What Constitutes "Overstocked" Here?

[Essjay]

People only remember the first part of the rule, and that's what gets repeated over and over until everyone forgets what the full rule says.

 

[EllRog]

Put a shark in there for good measure

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

Assuming it is hard to very hard, guppies are fine from that perspective, but the otos would not be. I believe otos are wild caught, and as they occur in very soft and slightly acidic to acidic water, this would not be a good fish.

Alright, I'll keep that in mind. It's a little bit of a shame but you can't miss what you never had!

I would say it’s in the tank itself,
Keeping shoaling fish I’d say as long as your bio load is stable and water parameters are good can you have too many !?? What’s the difference between 15and20 ifthe water tests are the same it’s not going to upset the tank they prefer to live in numbers ( just my logic)
But if your tank is set out in a way where like mine where each cichlid has to have its own territory by adding just one more cichlid i personally would say I’m over stocked as my tank would completely change with squabbles and fights even though technically there is space for more
I think the rule of thumb 1inch per gallon is crap as no body would keep a 10inch pleco in a 10gallon tank

There's plenty of space in the tank in my personal opinion, but of course I was looking for second opinions since mine isn't always sound! Glad to know that I'm not just being frivolous lol.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

Put a shark in there for good measure

Maybe a couple bala sharks ? Could do with another common pleco too actually. (/sarcasm)

 

[EllRog]

Maybe a couple bala sharks ? Could do with another common pleco too actually. (/sarcasm)

Just fold up a whale and cram it in for the banter

 

[WhistlingBadger]

...and a school of koi.

I agree with @Slaphppy7. Aqadvisor is a very, very useful tool, though not a perfect one. It will give you a starting place. It's also pretty good about giving you a rundown of incompatibility issues. Do I always agree with it 100%? No, but if I find my tank is way, way over what it recommends, I tend to rethink what I'm doing.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

Just fold up a whale and cram it in for the banter

...and a school of koi.

Right, so a common pleco, a couple bala sharks, a school of koi, a sperm whale and a nice big oscar for good measure.

I agree with @Slaphppy7. Aqadvisor is a very, very useful tool, though not a perfect one. It will give you a starting place. It's also pretty good about giving you a rundown of incompatibility issues. Do I always agree with it 100%? No, but if I find my tank is way, way over what it recommends, I tend to rethink what I'm doing.

It definitely helped me out with my 170L, though that was obviously a problematic case right from the start so I probably wouldn't recommend the site if it told me my stock was perfectly fine.

Glad to see all the responses, though. And I'll definitely take @Byron's advice and reconsider the otos. Should I make a new thread for suggestions or just ask here?

 

[Colin_T]

There's no hard and fast rule about stocking levels. It comes down to the fish being kept, water changes, feeding schedules and tank size. All of these factors have an impact on how many fish can live in a tank.

If you have a well filtered tank that is 2 foot long x 2 foot wide x 6 inches high, it holds about 50 litres and you could keep 30-40 male guppies in it if you do regular water changes. Change the shape of the tank to 2 foot long x 1ft wide x 1 ft high and you get the same volume of water but you would only keep 10-15 male guppies in it, with regular water changes.

-------------------
If you have lots of hiding places (plants for guppies) and there are no females to fight over, then you can hold more fish compared to tanks with fewer hiding places.

If you have males and females in the tank, then they need a bit more space due to territorial disputes over prospective partners.

If the fish are peaceful schooling fish, then you can keep more together. If the fish are highly territorial species, then you have fewer fish in the tank. The schooling fish don't mind having lots of tank mates around them but territorial species will not tolerate having others getting in their face all the time.

-------------------
If you feed the fish 5 times a day and do a 20% water change once a week, you would reduce the number of fish in the tank. If you feed the fish less often (1-2 times per day) and do a 75% water change once a week, then you can have a few more fish in the tank. If you feed the fish 5 times a day and did a 75% water change every day you could hold lots of fish in the tank.

More food going in means more nutrients and waste products, and you have to do more water changes and gravel cleans to compensate.

 

[PlasticGalaxy]

There's no hard and fast rule about stocking levels. It comes down to the fish being kept, water changes, feeding schedules and tank size. All of these factors have an impact on how many fish can live in a tank.

If you have a well filtered tank that is 2 foot long x 2 foot wide x 6 inches high, it holds about 50 litres and you could keep 30-40 male guppies in it if you do regular water changes. Change the shape of the tank to 2 foot long x 1ft wide x 1 ft high and you get the same volume of water but you would only keep 10-15 male guppies in it, with regular water changes.

-------------------
If you have lots of hiding places (plants for guppies) and there are no females to fight over, then you can hold more fish compared to tanks with fewer hiding places.

If you have males and females in the tank, then they need a bit more space due to territorial disputes over prospective partners.

If the fish are peaceful schooling fish, then you can keep more together. If the fish are highly territorial species, then you have fewer fish in the tank. The schooling fish don't mind having lots of tank mates around them but territorial species will not tolerate having others getting in their face all the time.

-------------------
If you feed the fish 5 times a day and do a 20% water change once a week, you would reduce the number of fish in the tank. If you feed the fish less often (1-2 times per day) and do a 75% water change once a week, then you can have a few more fish in the tank. If you feed the fish 5 times a day and did a 75% water change every day you could hold lots of fish in the tank.

More food going in means more nutrients and waste products, and you have to do more water changes and gravel cleans to compensate.

They get fed once every other day, and I do ~50-60% water changes weekly if that's anything to go by.

The tank has 9 females (6 currently in quarantine) and 4 male guppies. I know the current ratio is off, but that's why I've got the 6 females in quarantine.

Probably going to get stuff like guppy grass and some moss so they'll hopefully have places to hide.