attribute being able to keep systems stable and happy with this many fish, to researching the needs of the animals, and mainly stocking smaller fish, and non-agressive species. I certainly wouldn't try this with tangs, and dottybacks.
The 6g has been running for over a year with everything except the seahorse. It's more stable, and maintenance free than any other tank I've had.
I understand that seahorses have special needs. I'm on the forums at seahorse.org, and have researched them pretty well, Although there's always room for more research/learning.
I'm generally not an impulse buyer when it comes to the aquariums.
I also think that a lot of the 'rules' for keeping healthy/happy aquariums are pretty fluid. The more delicate, or difficult a coral/critter is the more rigid the thinking seems to become. I wouldn't have put a seahorse in with tomato clowns, or maroon clowns, but these are occellaris, which tend to be much less agressive, and I've kept a very close eye on them. (Remember this is my work tank, so I can look at it 8-10hrs a day 5-6 days a week). If they'd acted agressively towards the pony I would have removed it immediately. I have another tank that's been up and running for a year and a half, that doesn't have anything except some rock, a couple mushrooms and a small cabbage leather in it, that I could remove it too. The reason I didn't choose that tank initially is because I can monitor this one more closely, and it has a much lower flowrate than the larger one. If I see that it's not doing well, I'll move it and address the flow issue. So far, over the last 6-7wks it's been eating well, and swims around the lower portion of the tank were there's even less flow than in the rest of the tank and the clowns haven't shown even the slightest interest in it.
B
