Please don't hate me...

[MotherOfGreatIntentions]

I admit, I am the overstocking queen. Aqadvisor hates me.

I have a 26g and 10g and am looking at an 80g bowfront.

My 26g is stable, my 10g is more of a challenge. I'm a little OCD and do PWC nearly daily on both, and at the very least I vacuum the gravel through a net and re-add the tank water. I test both tanks daily and chart all results.

In the beginning I got some terrible stocking advice from a "big chain". I have since discovered my LFS and a very knowledgeable dude with 20 tanks who lives with his girlfriend's parents and has a lot of holes in his face. I really appreciate his advice, but he's talked me into a few purchases which added to my overstocking problem. Like the 3 kuhli loaches I walked out with today when I went in to get some fish-treats.

I just wanted to jump in to say hello and make my confession.

*PEACE!*

 

[nanu156]

Kuhlis need real stable water, so keep that in mind they also are known for not tolerating nitrates very well.

Honestly "overstocking" is well... in the eye of the beholder, if you are really into your tanks, keep the water super clean and your levels are acceptable then you are fine, when fish start to die you will know why. Know what I mean? (not that you will be killing them, but that well think of it like driving on E, if you know your car gets 35 miles once the fuel light comes on then you are ok to make a 5 mile trip, if you are a new driver, or someone who couldn't handle the walk to the gas station then you better fill up now)

Check craigslist and buy used on the tank, it will save you a boat load

I wouldn't ever Re-add water just change it out btw there is no such thing as water that is too clean.

What do you have stocked in each tank (be aware that when you post your stocking list you may get constructively picked at lol )

 

[MotherOfGreatIntentions]

I am terrified to list my stock. LOL. I have lurked here for a long time and I know I will get abused.

*Deep Breath*

OK...

26g...
5 zebra danios
6 neon tetras
4 ghost shrimp
1 upside down catfish
1 panda cory
1 honey red gourami
2 opaline gouramis
6 lamp-eye tetras
3 kuhli loaches

10g
3 rummy-nosed tetras
2 albino cories
3 yellow mollies
2 female guppies
8 ghost shrimp

The 26g has good cover and caves. Upside-down catfish hangs in a special spot and the 3 kuhli's look like they might have a favorite little cave too. The gouramis get along well so far (watching closely) and love to be hand-fed. There are several live plants and there aren't any signs of aggression.

The 10g is lightly planted with a couple of caves. The rummy's and mollies don't bother each other and the guppies are in a world of their own. This tank has been a PITA with some poor plant choices which increased my maintenance. The top is too tiny to access well. Originally I added this one for a fry tank, but was lucky enough not to have breeding problems. LOL.

*DUCKS*

As for the water, I will continue on with daily PWC, but will try and stop myself from filtering the water. My OCD leaves me with next-to-no tolerance for visual poop or plant material in the tank and I have a few nibblers who like to snack on the plants which leaves me with a little clean-up. *twirlysmi

I have been watching Craigslist and saw a great deal on a 155g tank the other day, but I like being married. *celebrate

 

[lauraf]

Hi, welcome to MFT! I am a chronic careful overstocker too. You are way more OCD than me . . . .

 

[nanu156]

as long as you know how many miles you can run on E you will be ok. lol

you don't have any hot button fish on your list, but yeah you need a big tank terribly bad

 

[skjl47]

Hello; You are not alone. Some of us, with some experience under our belts, have successfully kept tanks stocked much like yours. I have. I started a thread titled Stocking Density Opinion in the freshwater general discussion section of this forum in order to generate a discussion on the subject. I have kept similar numbers to the ones you posted with much less frequent water changes. No need to be "terrified" as you are not doing anything wrong.

 

[MotherOfGreatIntentions]

Thanks Laura. I grew up in Vancouver and miss it like crazy. Living in Ottawa and I am so jealous thinking of your spring amd looking out at our snow.

Marcy, I have to travel for work at the end of the month and I am grooming the six-year old on how to nag Daddy. She tests with me every day (I fill the tubes and add the drops and she helps read and log) so she is already trying to teach him. I am keeping my trip as short as possible but am more worried about what the Husband will do with the fish than the kids.

Yeah, can't wait to get a bigger tank. The problem is it won't be an upgrade, it will be an additional tank. I am worried I will turn into the fish version of "the crazy cat lady".

