do you think ive overstocked?

[guppy_man]

hi ive got a 20 ukgal with 3 plants java fern amazon sword and another i cant id.
Anyway ive got 14 fish in my tank the fish i got are :....

4 dwarf gouramis
2 baloon mollies
2 fantail guppies and a middle size one.
3 albino corys
1 pleco i no he isnt a good idea to have but i didnt know much about fish when i bought him my mistake.
2 neon tetras.

do you think ive overstocked they are doing fine the last fish i had that died was a tetra he got sucked in by my filter but it was on full so its on low now.

give an honnest answer so i can take action.

ooops its in wrong catagory it should be in freshwater.

 

[rdd1952]

The pleco itself makes you overstocked. You will need to move him or return him really soon. I guess the others are probalby ok from a stocking stand point as long as you are doing water changes weekly. I'm not real familiar with all the mollys but I know some of them need to be in a brackish tank though. They prefer a little salt which you definitely can't use with the corys.

 

[OohFeeshy]

Rightyo...
4 dwarf gouramis
2 baloon mollies
2 fantail guppies and a middle size one.
3 albino corys
1 pleco i no he isnt a good idea to have but i didnt know much about fish when i bought him my mistake.
2 neon tetras.

Sorry, thats just to remind me so I don't have to keep scrolling down
Get rid of the plec asap. Give him to the lfs if you can. So without that we have


4 dwarf gouramis- 2 inchs each = 8in
2 baloon mollies- 2.5in each = 5 in
2 fantail guppies and a middle size one- 2in each= 6in
3 albino corys- 2in each= 6in
2 neon tetras- 1in each = 2in
TOTAL- 27in

So its overstocked. However, you do need 4 more neons minimum. So you can either do more water changes, get better filtration or get rid of some of the fish. And mollys do a lot better with a bit of salt, if you were going for the getting rid of option, I'd say those.

 

[redtailblackshark]

I have a pleco in a 10 gallon, then he got too big and was making too big of a mess and I had to put him in our 50 gallon tank. all the other ones would be fine.

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

hey, this is UK GALLONS! not US GALLONS! your tank is not over stocked! the only fish that makes it over stocked is the pleco, so maybe you can substitue him for a couple otos or a B-nose catfish. and i would suggest u add more neons!

 

[Paul_MTS]

it's 24US gals which is still overstocked but the fish you have won't make much of a bio load so wouldn't really worry about it.

get rid of the plecs add a few more neons and your fine.

 

[rdd1952]

Besides the neons, I would also add 3 more corys.

My suggestion: Get rid of the pleco, mollys and the guppies (two live bearers there so you will have more fish very soon). Add 4 neons and 3 corys. That would give you about 26" of fish, almost perfect for a 24 gallon tank.

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

dont go by that 1 gallon of water per fish, that really doesnt work well. maybe with community fish it does though... but i still think its not a good way to consider tank stocking.

 

[Paul_MTS]

very true, it a very basic kind of guild for the beginner.

maybe get rid of the mollies as there quite a chunky fish then you have easily enough space for more neons and cories.

 

[rdd1952]

dont go by that 1 gallon of water per fish, that really doesnt work well. maybe with community fish it does though... but i still think its not a good way to consider tank stocking.

It definitely depends on the fish but is a good rule of thumb to work around when deciding on what to stock in a new tank. With weekly water changes in a community tank, I think you can exceed that by a good bit. When you get into fish such as goldfish, plecos and oscars, that pretty much goes out the window as 1" per 2 gallons is about overstocked.

 

[j_n_c]

why does havin a pleco make a tank overstocked?

 

[rdd1952]

why does havin a pleco make a tank overstocked?

Because plecos can get to 18" long and grow very quickly. They need to be in a tank of at least 55 gallon. They also create a LOT of waste so the are much more of a bio load that the same amount of other community fish.

 

[Ferris]

why does havin a pleco make a tank overstocked?

Because if its a common or sailfin Plec (and it usually is) they grow to 18 inches and that's no fish for a 20 gal.

 

[nc_nutcase]

I think the 1 inch of fish per gallon is a great "rule of thumb" for the beginner. Of course it isn't always accurate, that's why it's a rule of thumb. As a beginner we all need something to base ourselves on. If you stick to the one inch per gallon rule you will be a little understocked. If you do good maintenance, you can happily exceed that. But it's also a good idea to stock slowly not only for biological reasons but to give yourself time to get used to maintenance and see how much you are really going to do on an ongoing basis. If you keep your interests you will be able to deviate from the 1" per gal rule as learn more about specific fish.

We all know any blanket generalization will have holes, but it's a safe place for the new person to start when dealing with small community fish.

I do not believe any inch per gallon ratio can be applied to cichlids (and probably other large fish). There are simply too many factors involved with them (I.e. temperament, tolerance of other fish, territorial, size, breeding, etc, etc). Hopefully by the time someone buys cichlids they have done their homework and know what they are getting into.

 

[troutfly]

Cichlids will definately get you in trouble, they grow rather fast and can be troublesome towards other fish and plants (osacars,jacks and blue accaras are famous for tearing up plants)