Susi Posted August 21, 2004 Report Share Posted August 21, 2004 I've got a 180l tank, about 12 plants, 3 clown loches, 10 neons, 5 zebras, 1 bristelnose, 1 borneo sucker, 3 corys, 3 plattys, 2 mollys and 2 baby mollys. How many fish can I have in a tank this size and how do I know when I've overstocked? Cheers, susi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livebearer_breeder Posted August 21, 2004 Report Share Posted August 21, 2004 rule of thumb is usually an inch of fish to every litre, and i wouldnt worry bout the plants they dont make much difference, if i where you i would probably leave the amount of fish that you have in there at this point, its always better to under stock, than to hit maximum capisity of your tank Hope this helps Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted August 21, 2004 Report Share Posted August 21, 2004 The rule of thumb(I won't comment on how useless it is) is actually an inch of fish per GALLON, not liter. So, round it off to one inch of fish per 4 liters. Only really works with small tetras. I think I'll make up a cubic neon rule of thumb. One 1" neon is 1 cubic neon. a 2" fish is worth 2 cubed neons, so 8 cubic neons. So, my 8" severums would be 8^3 cubic neons. So that fish is worth 512 cubic neons... Hmmm...Maybe I need to rethink this...Ok, we'll make it square neons! So that way a 2" fish is worth 4 square neons and the severum is worth 64 square neons. So, now that we've got a baseline, and say that a 220L tank is good for 2 severums at medium stocking that's 128 square neons worth of fish per 220L. So, let's say moderate stocking is 1 square neon per 2 liters. Now, going by that and making some guesstimates at the size of your fish... 3 clown loaches@3" each=27 square neons 10 neons=10 square neons 1 bristlenose@3"=9 square neons 1 borneo sucker@2"=4 square neons 3 cories@ 2"=12 square neons 2 mollies@ 3"=18 square neons 2 baby [email protected]"=.5 square mollies. So, that's a total of 80.5 square neons. Your tank, being 180L has a capacity at moderate stocking levels of 90 square neons you've got room for another 9.5 square neons. Hmmm...Something tells me I may have overthought this a bit. hehe, Generally though, just keep an eye on your nitrates. You're overstocked when your water changes aren't keeping your nitrate levels in a reasonable range. So, you can either do bigger water changes to not be overstocked or remove some fish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livebearer_breeder Posted August 21, 2004 Report Share Posted August 21, 2004 lol, if that is what you call the rule of thumb ira, then ill stick to geussing , anyways sorry you are right it isnt per litre, its per gallon my apologese Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susi Posted August 23, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2004 Allright, it sounds all a bit complicated to me but it seems like I'll have to stop buying fish!!! That is bad news. What am I going to do now? There are still so many fish I want. Can I try giving some of the onse i've got back to a shop and get something different? susi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted August 23, 2004 Report Share Posted August 23, 2004 I wouldn't be adding any more. You may be able to return some and swap them - ask the shop. Make sure you swap for something that grows to a similar size so you don't overstock. The answer to your dilemma is simple - MORE TANKS!!!! :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted August 23, 2004 Report Share Posted August 23, 2004 Susi, the choice is either you have fish you want, but can't get. Or you have all the fish you want but it's so much work that you start to hate the hobby. Which would you prefer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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