tank overstocked?

[alabaster]

Hi. I have a 15 gallon high tank in my bedroom. Its got Penguin 100 BIO-Wheel and a Rena 100W submersible heater. I have about 1 1/2-2 inches of natural pea gravel as substrate, and do 25% water changes weekly. Im careful not to overfeed and usually feed 2-3 small feedings per day. My question is: is it overstocked?

I have:

4 mollies (2M, 2F, each about 2")
2 guppies (1M, 1F, pregnant)
5 zebra danios
3 ghost shrimp
1 apple snail (about 2" shell diameter)

I know there should be 2-3 females per male, but right now at least, they seem to be getting along fine and the male's not harassing the female.

Do the shrimp add much to the biological load? What about the snail? Could I add more shrimp or snails? Could I add more fish?

Thanks!

 

[mlee0332]

I wouldn't add any more fish. I don't know how much the snails and things add, but they add some. With your mollies and guppies you have 14-15" of fish, so yea it would be smart not to add anything else.

You need a test kit for ammonia and nitrites and nitrates, weekly water changes is a great idea.

You need the LARGEST filter you tank will handle (not familiar with the penguin brand, but in aqua tech it would be a 10/20 maybe even a 20/40)

Make sure you have aeration, the oxygen will be removed fast with that many fish.

If you want to chill with all the work you're doing, I suggest getting the largest tank that you can get and changing them all over with the filters they had in the 15g and the filters for the new tank. You might could go to a 29g or maybe a 55g, but watch out with a 55 or larger, your floors might not be able to support 550+ Lbs of water and decorations.

If you do change over to another tank, when you put the old filter in, you will be cycled for that number of fish only. Add more fish one or two at a time and monitor your parameters closely.

After 2 weeks, you can remove the old filter, but dont add anymore fish for awhile, so the bio filtration can catch up to the # of fish you have. Monitor your parameters again verly closely.

Hope this helps!

 

[The-Wolf]

it has been calculated that one apple snail needs 2 gallons of water due to the bio-load they create, that in my mind puts them on the same scale as medium sized fish.

 

[loafybones]

Don't add any more. you have a nice selection as it is though!

Loaf