Overstocking help

[msnow09]

Hi, I am new to the forum and I recently started getting into aquariums. I currently have a 29 gallon tank with 5 cory catfish, 2 dalmatian lyre tail mollies, and 2 dwarf gouramis. There are lots of live plants and a couple pieces of driftwood/spider wood. I started doing more research about mollies and learned that they are schooling fish so I wanted to get some more. I don’t want to overstock my tank though, so I’m trying to figure out how many more fish I can put into the 29 gallon tank before I go and get more. Any help is appreciated

 

[Marcopolo]

Hi, I am new to the forum and I recently started getting into aquariums. I currently have a 29 gallon tank with 5 cory catfish, 2 dalmatian lyre tail mollies, and 2 dwarf gouramis. There are lots of live plants and a couple pieces of driftwood/spider wood. I started doing more research about mollies and learned that they are schooling fish so I wanted to get some more. I don’t want to overstock my tank though, so I’m trying to figure out how many more fish I can put into the 29 gallon tank before I go and get more. Any help is appreciated

Hi there and Happy New Year! I'm new here myself but been lurking for awhile lol.
I think I can help you a bit, I had tanks like yours quite a few years when I was young(er). Now into African Cichlids and larger tanks.
Anyway, to your question. I personally wouldn't put any more lyretails in because they can get fairly large, like 4 inches plus.
Though with good filtration and tank care you could probably do one or two more fine.
A lot of folks use 1 inch of fish per 1 gallon of water. As a general rule it works pretty well but there are exceptions. Lyretails produce a fair amount more waste than your other fish. So you do need to take into account how effective your filtration is.
But, following that rule, taking into account size when mature, you are at about 21-22 inches.
Even though they are schooling fish they will be perfectly happy with only 2. Fair warning though, I kept both mollies and guppies also back then and I can tell you if you have a male and female they will breed like rabbits lol. I kept a maternity tank insert most of the time.
I would let the fry grow a bit and my LFS would take them and give me some store credit in return, was a great deal for a youngster with 2 tanks to support (20 and 30 gal).
Myself, I think I would look at another type of fish to top the tank off with more variety.
Off the top of my head, fish I had that would go with what you have well would be like:
My favorite would be 6-8 neon tetras, they are really pretty swimming around as a shoalfish/schooling fish.
2 swordtails or 2 tiger barbs would work also.
There are some others but these would all fit fine with your setup.
Cheers and expect to end up with more than one tank.

 

[raylove]

I think tiger barbs would be asking for trouble as they are notorious fin nippers and I think the mollies would be a target.
I agree that you could add a shoal of neons or other peaceful tetras such as lemon tetras or glowlights.
As msnow09 said, the inch of fish to a gallon is a good rule of thumb but the larger mollies need a bit more due to size and diet. However, the reverse is also true and you can go up a bit for small tetras such as neons. It's more about body weight e.g. a 12 inch Oscar needs more resources than 12 one inch neons!
The rule of thumb assumes a mixture of (say) 1-3 inch fish, so you can have a few more inches if all your fish are very small but not so many if you go for larger species.

 

[Naughts]

Hi, I am new to the forum and I recently started getting into aquariums. I currently have a 29 gallon tank with 5 cory catfish, 2 dalmatian lyre tail mollies, and 2 dwarf gouramis. There are lots of live plants and a couple pieces of driftwood/spider wood. I started doing more research about mollies and learned that they are schooling fish so I wanted to get some more. I don’t want to overstock my tank though, so I’m trying to figure out how many more fish I can put into the 29 gallon tank before I go and get more. Any help is appreciated

Mollies do not need a school, however they are not a community fish due to their specific water condition requirements, they need hard, alkaline water.

 

[msnow09]

Hi there and Happy New Year! I'm new here myself but been lurking for awhile lol.
I think I can help you a bit, I had tanks like yours quite a few years when I was young(er). Now into African Cichlids and larger tanks.
Anyway, to your question. I personally wouldn't put any more lyretails in because they can get fairly large, like 4 inches plus.
Though with good filtration and tank care you could probably do one or two more fine.
A lot of folks use 1 inch of fish per 1 gallon of water. As a general rule it works pretty well but there are exceptions. Lyretails produce a fair amount more waste than your other fish. So you do need to take into account how effective your filtration is.
But, following that rule, taking into account size when mature, you are at about 21-22 inches.
Even though they are schooling fish they will be perfectly happy with only 2. Fair warning though, I kept both mollies and guppies also back then and I can tell you if you have a male and female they will breed like rabbits lol. I kept a maternity tank insert most of the time.
I would let the fry grow a bit and my LFS would take them and give me some store credit in return, was a great deal for a youngster with 2 tanks to support (20 and 30 gal).
Myself, I think I would look at another type of fish to top the tank off with more variety.
Off the top of my head, fish I had that would go with what you have well would be like:
My favorite would be 6-8 neon tetras, they are really pretty swimming around as a shoalfish/schooling fish.
2 swordtails or 2 tiger barbs would work also.
There are some others but these would all fit fine with your setup.
Cheers and expect to end up with more than one tank.

Thank you so much!! Definitely gonna look into getting some of the neon tetras now.

 

[msnow09]

I think tiger barbs would be asking for trouble as they are notorious fin nippers and I think the mollies would be a target.
I agree that you could add a shoal of neons or other peaceful tetras such as lemon tetras or glowlights.
As msnow09 said, the inch of fish to a gallon is a good rule of thumb but the larger mollies need a bit more due to size and diet. However, the reverse is also true and you can go up a bit for small tetras such as neons. It's more about body weight e.g. a 12 inch Oscar needs more resources than 12 one inch neons!
The rule of thumb assumes a mixture of (say) 1-3 inch fish, so you can have a few more inches if all your fish are very small but not so many if you go for larger species.

Thank you!!

 

[Marcopolo]

I think tiger barbs would be asking for trouble as they are notorious fin nippers and I think the mollies would be a target.
I agree that you could add a shoal of neons or other peaceful tetras such as lemon tetras or glowlights.
As msnow09 said, the inch of fish to a gallon is a good rule of thumb but the larger mollies need a bit more due to size and diet. However, the reverse is also true and you can go up a bit for small tetras such as neons. It's more about body weight e.g. a 12 inch Oscar needs more resources than 12 one inch neons!
The rule of thumb assumes a mixture of (say) 1-3 inch fish, so you can have a few more inches if all your fish are very small but not so many if you go for larger species.

Good point on the barbs. My mollies were regular black mollies so not so much a target. But I forgot I had to move my Angelfish to the other tank because they wouldn't leave him alone.

 

[Fishiemang]

Put a boy and.a.girl in there amd.you'll have no need fo buy any more mollies. You'll be selling them before ya know it.

I have black mollies in a.tank with tiger barbs. They are fine. The tiger barbs hang out together and.ignore the other fish.