have i overstocked?

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franky

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I am a new comer to the tropical fish scene as i have only had my tank for a little over 7 months. I have stocked my tank with guidance of my LFS, personnally looking back, i dont think they know what they are talking about(sold me a knife fish to go into a comunity tank!!) so am also questioning whether they have told me "porky pies" on how many fish i can keep, my signature is bellow and my tank is just short of 30gal(US)

(Lobster has his own tank and so will the knifefish)
 
He said it's just short of 30 gallons in his post.

And yeah, that is quite overstocked. Your clown loach and angels will outgrow your tank. You also might want to give back your danio (unless he seems happy) because they like to be in schools and they also need a larger tank when they are in schools. By phantom do you mean black phantom tetra? If so than it's okay. So move (into a bigger tank if you have one, give them back to lfs or sell them to a friend, etc) your angels, clown loach and danio (unless he seems happy) and then once they are somewhere else your tank is just about right! HTH :thumbs: :)
 
It should be way overstocked as it has been for 7 months that means that the angels must be at full sized. Just wondering if you had any problems because from what you have your water must be really polluted if you don't do water changes too often. What's your maintenance schedule like?
 
I carry out to 2x25% water changes per week, the danio is fine as he shoals up with the rainbows, my clown loach is about 1inch long at the mo and my angels are about 2inch tall by 2inch wide.I havent had any problems at all with the setup, I ve lost one fish since i started and that was a penezonia tetra about 2 weeks ago :( . I think ill seek the advise of you guys before purchasing any more fish, I have a five foot tank on its way so problem should be solved very shortly, thank the lord!!! ;)
 
I'd definitely say that's a little overstocked. If your tank was 40-55 gal then it would be a great balance.

Your lfs may have left out the fact that clown knives can be good community fish with other fish that get to be their size. Saying clown knives are generically good community fish is like saying that oscars are good community fish - putting either in with swordtails and other smaller fish will eventually make the tank a very small community.

It's always hard to pass up those amazing impluse buys at the lfs, so I recommend doing research or buying a fish encyclopedia before buying fish. If you have 28 inches of fish in a 30 gal tank, then buying a little 1 inch clown loach will eventually put you at 34 inches of fish when it grows. You can take a fish reference book along to the lfs in case they get some new fish or if your memory is like mine.
 
I suspect the fish you are calling Pentazonia Tetras are not tetras but Pentazona Barbs, Barbus pentazona.

Overstocked, yes. Clown loaches are also shoaling fish, you should really have a group of three or more, but they will grow far to large for your tank.
 

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