Overstocked?

[Bettaboy420]

am I overstocked? 20gal breeder tank with 1 male betta 3 Cory cats 3 clown loaches 1 bristlenose catfish 1apple snail

 

[Colin_T]

Hi and welcome to the forum

How often do you do water changes?

Is there any ammonia or nitrite in the water?
Is there any nitrate in the water?

It depends on how big the loaches are and if you are doing regular water changes and gravel cleaning, and the filter is established and the nitrates are below 20ppm.

If the loaches are 2 inches long and the water is good and there is no ammonia or nitrite and the nitrate is low, then no, you are not overstocked.

If the loaches are 12 inches long then yes, you are overstocked.

 

[Bettaboy420]

Hi and welcome to the forum

How often do you do water changes?

Is there any ammonia or nitrite in the water?
Is there any nitrate in the water?

It depends on how big the loaches are and if you are doing regular water changes and gravel cleaning, and the filter is established and the nitrates are below 20ppm.

If the loaches are 2 inches long and the water is good and there is no ammonia or nitrite and the nitrate is low, then no, you are not overstocked.

If the loaches are 12 inches long then yes, you are overstocked.

25% water change weekly. 0 nitrates 0 nitrites and .25 ammonia.

Loaches aren’t even an inch long lol. So tiny.

 

[Colin_T]

Due to the size of the loaches, no you are not overstocked. However, you have an ammonia reading so do not add any more fish or snails or shrimp to the tank until the filter has cycled and you have 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite. And do a 75% water change each day until the ammonia is at 0.

 

[NickAu]

Return the Clown loaches, first they need to be in groups of 6 or more and your tank is too small for them and Colin knows it, also they will eat the Apple snail.

Next get a few more Cories these need to be kept in groups of 6 or more, 10 is better.

 

[Bettaboy420]

Return the Clown loaches, first they need to be in groups of 6 or more and your tank is too small for them and Colin knows it, also they will eat the Apple snail.

Next get a few more Cories these need to be kept in groups of 6 or more, 10 is better.

I’m not going to return the loaches as I have plans on upgrading my tank within the year Also the apple snail is very big and, as mentioned before the loaches aren’t even one inch.

 

[NickAu]

Ok, its your tank, I have kept Clown Loaches but hey what do I know.

You will need a tank thats at least 6 foot long and 100 gallons.

 

[Bettaboy420]

Ok, its your tank, I have kept Clown Loaches but hey what do I know.

You will need a tank thats at least 6 foot long and 100 gallons.

What’s your issue? You’re not the omnipotent fish God you’re a a 54 year old who keeps pets. You didn’t even respond with any helpful information on the question I asked and your tone was very strange. “Colin knows it,” are we in high school?

 

[Byron]

First off, welcome to TFF.

Now, to your problems...and yes, they are very serious problems just waiting to happen. I'll do my best to explain. But please understand that the advice many of us give may sound elitist, but we are only interested in the health of your fish and there have been members that ask questions then ignore advice of those who really do know and come to grief. not surprising, we often rarely hear from them again after their attempt fails and the fish suffer and die and they give up. Everything is avoidable, and most of us "older" aquarists have gone through sufficient failures to know.

Clown loaches must have a group of at least five, and as they attain 12 inches (30 cm) and grow fairly quickly up to 2/3 of this size, they need a much larger tank now. They will need an 8-foot long tank to be at their best, though a six-foot might pass. But not if you really care about the health and well-being of the fish.

Loaches must have the group from day one. They are highly social fish, and will establish an hierarchy within the group very early. The dominant fish will take out its dominance on subordinates if there are less than five present, and this is severely stressful and the fish will weaken and most likely die. But in order to have five, you need a larger tank now. And within the year the 8-footer.

Acquiring potentially large fish in the hopes of one day having a large enough tank is not a good idea. Circumstances can change, and the intended large tank may never come about for whatever reason. Meanwhile, the fish have suffered and weakened and inevitably will face an early demise. Please do not go down this route, it is not fair to the fish.

Now to your initial post #1 question. You are overstocked now, because the present fish are not suited to being together in this small a tank, and there are too few of the loaches and cories. There is much more to stocking that just the physical size of the fish; fish impact water quality in various ways, and what you now have is doing just that, negatively impacting each other; I'll have a bit more on this momentarily.

Betta are not community fish, so a male Betta should be alone.

Loaches need at least five, in a much larger tank and now, not tomorrow, as I've explained above.

Cories are shoaling fish that live in very large groups, and need at least five or six, with more being better for them, and this could be managed here but not with the loaches.

The BN should be OK if he has real wood to graze (essential for his intestinal health) and veggie foods like algae or supplements.

On the water change, 25% is insufficient and especially so here. Get in the good habit of changing 50-60% of the tank volume once every week, minimum. Fish release pheromones and allomones that are like chemical communications that other fish read, and the only way to remove these before they get dangerous is via water changes. The insufficient fish in the loach and cory species here means this is even more serious than normally.

Please feel free to ask questions on anything that is not clear. We are here to help, always.

 

[seangee]

I agree that the loach should go. Also worth mentioning that corys need a sand substrate. You don't say what you have so I mention it in case

 

[trash.binh91]

What’s your issue? You’re not the omnipotent fish God you’re a a 54 year old who keeps pets.

Hey, this is disrespectful, foolish and rude. Nick has a lot of experience with fish, and knows what he is doing. He is trying to help, and this is considered a personal attack. If you want help, be accepting from those more experience, and when you say he's just a 54 year old that keeps pets, that is dishonorable and one of the worst things you can say to an elder. He is very experienced, and I don't know your experience level, but I do know for sure that this behavior will not be accepted on any forum.

You didn’t even respond with any helpful information on the question I asked and your tone was very strange. “Colin knows it,” are we in high school?

Yes, the helpful information was how he said the tank size, that is what you will need for your loaches, as they get pretty big in a short amount of time. He also said that Colin knows it because he was just pointing out something wrong this user made. Do you understand?

 

[NickAu]

I stand by what I said,

 

[Jeremy180]

Clown loaches can reach 30.5 centimeters (A whole foot!) in length, and weigh as much as 469 grams (just over a pound) according to fishbase, and are mature at 20cm (about 8 inches) this can take as little as two years.
https://www.fishbase.de/country/CountrySpeciesSummary.php?id=10897&c_code=360
Minimum recommended tank size for inactive fish is 5x length.
Clown loaches are not inactive

If you want a striped loach, might I suggest Borgia strata, aka zebra loach?
https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/botia-striata/
A bit large for your current setup, but you DID say you were upgrading

 

[Jeremy180]

NOTE: either loach, especially the clown, may harass the betta as it gets older.

 

[NickAu]

NOTE: either loach, especially the clown, may harass the betta as it gets older.

Yes they will harras the betta.

These are my Clowns in that video they are about 9 months old

They are also shameless beggars for food.

I had a plan to upgrade these guys to a 10 foot tank and to get a Black ghost knife in 12 months, 3 years latter still no new 10 foot tank. I ended up selling them as they became to destructive and too large for a 6 foot tank.