Have I Overstocked?

[jme369]

As much as i value general advice, this is all starting to sound a bit dodgy. So my tiny, 1 inch max gouramis are unsuitable, but a Betta that can grow to almost three times the size and due to selective breeding to achive all the fancy colours, are probably too stupid to find the air, is fine? I think I will return the rainbowfish though, 2 is too few and id rather stay on the safe side of stocking levels. I did try that calculator but after entering 6 sparkling gouramis and it saying that that was 104% stocked, I took it with a pinch of salt.

 

[BettaAds]

As much as i value general advice, this is all starting to sound a bit dodgy. So my tiny, 1 inch max gouramis are unsuitable, but a Betta that can grow to almost three times the size and due to selective breeding to achive all the fancy colours, are probably too stupid to find the air, is fine? I think I will return the rainbowfish though, 2 is too few and id rather stay on the safe side of stocking levels. I did try that calculator but after entering 6 sparkling gouramis and it saying that that was 104% stocked, I took it with a pinch of salt.

Different fish require different volumes of water.
For instance you could have a very small fish that needs a large volume of water to thrive, wheveas you could have a larger fish (such as a betta), that needs far less tank volume to thrive.

The needs of each fish differs on species, not on size of fish.

 

[Tizer]

A pinch of salt is all those calculators are worth

Dont think you are setup "too" badly really. The Gourami's are pygmys if im not mistaken and dont get very big at all. Plus they like nice calmer waters which your tank has (due to them being a bubble nester, like bettas) Returning the rainbows...probably wise if you dont feel you can fit more in there, not something i would stock personally (would look at pygmy/micro rasboras instead) Nice water changes on a weekly basis should keep the fish in decent condition but make sure you supplement to ottos with other food, i would imagine two of them will keep that tank clean of algae easily.

I personally think the people who have said get rid, dont know much about these fish themselves, small tanks are very much "the in thing" these days and there are LOT of fishies out there that can live quite happily in them and you are not far off the mark. Gluck!