Upgrading To 60 Gallon

[Kalist]

Hi guys, I'm a new member with a newbie question (awesome forum by the way). I'm upgrading from a 25 Gallon to a 60 Gallon (~227L) and I'm just wondering about its capacity. I currently have 4 silver dollars (~5.5 inches), 2 clown loaches (~1.5 inches), one plecostomus (~2.5 inches), and two neon tetras. I know that for small fish the rule is ~1 inch of fish per gallon of water, but I have read that this does not apply to larger fish such as the silver dollars. My question is, would I be able to add, say, two convict cichlids (from what I have read, they will co-exist with the silver dollars but please correct me if I am wrong), or perhaps add 3-4 angelfish?

If I can't add any more fish that's alright too. I'm mainly upgrading the tank for the silver dollars so they can get out and stretch their fins, but it would be nice to get a couple new guys as well.

Dimensions of the 60 gallon tank are 48" w x 16" d x 19" h.

Thanks for any feedback!

 

[OldMan47]

Welcome to the forum Kalist.
I am sure your silver dollars, clown loaches and plecostomus will all like the extra space you are giving them. A way to think about how the inch per gallon breaks down is like this. If a fish is 4 inches long it is not only twice as long as a 2 inch fish, it is also twice as tall and twice as wide. The fish has about 8 times the mass and presents 8 times the bioload as the 2 inch fish. When you consider how big your fish will get, I would think you are very near fully stocked already.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

hi there, welcome to the forum, the SD's will definately appreciater the extra room. I know the clown loaches ar eonly tiny now but these guys do get to around 16" long and need a group of 6+ so they will eventually outgrow even a 60 gallon tank unfortunately. the good news is they grow very slowly so you don't need to have a panic now, but you should be aware of it and when they hit around 6" you need to seriously consider upgrading again or re-homing them. also do you know what species your plec is, while some of them stay at 4-6" some of them are closer to 40" and again if you have one of the monmster species a 60 gal tank will not be big enough.

so what you intend to do with the rest of the fish and what species the plec is will have an impact on what else you can keep in there.

convict cichlids would kill your neons so that's a bad idea, likewise with angels

i'm sure you could fit in one a trio or group of one of the smaller dwarf cichlids though such as apistogramma sp, fiesty enough to not worry over the big fish but not big enough to harm the neons.

 

[Kalist]

Thanks for the replies guys. I was hoping to add a couple of angels but if I don't have the space I can always go with something else. The pleco will get big but when he gets to 8" I'll trade him in for a tiny one. My LFS is good about that sort of thing.