another stocking check up
- Thread starter Jawz
- Start date
I'd say that you're fully stocked. That's interesting about the don't need to worry about the inches/gal rule bluegourami. I've been banging my head against that trying to figure out if I could get 3-5 more in my 30gal (I have 13 in there right now) since I have a Manum 350. I don't want anyone to be lonely. 
Yeah, you're pretty stocked.
The inches/gallon rule is actually a crock. It's not inches of fish per gallon, it's actually inches of fish per surface area of tank. You could have more fish in a smaller, wider/longer tank, than you can have in a taller, deeper tank with more gallonage. I believe it works out to one inch of fish per one square inch of surface area. It has to do with oxygen exhange and tank circulation more than ammonia build up. You can always remove ammonia build up by doing water changes, you can't force oxygen to dissolve into the water.
The more fish you have in your tank, the more often you must do water changes. More fish equals more waste.
Also, you must take each particular species into account. Some fish require more psycological space, regardless of how large they are. So an aggressive fish might actually want two gallons of water per inch of itself because of territorial imperitive. Active fish like bala sharks and danios should always be given more space than the total inches of their school, or else they'll be bashing themselves against the glass as they zip around.
So never go by the "one inch per gallon" rule. You have to feel out your tank, feel out how you keep up with the maintance, and feel out the personallities of the fish you intend to keep. Only then will you choose the perfect population size.
Also remember, fish grow. So the "ten inches of fish in your ten gallon tank" now becomes "twenty inches of fisn in your ten gallon tank" within a year or two. Now you are overstocked.
~~Colesea
The inches/gallon rule is actually a crock. It's not inches of fish per gallon, it's actually inches of fish per surface area of tank. You could have more fish in a smaller, wider/longer tank, than you can have in a taller, deeper tank with more gallonage. I believe it works out to one inch of fish per one square inch of surface area. It has to do with oxygen exhange and tank circulation more than ammonia build up. You can always remove ammonia build up by doing water changes, you can't force oxygen to dissolve into the water.
The more fish you have in your tank, the more often you must do water changes. More fish equals more waste.
Also, you must take each particular species into account. Some fish require more psycological space, regardless of how large they are. So an aggressive fish might actually want two gallons of water per inch of itself because of territorial imperitive. Active fish like bala sharks and danios should always be given more space than the total inches of their school, or else they'll be bashing themselves against the glass as they zip around.
So never go by the "one inch per gallon" rule. You have to feel out your tank, feel out how you keep up with the maintance, and feel out the personallities of the fish you intend to keep. Only then will you choose the perfect population size.
Also remember, fish grow. So the "ten inches of fish in your ten gallon tank" now becomes "twenty inches of fisn in your ten gallon tank" within a year or two. Now you are overstocked.
~~Colesea