How many fish

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Fiestycat66

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Hi. I have a ecostyle 32 tank 14 litre. And would like to know how many fish max will be OK for this size tank please
 
Hello and welcome.

Am afraid that the water volume of 14 - 20 litres, is too small for most species of fish.
Have had a look online for your tank, unsure which volume is correct as there seems to be conflicting information on the specs of this tank.

In any case, makes little difference in terms of stocking this little tank. This is at best a 5 gallon / 20 litres. There are very few fish species that will thrive in such a small tank really.

I would suggest taking this tank back and getting the largest tank your budget and space allows.

The larger the tank, the easier to maintain water parameters as fish can be sensitive to any fluctuations with water conditions.

Or if that's not an option, then you could possibly go about setting this little 5 gal as a shrimp tank set up or as a Betta Splenden tank but with no shrimps as these shrimps tend to be seen as food by most bettas.

These can be really nice with a nice selection of low tech plants and a nice piece of wood or two.

But if you plan to want a single Betta splenden in this tank then may be an idea to give your water parameters such as pH and hardness level (you can get this info from your local water authority website) as this is fairly important so that the correct fish species can be recommended for your particular water parameters.

Also want to ask if you have cycled this tank, meaning that it's ready for possible fish or shrimps bioload?

http://www.fishforums.net/threads/cycling-your-new-fresh-water-tank-read-this-first.421488/
 
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It really depends on how well filtered the tank is. You could probably get away with a single betta and a cory cat, maybe up to 3 or 4 neon tetras, but most schooling fish like a few more friends than that and you would have to stick with the smallest species possible. The inch per gallon rule is fair enough but understand 3 1" fish put more strain on your tank than 1 3" fish. But all in all the amount of fish you want to keep depends on how much maintenance you are willing to do. If you're changing half the water daily you could get away with a few more than if you were doing it every other day or weekly. That being said, you would have several unhappy fish in such a small environment which may cause other stress unrelated to water quality.
 
Corydoras should never be kept alone.

Neon tetras can become very nippy, if not in an adequately sized shoal.

We do our best to promote best practice on this forum; that means giving advice that is in the best, long term, interests of the fish, both physically and psychologically, with no compromise. Remember, surviving is not thriving!

Without wishing to mention anyone personally, perhaps some of our newer members should think and research more before commenting.
 
Ok ok, to actually answer your question. 0 fish. Animals made to live in lakes, rivers, streams, or the ocean will never thrive in the home aquarium the way they would in nature.
 
This can be a bit of a sensitive subject when it comes to stocking aquariums.

While its true the hoem aquarium will never compete the natural wonders of natures, the hoem aquarium can be set up very nicely and usually stocked with captive bred fish which has never been to their natural environments be it rivers, lakes or oceans.

Though it has to be said, this is why forums like this are ongoing, to help those in need of advice and experience of those who are experienced in this fishkeeping hobby and we all try to help whether its just a little bit of advice or a lengthy post with lots of information. Ultimately its dfown to each individual to research and ask advice on what may be the best course of action to take.

In this case, a 20 litre / 5 gal tank is a small tank and is in fact too small for most specie, even neon tetras despite they being pretty small. It is not generally advised to stock with shooling or shoaling fish in a tank with such a small footprint.

So therefore those of us who made the mistake of stocking the wrong species will say best not to as the fish are likely to just survive but not thrive and at worst die due to stress or illnesses that occured because of the stress or poor water quaility as its mroe difficult to maintain good water parameters in small volume of water for those inexpereinced in fish keeping.

I myself have had endlers with shrimps ands snails in a 5 gallon tank and thought they were fine. That was until I moved them into a 10 gallon tank, wow, talk about the differences in behaviour in the endlers, they were MUCH more happier as their colours soon became much more vibrant and they swam around much more rather than swiming in more or less the same areas all the time. These endlers are now in a 25 gallon / 95 litre tank with danios and rasboras.

So it takes time to realise what others mean by their recommendations in why samll tanks are not so suitable for most species despite their small sizes. This is why advice fromt he more experienced keeper is worth considering and researching upon in most cases. Though of course there are folks who will recommend the wrong type of advice based on their experiences but not always the right ay to do things. We all learn by different methods and practices.

In the case of neon tetras for example, they are soft water fish and are not particularly 'hardy' menaing they are suscepticle to water parameters and easily prone to diseases. Not only that, the very minium tank size, according to Seriosuly Fish is a 15 Gallon tank, though I would actually lean twoards more a 20 gal or at least a 2.5 feet long tank MINIMUM as they are skittish and can suddenly dart into the tank glass when spooked resulting in injury or even fatal.

Neon Tetra - Paracheirodon innessi

And cories, being a shoaling specie, a VERY sociable fish who requires groups of at very least 6+ though imho preferably at least 8+ (they shoal in their hundreds if not thousands in their natural environments). Again, a soft water specie that require a miminum tank size of 15 gallons for most secies, even for one of the smallest cory specie, Habrosus Cory aka Salt & Pepper cory, one of my favouraite species of all time requires at least a 2 feet aquarium.

Habrosus Corydora - Salt & Pepper Cory

So this basically leaves us with Betta Splendens which is perfect for a 5 to 10 gallon tank. They are lone species that are kept singly mainly due to the simple fact they will fight with other Bettas.

This link explains far better than I can about Betta Splendens - Betta Splendens Caresheet

And lastly, shrimps and snails are ideal for a 5 gallon tank as well. Though they tend to be more sensitive to water parameters, so care has to be taken to ensure water parameters stays stable throughout. I would recommend Red Cherry Shrimps for the beginner to shrimp keeping.

Red Cherry Shrimps

BTW I usually do not recommend keeping bettas with shrimp simply because more often than not, bettas will make snacks out of shrimps. Exceptions do occur but not a gamble I'd take for the new keeper.
http://www.planetinverts.com/Red Cherry Shrimp.html
I hope that explains things a little more :)
 
Well, that what we TRY to do.

To stop new keepers who may not not know why, from doing this, we can only do so muh and offer our advice as to why only certain numbers of fish in such and such sizes of tank should be recommended.

Of course there is more to this than simple numbers. There are hard and soft water species which are best kept in their own particular parameters. This is one of the reasons why I ask for water hardness and pH if they have the test kit or researching online of their local water suppliers.

We ALL were newbies once, remember, so the bewildering and staggering amount of advice and suggestions can be hard to take on for the new fish keeper. Sometimes even conflicting advice on the same topics, which certainly does not help matters.

We have our own ways of learning, whether its by research or by mistakes made or probably a combination of both, I know I have made my fair share of newbie mistakes when I first started this hobby but I always endevoured to learn from them and not make the same mistake twice.

But its always the best case scenario to learn rather than make these mistakes in the first place.

One step at a time ;)
 
Your tank would be perfect for a small school of least killifish, a few shrimp, and malyasian trumpet snails. Add live plants and have good filtration and the tank should do fine.
 
Ok ok, to actually answer your question. 0 fish. Animals made to live in lakes, rivers, streams, or the ocean will never thrive in the home aquarium the way they would in nature.
Thanks for your time. I thought it was way too small. Another member suggested shrimp. I will look into this option.
 

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