Am I Over Stocked

[vancouver]

I don't think I'd add any more fish.

 

[y2blade]

yoyo loaches

http/www.loaches.com/species_pages/botia_almorhae.html

ahh thankyou "Botia loaches" is what ive been calling them and thats what there called in the aquatic shops ive seen them in

where do they get there "yoyo" nickname from?

 

[pica_nuttalli]

from the link:

It is these dark bands that give this fish it's common name of Yo-yo loach, for looking at the markings on this fish with very little imagination you can read YoYo.

 

[halfbloodprincess]

if you have a spare ten sitting around then keep that empty. It's always a good idea to keep a Quarantine/hospital tank handy.

The main issues with stocking are (IMHO) distribution, filtration, airation, and aggression.

Distribution: Is one section of your tank crowded, do you have a whole lot of bottome dwellers and very few top dwellers? if so then your tank is imbalanced and your bottom dwellers will be stressed because of lack of territory.

Filtration: What are your Ammo, NI, and NA levels. If they are 0,0,and X<40 and you think your close to your stocking limit then your filter can probably handle a few more small fish. If you add a few more fish and end up with latent ammonia nI or high nitrates you can increase your filter capacity by adding more filter media, buying an additional filter, or upgrading your entire filtration system. You can also add plants to your tank.

Airation: How large is the top of your tank. If your tank is very tall then that means that you have low surface area. This means that there is less space for oxygen and cO2 exchange between the air and your water. There are calculators to help you figure this one out...I don't have a link handy but I'm sure someone can help you out. You can increase the surface area of your tank by adding a bubble rock or preferably a powerhead. These things stir up your water making more of it come into contact with the air per minute. Not only that but the also cause ripples in the surface which allows a lot more water to contact air at any given time.

Aggression: The most important question you should ask yourself is are my fish getting along, or if your fish aren't supposed to get along then you should ask yourself does each fish have it's own territory, can the weaker fish easily escape from the stronger without getting hurt? Is there enough room in the tank for a few more fish to have there own territory.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, basically what I could think up in a matter of minutes. Stocking to the maximum is a very tricky thing to do. It's a lot easier to just go with the old stand by and say 1" of adult fish per gallon, then again even that rule is tricky...

My ammonia is 0 and so is the nitrite. I have a airator that is for a 40 gal. tank and I have a 10 inch airstone in the tank.

So in the end I will have in the tank:

1 female betta
2 honey gouramis
2 platys
5 corydoras
5 black skirt tetras
1 clown pleco
3 oto cats

Neons and danios will be put into the 30 gallon.

 

[halfbloodprincess]

???

 

[Torrean]

what's your nitrate.

That's sort of what determines whether you can stock more. If your nitrate is low then you are probably keeping up with water changes, if it's high then you should probably lightly stock the tank because you want to keep nitrates as low as possible. In my opinion.

 

[halfbloodprincess]

My nitrate is low. I added more fish on friday and saturday. I got the following on friday:

3 oto cats
1 platy
1 yoyo loach

But when I woke up on saturday two of the otos had died. I took them back to petco and got my money back. They didnt have any more otos in so we have to wait til wednesday to get more. So I got :

1 more yoyo loach
1 spotted corydoras catfish

I am getting a bigger fish tank cause my mom wants to so she can get more of the fish she likes and she wants her 'babys' to have more room(yoyos, corys, black skirt tetras). She also said along with that she is going to get herself a tank and only have corys in it. I totally got my mom into fish keeping. I didnt even get to get the fish I had planned on getting cause she got the ones she wanted(yoyos and cory). At least I got my otos(two died ) and platy! yippie!

My nitrate is still low and I plan on getting just a couple more fish.

 

[halfbloodprincess]

I love fish


Once I transfur the fish into the new fish tank that my mom will get I will have a fish tank to myself, and I will put the fish that I want in it and only the fish I want.

 

[halfbloodprincess]

Bad news

Some fish have died and my stocking is different.

1 platy
1 honey gourami
4 corys
3 yoyos
1 rtbs
2 neon tetras
2 leopard danios
3 black skirt tetras
1 clown pleco
1 oto catfish

 

[halfbloodprincess]

What will I do now for stocking? What do you guys suggest???

 

[SamUK]

jus read the thread and atleast 2 people said you were fully or overstocked and yet you added more fish?


is it worth suggesting anything?

 

[halfbloodprincess]

It was all disaster. Have you read my other topics when my female betta died??? I introduced two diseased fish into my tank and it went down hill from there. It passed on the disease onto my favorite fish ever and I am still shocked and hurt about that, then it killed my favorite platy, and now my dwarf gourami is dead. Before I got new fish I tested the water, the stats were:

amonia: 0
nitrite: 0
nitrate:0
ph:7

Please get more info before you post.

I am sorry but I am so hurt that my favorite fish ever died, she was the best fish ever and she just died.

I swore that if luna died(the female betta) than I would never buy fish from petco again. And I am never getting fish from there again. They were the fault of this. I am still wicked mad. And broken hearted. All this has made me want to just give up fish keeping, everything had been doing so well, I had got new tanks which are doing great and now... I just want to cry...

I am so, so hurt.

 

[SamUK]

sorry to hear about your fish.



but i was going off the stocking you posted today when i replied.

 

[stang1]

I'm really sorry about your fish , I kniw how heartbreaking it is. I had the same happen and my male fighter died because of a diseased fish I introduced. Weeks later and I still feel angry but unfortunately, there's not much you can do about it. I know my lfs wasn't interested at all.
Please don't give up fish keeping, I'm sure everything will work out fine in the end, even if it doesn't seem like it at the moment.

 

[Torrean]

quarantine tanks are your friend