Number Of Fish

[ddm18]

Hello all,

I know about the 'rule of thumb' saying 1 inch of fish per inch of fish length, and I know that most people disagree, for good reason. However, I was just playing around with this calculator which I found from the pinned topic "Converters and Calculators" (or something), and I found that:

length = 48", width = 12", depth = 12" (my current tank)
gave "Max. units of fish" = 48" of fish - fair enough, I thought, just that old rule of thumb

BUT

length = 48", width = 24", depth = 24" (a tank I'm thinking about getting)
gave "Max. units of fish" = 38.4" of fish.

Why does it say less, even though the tank (and the surface area) is so much bigger?

Dave

 

[diVer]

What are all the settings you put into each calculation, if you put tropical in one and coldwater in another it would affect it, it might also have something to do with the light distance.

Edit: I just went through it, you switched from tropical to coldwater. If you'd kept it tropical it would have said 90 something inches.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

You definitely went to another setting.

Not only did this other tank have a greater surface area, but it was also deeper. Try it again.

 

[ddm18]

Aha!!!

There's me opening my big mouth before checking my facts again!

Thanks guys!

Dave

 

[nicebigbuds]

I notice from your sig that you've 3 clown loaches in a 25 (UK) gallon tank. Everything I've read about clown loaches on the Net (and another discussion board that I'm a member of), says that they can grow up to 12 inches (30cm)!

One of my lfs has two (fully grown) of these in a tank (on their own) under the payment counter. They were huge!

 

[Sky042]

I notice from your sig that you've 3 clown loaches in a 25 (UK) gallon tank. Everything I've read about clown loaches on the Net (and another discussion board that I'm a member of), says that they can grow up to 12 inches (30cm)!

One of my lfs has two (fully grown) of these in a tank (on their own) under the payment counter. They were huge!

they grow pretty slow. you could safely keep them in a small tank for a few years if you bought them as 1-2" sized babies.

 

[ddm18]

nicebigbuds,

Yeah, I've seen that they can get big too - I only actually bought them about 3 weeks ago, and the guy at the LFS said that they'd be fine in a 25g, it was only when I got home and checked them out (wrong order to do things, I know) that I realised how big they get.

At the moment they're still only about 1" long, and I'm in the process of preparing to buy a new 100g cichlid tank, which I believe I'll be able to put my loaches in.

Either way, if they do get too big my LFS is great (apart from not mentioning how big they get...) and will happily take big fish and swap for small. I've done that three times with pl*cos now!

Dave

 

[G_Sharky]

THE 1" per gallon rule is just a guideline and you don't have to abide on this rule..You have to remember that the more fish you put in the more cleaning and better filtration is required....If your going to overstock be prepared to do more maintenance or you will run into a lot of problems.....