 

[MotherOfGreatIntentions]

Hello; You are not alone. Some of us, with some experience under our belts, have successfully kept tanks stocked much like yours. I have. I started a thread titled Stocking Density Opinion in the freshwater general discussion section of this forum in order to generate a discussion on the subject. I have kept similar numbers to the ones you posted with much less frequent water changes. No need to be "terrified" as you are not doing anything wrong.

Thanks for this. Nice to know I am not alone! I'm not quite a noobie, but wouldn't call myself experienced. Combine luck with a lot of effort and a little OCD and a bit of experience... I fall somewhere in there.

I read your stocking Density Opinion thread, and admit it was the thread which gave me the courage to come out of lurkdom and post.

I don't feel I am doing anything wrong, but realize I have to be vigilant about testing, water changes, etc. I am afraid of something going awry and tipping the balance and how quickly that could turn ugly.

I work from home and often set-up my laptop and/or take my concalls in front of my 26g so am pretty aware of the typical behaviour, etc. My 10g is also in a good spot for observing.

So I don't feel any guilt or shame, just know how popular it is to critique overstocking. I couldn't handle this load if I wasn't working from home, didn't have the time, etc. and I understand why it wouldn't work for everyone.

 

[lauraf]

Glad you've emerged from lurkdom! Looking forward to having you join the discussions.

I hope you had a reeaallly good reason to leave Vancouver for Ottawa

Cheers,
Laura

 

[kb951]

i had all what's listed below in a 20 gal lol so your not alone

 

[skjl47]

Hello; Thought about your concerns regarding being away for a trip. If the trip is just a few days, your husband will not have to do anything. (not even feed) Well fed fish have gone for up to five days while I was away without a problem on a couple of occasions. Three day weekends many times. My biggest problem was when a friend decided to help me out by feeding the tanks when I was away unexpectedly. He overfed and fouled the water.
I had to be away for a job one year and could only be home on weekends. I used an automatic feeder that mounted on the rim of a tank. They use AA batteries and good batteries will last more than a month. Be sure to set one up several days in advance so you can trouble shoot problems and adjust feeding amounts. The one I use feed twice a day. I had one that was dumpling most of the food onto the cover.

If tank conditions are stable and normal, you should be able to let the water changes go for a while as well. I go a week or two between changes now and have been on a longer cycle in the past. I tend to keep a lot of live plants and feed lightly, which may help. I was on a monthly water change cycle in the past and kept this up for many years without notable problems. Not a clear difference of fish loses or disease problems from then and the lower stocking and more frequent water changes that I use currently. I stepped up my water change frequency more as a cushion than a necessity. Now if something comes up to postpone a water change, it is less of an issue.

 

[aakaakaak]

AqAdvisor tells me I need at least 25% more filtration on my 29g and stocking is a firm 100-110%.

So, your stocking doesn't look too horrible.

26g...
5 zebra danios - yes
6 neon tetras - yes (nothing in your tank thinks they're snack food)
4 ghost shrimp - Maybe balance your ghost shrimp out with more in the 26 instead of the 10?
1 upside down catfish - yes
1 panda cory - Your panda is probably lonely. Maybe move the albinos from the 10 and hope/prey they get along and school together?
1 honey red gourami - whee, tiny gourami!
2 opaline gouramis - Keep an eye on these guys. Once they mature their personality "may" change. Or maybe not. I wish you luck with em. If they get nippy with the honey, move the honey to the 10 IMO.
6 lamp-eye tetras - sure, but stocking wise, you might be able to balance it better if they're small enough to go in the 10 with the rummy nosed and school together.
3 kuhli loaches - Swap these lil snakes into the 10 when you pull out the extra cories.

10g
3 rummy-nosed tetras
2 albino cories - move to 26?
3 yellow mollies - mollies are generally too small for a 10g. If you put your lamp-eyes in here you can move the mollies into the 26.
2 female guppies - You have females and not a bazillion babies? good for you!
8 ghost shrimp - I'd move a few of these over to the 26 personally.

You don't look more than maybe 25% overstocked to me. With your OCD I'm guessing your water is super clean, so that shouldn't be a big issue. The only really potentially "agressive" fish you have are the opaline gouramis, and those guys are really hit or miss.

From what I've seen, most people who really get into their aquariums overstock a little bit. Mostly they get away with it because they're super nit-picky about their tanks and are totally on top of everything. You should be fine.

