my 26 gal

[Ben]

Hey

i got a 26 gal and want to know b4 i buy any fish, is how much fish i can keep in it. its 3 foot long, 1 and a half feet high and a foot wide.

 

[-cAtFiSh-]

i think the rule is to have 1cm of fish per gallon so it depends on what size fish you are planning on getting

 

[vantgE]

The rules actually more about one inch per gallon but many people do not follow this it tends to depend on the type of fish your keeping, in general the rule should works, in terms of a filter for a ten gallon can handle the bioload of one inch of fish per gallon, but different fish create varying degrees of waste and ocupy different spaces in the aquarium, a well planned aquarium with a variety of bottom dwellers, middle swimming fish and, upper area fish, with maybe a little extra filtration or water changes can hold alot more fish than one inch per gallon,
also if your fish isn't hardy like say a discus (which is too large for your tank) should be understocked as they require very good water, or certain agrisive species like african mbuna, should be overstocked to reduce agresion
So what type of fish you want?

 

[Ben]

like some large livebearers(that means not guppys and endlers) some gouramis and some angels and a few bottomfeeders

 

[vantgE]

i'm not sure, i only have mbuna, but this will bump it up for ya,
but follow the inch per gallon rule if your doing domething now you can always make changes

 

[CFC]

Gouramis and angels shouldnt be kept in the same tank, also IMO angels shouldnt be kept in less than 40 gallons. When you say "bottom feeders" that describes a hell of a lot of fish, can you be more specific as many fish grow too large for a 3 foot tank?

The inch per gallon rule is a good rule to start with but only covers the generally small community type fishes like common livebearers, tetras, corydoras catfish and small barbs, for larger fish or those with specialist care and/or needs, ie cichlids, predatory catfish and some oddballs how many fish you can stock will depend more on the individual species.