Can I Add More

[Anele]

Sorry, you probably all fed up with that sort of questions but my tank always looks a bit empty even though I seem to have quite a lot of fish there. So, just wanted to get some advice if I can add some more fish.
I've got 100 litres cube with the following fish:

3 dwarf guaramis (2males and 1 females... i know I need to have more females but 3 of them get on fine at the moment)
12 neons
3 cories
4 boesmani rainbow fish
2 baby bnose plecs
1 angel

I've got Tetratec external filter and change 25% of water every week. I've also got lots of live plants anf bogwood with plenty of hiding places.

What do you think? I'd love to get some red rainbow fish

Thanks a lot

Anele

 

[Blade118]

I would say you are about full for a 100l tank. I dont think your have room to add other fish IMO.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hiya Anele, the general guideline to work out how many fish you can have is 1" of fish per US Gallon of water. your tank is 27 US Gallons, so you look up teh adult size of your fish, add it all together and it should equal around 27". It's not infallible and doesn't have to be stuck to exactly, but just gives a general idea of the amount of fish suitable for the tank.

You have at the moment

3 dwarf guaramis - 6"
12 neons - 12"
3 cories - 6"
4 boesmani rainbow fish - 12"
2 baby bnose plecs - 12"
1 angel - 5"

So you have 53" of fish in a tank suitable for around 27" of fish. Definatley not got any space for anymore, I would go as far as to say that you should be looking to remove some fish from the tank, I would suggest that the angel needs to go as he'll get a bit big for the tank and his natural food in the wild is neons, so he may well eat yours when he gets older. The Bosemani rainbows are also not suitable for your tank, while they don't get huge they do need a lot of swimming space which your tank doesn't have. So I would suggest taking those back to the store, I would also take one of the BN Plecs back as they're very messy fish and then you'd have room for shoal of smaller less active fish.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi there Anele, just wanted to throw in that Miss Wiggle is very experienced in helping with this sort of thing. I've watched her help a lot of people through the sort of process you are facing and she helps it all get worked out.

Hopefully you've got some serious big cannister filtration going on that tank!

 

[Anele]

... I had them all now for over two months and they all seem to be so happy. There is no fighting or any signs of distress, the water parameters are all fine (I check it every day). OK ...I take the point that I shouldn't add anymore but I can't bear the idea of taking any of them back.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

OK, I can appreciate your perspective, but you need to look at the long term picture as well, while all your fish are young and small they won't be cramped, as they come up to maturity and grow things will change, there will be an increased load on the filter and at some point it may become too much and the water readings go to pot, alternatively fish may begin to feel cramped and stressed and either develop disease or start to show signs of aggression. Just because everything is fine now does not mean that it will stay that way. I appreciate it's a hard decision to make, no one wants to re-home their pets, but you have to do what's right for the fish, not what's right for you.

Of course the other alternative is to get a bigger tank