Oh, and welcome to MFT even though you've been a long time lurker.

Edit: Okay, nevermind on moving the lamp-eyes. That's a stocking cunundrum for me then. Maybe pop the honey-g into the 10 anyway for bio-load and stocking balance?

 

[MotherOfGreatIntentions]

Glad you've emerged from lurkdom! Looking forward to having you join the discussions.

I hope you had a reeaallly good reason to leave Vancouver for Ottawa

Cheers,
Laura

Thanks Laura. I'm not sure there is a good enough reason to leave Vancouver, especially for Ottawa. *laughingc

I came here for "6 months". Found a great job, stayed a little longer, met a great Ontario boy, got married and had babies (real ones, not fish babies). It's been nearly 20 years and I still think of Vancouver as "home".

 

[MotherOfGreatIntentions]

i had all what's listed below in a 20 gal lol so your not alone

Thank you. Confessions are good for the soul. *celebrate

 

[MotherOfGreatIntentions]

Hello; Thought about your concerns regarding being away for a trip. If the trip is just a few days, your husband will not have to do anything. (not even feed) Well fed fish have gone for up to five days while I was away without a problem on a couple of occasions. Three day weekends many times. My biggest problem was when a friend decided to help me out by feeding the tanks when I was away unexpectedly. He overfed and fouled the water.
I had to be away for a job one year and could only be home on weekends. I used an automatic feeder that mounted on the rim of a tank. They use AA batteries and good batteries will last more than a month. Be sure to set one up several days in advance so you can trouble shoot problems and adjust feeding amounts. The one I use feed twice a day. I had one that was dumpling most of the food onto the cover.

If tank conditions are stable and normal, you should be able to let the water changes go for a while as well. I go a week or two between changes now and have been on a longer cycle in the past. I tend to keep a lot of live plants and feed lightly, which may help. I was on a monthly water change cycle in the past and kept this up for many years without notable problems. Not a clear difference of fish loses or disease problems from then and the lower stocking and more frequent water changes that I use currently. I stepped up my water change frequency more as a cushion than a necessity. Now if something comes up to postpone a water change, it is less of an issue.

Thanks for your input!

Here's my (OCD) plan so far...

I leave for the airport at 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. I figure I can sneak in a final water change before I leave. I will leave measured food in those daily pill containers and hide the rest of it so my 6-year old doesn't try to give her little friends any treats.

I will be back by 10 a.m. Saturday morning and will hug my kids and do another water change, clean the gravel, etc.

My life on the road would be easier if I would fly out on Tuesday (instead of flying from Ottawa to San Fran and heading straight to meetings) and flew home on Saturday instead of taking the red-eye home Friday after a full day, so I could get home to hug the kids and obsess over my tanks. LOL.

I will look at the automated feeders, but confess they make me nervous.

 

[MotherOfGreatIntentions]

AqAdvisor tells me I need at least 25% more filtration on my 29g and stocking is a firm 100-110%.

So, your stocking doesn't look too horrible.

26g...
5 zebra danios - yes
6 neon tetras - yes (nothing in your tank thinks they're snack food)
4 ghost shrimp - Maybe balance your ghost shrimp out with more in the 26 instead of the 10?
1 upside down catfish - yes
1 panda cory - Your panda is probably lonely. Maybe move the albinos from the 10 and hope/prey they get along and school together?
1 honey red gourami - whee, tiny gourami!
2 opaline gouramis - Keep an eye on these guys. Once they mature their personality "may" change. Or maybe not. I wish you luck with em. If they get nippy with the honey, move the honey to the 10 IMO.
6 lamp-eye tetras - sure, but stocking wise, you might be able to balance it better if they're small enough to go in the 10 with the rummy nosed and school together.
3 kuhli loaches - Swap these lil snakes into the 10 when you pull out the extra cories.

10g
3 rummy-nosed tetras
2 albino cories - move to 26?
3 yellow mollies - mollies are generally too small for a 10g. If you put your lamp-eyes in here you can move the mollies into the 26.
2 female guppies - You have females and not a bazillion babies? good for you!
8 ghost shrimp - I'd move a few of these over to the 26 personally.

You don't look more than maybe 25% overstocked to me. With your OCD I'm guessing your water is super clean, so that shouldn't be a big issue. The only really potentially "agressive" fish you have are the opaline gouramis, and those guys are really hit or miss.

