1" / Gal

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hm...
I think beginners shouldn't be encouraged to believe that there are rguidelines like this, as many beggingers assume they don't need to research their fish as long as it fits in the tank etc. Ultimately, there are no rules or guidelines when it comes to fish stocking that apply to all fish.

My major disagreement with the one inch of fish per gal rule is this- every fish has a minimum recommended amount of gallons it needs if it is to be kept in the long run in the tank happy and healthy etc. The one inch of fish per gal rule completely disregards this. Although it may help beginners avoid massively overstocked tanks, it doesn't really do much to prevent overstocked tanks either. To me, an overstocked tank is an overstocked tank and is not acceptable either way in my honest opinion.

 

[OohFeeshy]

i'd disagree, as others have said this really applies for beginners, walk into a bread and butter lfs what will you see?

tetras, rasboras, danio's, gourami's, cories, otto's, platys, mollies, swordies, guppies etc etc....... all these fish 'work' on the " per gallon rule

Again though, it depends how you look at it. Tetras, fine (although depends on the type of tetra ), rasboras, generally fine (although again, lots of species), danios.... Not so sure, small, yes, but very active so not exactly model examples, gouramis, depends on the type again, cories, generally fine, ottos aren't usually reccomended for beginners *anyway*, livebearers... sort of, but they're swimming poo factories, plus you have to take into account fry etc.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

i can't think of more than a handful of tetra's who wouldn't fit into the " per gallon rule, yes danios are active swimmers and have a minimum tank size but that makes no difference to the 2 per gallon thing.

it's just a basic guideline to get a general idea of how many fish you can keep, i think it serves it's purpose, we all know most lfs's will recommend way over the odds and the standard recommendations on fish tanks are generally way off as well, it's a conservative guideline that's easy to work out and will give beginners a tank with room to breathe so to speak.

it's massivley flawed in many many ways and yes you can always find fault with it when you apply it to specifics, but as a guideline to hand out to beginners when they're posting huge lists of all the fish they'd like for they're 15 gallon tank it gives a much more reasonable indication.

in addition to giving out the guideline i've also written a thread about how to work out stocking and compatibility and the key issues to take into account, it's in my sig and i direct them to that as well so it's not just handed out as, 'this is set in stone, it is the most important thing, you must stick to exactly 1" per gallon'

the whole dispute over it IMO stems from people callign it a rule, i know i do it myself sometimes, but it isn't one, when you consider it as a rule it doesn't work, when you consider it as a guideline it does