Am I overstocking?

[marley9697]

Hi -

I have a 29 gallon tank with two plants. In the tank I have:

1 pineapple swordtail
2 marigold swordtail
1 lyretail black molly
1 golddust molly
1 red guppy
4 neon tetras
1 chocolate albino pleco

I would love to go buy two more black mollies. Will I be overstocking?

Thanks - Jeannine

 

[FishGeek]

You are fine for now I you cant add anything else. You are full. Do you have a grow out tank for the babies??

 

[marley9697]

I do not have any babies but I do have two female and one male swordtail so ya never know if soon I will.

 

[Dragonett]

How long you've had the tank set up and running for? I'd say you're full, but I suppose you can squeeze in 1-2 more in if its an established cycled tank.

 

[marley9697]

I have had the tank setup for over a year. I know they say the one inch per fish rule but I can never find how big they are going to get. Also, the pet store always says, they will probably die before they are fully grown so don't worry. (how frustrating). What do you think? They also told me my pleco wouldn't get bigger then 5".

 

[Limi310]

I think that is a really awful thing for a petstore to say. In fact it's almost rude.

I think the swordtails and mollies can get 3-4", not sure about the pleco. Have you had the tank set up with these fish for over a year? And no babies? Or are these all new fish?

 

[marley9697]

I have had several of them for the full year but a few are new. The marigolds are only 2 weeks in the tank.

 

[Lotus]

I would probably ignore any advice from a store that says something like that!

I think your current stocking is about right. Your swords and mollies will probably soon breed, which will put added pressure on the bioload, so I wouldn't add anything else.

Supposedly the chocolate albinos get to 6" to 8".