From what I've seen, most people who really get into their aquariums overstock a little bit. Mostly they get away with it because they're super nit-picky about their tanks and are totally on top of everything. You should be fine.

Oh, and welcome to MFT even though you've been a long time lurker.

Edit: Okay, nevermind on moving the lamp-eyes. That's a stocking cunundrum for me then. Maybe pop the honey-g into the 10 anyway for bio-load and stocking balance?

Thanks for the stocking suggestions. The lamp-eyes are the only purchase I regret to be honest. I just don't find them as interesting as the other guys.

I like the idea of swapping the albino cories and the loaches but how on earth to catch the snakes is beyond me. Hopefully the cories will get along.

I confess I have had baby guppies, but let the food chain help with that one and rehomed the survivors to friends. It looks like we might have more baby guppies soon, which would be resolved if I move my honey gourami to the 10g.

My opalines are doing fine so far, and I am hoping I add an 80g before that becomes too much of an issue. I love them, but I would rather re-home them or return them to my LFS than see them hurt each other or someone else.

The ghost shrimp definitely need a shuffle, too.

Given that catching those loaches is going to challenge me to an extreme, what if I kept the loaches in the 26g, added the albino cories to the 26g for company for panda, left the ghost shrimp in the 10g and swapped out the lamp eyes and mollies?

And am I the only person who looks at every single potential open space in my house and does mental-math about how many gallons could fit there???

 

[nanu156]

No you are not the only one

Honestly feed the fish wed morning before you go and leave food for a Friday feeding, have them skip Thursday feed Friday and you will be good to go.

Your fish don't need to be fed every day, and certainly don't need to be fed 2x day

 

[aakaakaak]

And am I the only person who looks at every single potential open space in my house and does mental-math about how many gallons could fit there???

My son's dresser could hold either a 55 or 75, but I don't know about the weight displacement. I'd probably want to anchor the dresser to the wall to stabalize it.

I could move my futon into the play room and stick maybe a 150 gal on that wall, but I already have two tanks in that room and it may affect the structural soundness.

The desk in the living room could support a 29-40. I don't remember which because I haven't measured everything lately.

I could put a big flat-backed hex into the play room window, and use only natural sunlight, but I'd need to wait until I replace it because it's not properly insulated. It'd probably grow too much algae.

I could do some rearranging in the play room and put some gigantic tank on one of the walls, like 300 gallons, but....

So yeah, I think you get the idea. I'm pretty sure all of us measure out future fish tank locations.

-------------------------------------------------------

kuhli loach catching:
1. Get a fluted vase and lay it down sideways with some food in the bottom. (The mouth of the vase should be close as possible to gravel/sand level.) A thoroughly cleaned coke bottle would work too.
2. wait
3. pick up vase with loach in it.

 

[MotherOfGreatIntentions]

My son's dresser could hold either a 55 or 75, but I don't know about the weight displacement. I'd probably want to anchor the dresser to the wall to stabalize it.

I could move my futon into the play room and stick maybe a 150 gal on that wall, but I already have two tanks in that room and it may affect the structural soundness.

The desk in the living room could support a 29-40. I don't remember which because I haven't measured everything lately.

I could put a big flat-backed hex into the play room window, and use only natural sunlight, but I'd need to wait until I replace it because it's not properly insulated. It'd probably grow too much algae.

I could do some rearranging in the play room and put some gigantic tank on one of the walls, like 300 gallons, but....

So yeah, I think you get the idea. I'm pretty sure all of us measure out future fish tank locations.

-------------------------------------------------------

kuhli loach catching:
1. Get a fluted vase and lay it down sideways with some food in the bottom. (The mouth of the vase should be close as possible to gravel/sand level.) A thoroughly cleaned coke bottle would work too.
2. wait
3. pick up vase with loach in it.

I am so glad I am not alone.

And thanks for the loach trap advice!!! I will give it a shot!

 

[aakaakaak]

If that doesn't work you could try to do surgery on a plastic coke bottle.

Get a 20oz soda bottle
rince thoroughly
Cut the bottle top off about 2 inches down.
Invert to bottle top so that it's facing the bottom of the bottle and jam it into place.
Secure the edge of the new bottle top so it won't slip
Put food in bottom
lay in tank horizontally
wait

It like a plastic bottle version of a crab trap.