is my tank overstocked?

[FishAddiction]

hi im new to the forum and somewhat new to fish keeping. i have a 10 gallon thats been up and running for about 4 months. my LFS has constantly told me that you can keep 2 inches of fish per gallon and while researching online about things i have found that everywhere else says only on inch. this is where i come into a bit of a problem. i need to know how over stocked my 10 gallon is.

it has:
4 neons
2 zebra danios
3 peppered cory
1 algae eater
2 rasbora het(dont know how to spell it)
2 Prestilla(dont know how to spell it)

i think its probably overstocked what should i do? i dont want to give up any fish but if i have to i guess i will. if i have to give up some fish which ones should i?
or is there anyhitng else i can do

thanks

 

[Morrgan]

Hi and welcome.

It's not necessarily that badly overstocked, but the selection of fish needs some changes. You have a lot of shoaling fish that are only kept in twos. In fact, just about all your fish are shoalers. I can't say about the algae eater, as it could be one of a large number of species often just called algae eaters. Some of them are fine for a 10g, others aren't. Can you give more information on it?

My suggestion:

Choose either neons, rasboras (I assume you mean Rasbora heteromorpha, harlequin rasboras?) or pristillas. Then get 6 of the kind you choose, that's the minimum size for a shoal. Remove the other two species.

Peppered cories grow a little too big for a 10g in my opinion, as they can reach 3in. They would prefer a larger group too. Pygmy cories might a better choice, they only reach about 1in.

Zebra danios are really too lively for a 10g and need to be in a group. It would be best to give them away.

If you get a group of 6 small shoalers plus the cories, then there really isn't much room left. Might be best to give the algae eater away too, especially if it's one of the larger species. If the algae eater is an otto, then you could choose 4 ottos instead of the cories.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I agree with Morrgan on the algae eater part. There are many fish sold as algae eaters one of the ones most often come accross is the common plec. These guys should nbot be in a tank that size and in fact you'd need a tank about 5-6 times the size of that at least IMO to house a full grown one as they can often get to 16"+.

Let's hope you don't have one of them. Here's links for things it might be...

Common Plec

Oto

Siamese Flying Fox

Chinese Algae Eater

Hillstream Loach Please note: this is a coldwater fish but is often sold as tropical

There are going to be others that I have not thought of so maybe others will help too.

HTH

 

[FishAddiction]

damn pet store. allright i have some thinking to do over what fish to keep. does anyone have pictures of the ottos you think i should keep? when i decide ill post my new tank idea and then let me know if its good. oh and the algae eater is chinese and they said he shouldnt get over 3 inches. now i dont know if i can trust my petstore. also do pet stores take fish in exchange for other fish? so im not out alot of money?

thanks

 

[Cheese Specialist]

damn pet store. allright i have some thinking to do over what fish to keep. does anyone have pictures of the ottos you think i should keep? when i decide ill post my new tank idea and then let me know if its good. oh and the algae eater is chinese and they said he shouldnt get over 3 inches. now i dont know if i can trust my petstore. also do pet stores take fish in exchange for other fish? so im not out alot of money?

thanks

Click the links in my above post!! The underlined names are all links to pictures and information.

 

[Morrgan]

also do pet stores take fish in exchange for other fish?

This depends on the pet store. Some do while others don't, you'll have to ask them. I have exchanged fish for others in my LFS, but usually I've had to give more than I got back. Stores need to make a profit after all.

 

[FishAddiction]

oh ha my bad i didnt realize they were links