Is My Tank Overloaded?

[ILoveCrysta]

Hello, i need to know if my tank is overloaded. It's a 55 gallon tank with one whisper filter, it's a large filter with 2 foam pads and 2 bio-bags. Ive had it set up for about a year and a half and just recently got more fish. Here's the list..

1 Sailfin Pleco (Leopard): 7-8 inches

1 Butterfly?? (zebra print) Pleco: 3-4 inches

1 Gold Nugget Pleco: 3-4 inches

1 Longfin Bristlenose Pleco: 2-3 inches

1 Albino Bristlenose Pleco: 2 inches

1 Synodontis? Catfish: 6 inches

1 Raphael Catfish: 3 inches

1 Pictus Catfish: 4-5 inches

1 Senegal Birchir: 5-6 inches

1 Ornate Birchir: 4-5 inches

1 Butterfly Fish: 3-4 inches

1 Dwarf Gourami: 2-3 inches

1 Brown Knife Fish: 5 inches

3 Clown Loaches: 3 inches x3

3 Red Fin Tinfoil Barbs: 5 inches x3

2 Angelfish: 3-4 inches x2

Now NONE of these fish fight or attack eachother and so far there has been no diease (knock on wood). It's heated to 80 degrees and has a cave, a piece of driftwood, and 2 log-halves. Also, I have a few plants. I'll only have the 55 for about another week then I'm upgrading to a 80 gallon with 2 filters and 2 heaters so this will be NO problem them.

Thanks! Please let me know soon!

 

[samiam9818]

From what i've read you should only have about 1" of fish per gallon of new tank or 1.5" of fish per gallon of matured tank, hope this helps!

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

I would say definitley overstocked, and fish are still going to grow! Some of your fish will need a bigger tank too!

 

[ILoveCrysta]

But the 80 gallon will be fine?

Thanks~

 

[snowflake311]

For real you have that many bottom dwelling fish in a 55 gal. Yeah way too many fish. All those fish are living in a 48"x 12" area that's not enough room foe them to live happy. Get rid of some or buy another tank and seperate some to the other tank. Maybe a 80 or larger. I would keep the 55 gal with some fish and get a 125 gal for the other big guys.

 

[ILoveCrysta]

For real you have that many bottom dwelling fish in a 55 gal. Yeah way too many fish. All those fish are living in a 48"x 12" area that's not enough room foe them to live happy. Get rid of some or buy another tank and seperate some to the other tank. Maybe a 80 or larger. I would keep the 55 gal with some fish and get a 125 gal for the other big guys.

That's why I'm asking if they will be okay in a 80 gallon?

 

[simonas]

yes its overloaded but you probably know that hence question and new tank on order

The sailfin and tinfoils will get too big for the 80g tank as well I'm afraid

Trouble is you have a lot of mucky fish in there such as the sailfin and tinfoils

If you could trade some fish you could prob have some of the catfish lose the tinfoils and get something else to occupy the higher levels of the tank, trouble is it couldn;t be too small asthe Ornate and Senegal would have them fo dinner

The fish would probably look better too if you had more of each type as oppsed to more differentspecies of fish, thepictus ca for exa,mple look great in a group as do clown loachs

 

[ILoveCrysta]

Thanks and what could I change out the tinfoils for? I'd be looking for something colorful though...any thoughts? thanks

 

[oliesminis]

In my opinion there are way to many bottom dwellers in there.

if you are getting a 80g i would keep the 55 aswell and put just over half the bottom dwellers into the 80.

also plecos are very messy so they need a lot of tank space for each one.

 

[saz326]

You do have lots of pleco's and bottom dwelling fishies. As there are som many in such a small "footprint" they are likely to be competing real bad over food and territories. Plus Pleco's are messy when it comes to poop. They poop everywhere so the bioload of your tank is likely to much larger than it would be for the same number of different fish.

Yeah - you need to split them up. Plus the Birchirs will get BIG and I mean BIG. 60 cm or so, which is 2ft-ish. They will also get agressive in terms of seeing everything small enough to fit in their mouths as food. You're gonna have to split these fish and put them in either a tank with a few of teh larger growing pleco's, or in a species only tank.

Post a list of the tanks you have available to use and Im sure someone on here would be able to split the fish into lists for each tank.

 

[ILoveCrysta]

The post about the competing for food and being territorial and agressive really is strange with my tank...none of them fight for anything or fight peroid. They all just eat everywhere around the tank (maybe I feed to much) but everything that don't get eaten by the top and middle swimmers get vacuumed by my ARMY of bottom feeders

And on the note of tanks- I just have my 55 gallon right now, waiting a week then picking up my 80.

What is a smaller, less messy replacement for my tinfoils? anyone please looking for color too!

 

[mwood2]

While they may not fight now once they start to grow there is a good chance they will. Its once they grow the aggression sets in. Also when you buy this new tank will you cycle or clone? I would suggest clone but then right away cycle the 50 gallon. This way you have more room and within a month have more room. Sadly even if you did that half of your list still wont fit inside the tanks. Clown Louche them selves grow to 16in and need groups of 5 meaning 100+ gallons just for them. Pretty much all the fish would fight unless split amongst 2-3 tanks and each would need to be 100+. I may be exaggerating somewhat (only have read about each fish) but I think I am making a good estimation?