Overstocked Tank Theory

[gopro30622]

Now i went round to my friends the other day who i hadn't seen in a while and noticed he had a juwel fish tank, on the side it said 140 litres (36 US gallons) and he had alot of live plants and i counted about 5 rosy barbs,8 cherry barbs,10 tiger barbs with 2 green tiger barbs,2 plecos but small, 2 bolivian rams and 2 kribensis cichlids ..its looks amazing and doesnt look extremely overcrowded but i no it is when i think about the figures in my head, but the fish look very happy all get on water is crystal clear he does water changes once a month he said, how are his fish so happy and healthy with a overstocked tank, i duno maybe its not overally overstocked....he did buy a Rena Filstar XP2 for the tank which i read can hold 75 US gallons is that the reason to his success ? discuss lol

 

[Rafael Dilone]

This is a very controversial topic in my opinion. Its overstock in the sense that the amount of waste being produced in the system can possibly not be broken down efficiently so it is not harmful for the fish. Also having a rena xp2 does not mean you can get away with monthly water changes with that stocking capacity. Remember that filters are responsible for taking out what is bad in the aquarium but leave the filter too long without cleaning and it will leak out all the stuff it trapped inside back into the tank. So filter maintenance is essential. Rinse the sponges occasionally in the water that is being taken out via water change. That would not stress out the beneficial bacteria which has colonized on that surface area to a large degree. I think i will stop here for now. Overall remember just because a fish is alive does not mean it is truly happy. You can keep a dog in a closet with barely cleaning it but i am sure you can keep it alive.

 

[soybean]

It sounds overstocked to me. It's not just about numbers, it's territory, levels of waste, etc.

But hey, if it works for him...