I figured this would be as good a place as any..
Basically I am asking, how do you know how many fish to put in a tank?
I've always stood by the inch-per-gallon rule. That is, for every inch of fish you have, you should have a gallon of water. Ideally, you would consider the fish's maximum size. Meaning, if you have a ten gallon tank you'd consider putting:
2 plattys @ 2.5inches a piece
3 blue danios @ 2 inches a piece
Even though the plattys and danios you get may not actually be max size.
I was reading through an aquarium book today that determined the amount of fish in a tank not by gallon, but by surface area. So, they said, for ever inch of fish you have you should have 10 sq inches of surface area. So a 10 gallon tank that's 12 inches wide and 24 inches long give give you ... (I'm bad at maths) x inches of fish.
What method do YOU swear by and why? The surface area method seems to make a LOT more sense to me.
Also, if you have surface/air breathing fish do you count them in your ratio ( as surface area depends on how much oxygen is absorbed into the water for the fish to use)? Also do you adjust for things like more aeration, etc?
Basically I am asking, how do you know how many fish to put in a tank?
I've always stood by the inch-per-gallon rule. That is, for every inch of fish you have, you should have a gallon of water. Ideally, you would consider the fish's maximum size. Meaning, if you have a ten gallon tank you'd consider putting:
2 plattys @ 2.5inches a piece
3 blue danios @ 2 inches a piece
Even though the plattys and danios you get may not actually be max size.
I was reading through an aquarium book today that determined the amount of fish in a tank not by gallon, but by surface area. So, they said, for ever inch of fish you have you should have 10 sq inches of surface area. So a 10 gallon tank that's 12 inches wide and 24 inches long give give you ... (I'm bad at maths) x inches of fish.
What method do YOU swear by and why? The surface area method seems to make a LOT more sense to me.
Also, if you have surface/air breathing fish do you count them in your ratio ( as surface area depends on how much oxygen is absorbed into the water for the fish to use)? Also do you adjust for things like more aeration, etc?