i just became a member yesterday and was looking at everything (love the site by the way) and i saw some things about overstocking which got me thinking. i currently hvae an algea eater (9-11 inches), red tail shark (4-5 inches), 2 blueberry tetras (1 inch a-peice), 2 painted glass tetras (1 inch a-peice), 2 silver tip (i think thats its name, its about 1 inch long), another red tail shark (about 2 inches, still a baby), dolmation molley (1 inch), swordtail (1.5 inches including tail). and i was about to go pick up a betta today as well. these guys are all in a 44 gallon tank that is tall, its a corner tank so its 22"X22"X22", what do you all think. i hope its not to bad. thanks for reading!
joe whitney

i think your fine but your sharks and bottom feeder (pleco?) will get much bigger. So I would recamend not geting any more fish for that tank.

There are many ways to evaluate if you're overstocked including the (not so good) method of 1 inch per gallon rule. Another way is to calculate the surface area of the water that is open to air. All in all there are too many factors, including the individual fishes' swimming and living needs.

This is a good spot to work out if you're overstocked or not. Works for unusual sized tanks too. Aquarium Calculator

how much bigger will they get. i heard the max for a pleco is about 12 inches, and the max for the sharks is about 4 or 5 inches.

yeah, it also depends on your water parameters. they lower the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are, the more fish you can put in!

You were plannin on getting a betta to put in the same tank as sharks and mollies?

I think you need to do more research, and as already said your sharks will get quite big so make sure you only for additions that wont get eaten by them, but equally arent too big to overstock the tank.

Ben

Yeah no offense man, but you really do need to do alot more research, as you have already screwed up a lot in that tank. For instance the algae eaters will get too big, you shouldnt keep more than 1 red-tailed black shark together, and a bettas fins would be ripped apart in your tank, they arent good community fish!

is the algea eater a chinese algea eater? they get big and mean. They will eat the tetras,
which are dyed fish, btw. and tetras like to be in groups of 6 anyways.

When you do the inch thing, you use the adult size, not the size now, and the tail doesnt count. The mollie can get big, like 6 inches, depending on the type. Swords get like 4 inches or so.

It doesnt seem that your overstocked, but I would be careful adding stuff because of the sharks and the algea eater.

but definetly no betta. Get a 2 gallon tank for it.

This post has been edited by wrs: Aug 6 2004, 07:56 PM

well ive had the algea eater for about 2 years now, and in the past year she hasnt gotten any bigger. shes about 9 or 10 inches i would say from head to tail. and she is the most passive fish i have ever had. she use to be in with a clown knife and oscar. but obviously the tank was far to small for them. the sharks dont ever fight and no one is ever beaten up or anything. they all seem to get along just fine. they have all been together in the tank for almost 6 or 7 months now. sorry that im not to good when it comes to fish. but im happy and they seem to be happy as well.

Watch your signature size read the Pinned article called Signature Rules

Your "blueberry tetras" and "painted glass tetras" are probably dyed fish, I wouldn't go back to the shop from which you bought them.

Good advise from both of you two, now all you need is a time machine to go back to the good old year of 2004....Goodluck

Ugh damn that's annoying, apologies! I just presumed it was a recent topic as it was on the first page!