Anyone Heard This One?

tribalbrit · May 22, 2011

I was in a Lfs (not my regular choice) today and over heard a customer asking the sales guy how many fish she could have in her tank. He replied saying what ever the front glass measured in length in inches, that was how many inches of fish she could keep.
ie; 48" tank = 48" of fish = 24 2" fish.

now I have worked out that my 72" tank would be full with the 11 hoplo's I have, without all the other fish, derrrrr

where do these people get their information from?? and should they perhaps keep it to them selves?

Has anyone else heard this rule of thumb (as he discribed it) ?

:lol:

sorgan · May 22, 2011

i once was told that under no circumstance could i possibly ever dream of keeping 2 gobys of different kinds in the same tank :crazy:

i didnt have the heart to tell the chap just how many gobys live in my tanks

fluttermoth · May 22, 2011

tribalbrit said:
I was in a Lfs (not my regular choice) today and over heard a customer asking the sales guy how many fish she could have in her tank. He replied saying what ever the front glass measured in length in inches, that was how many inches of fish she could keep.
ie; 48" tank = 48" of fish = 24 2" fish.

now I have worked out that my 72" tank would be full with the 11 hoplo's I have, without all the other fish, derrrrr

where do these people get their information from?? and should they perhaps keep it to them selves?

Has anyone else heard this rule of thumb (as he discribed it) ?

It's based on the idea that the cpacity of your tank is limited by the surface area (because of the gaseous exchange).
The 'rule' is; one inch of fish for every 12 square inches of surface area. As (well, in the past anyway) most tanks are (or were) 12" wide, then yes, the capacity is the same as the tank's length.

Obviously the stocking level would go up if your tanks were 15" or 18".

As with the 'one inch of fish per gallon' or 'one cm of fish per 2 litres' they are guidelines.

For specific tanks (mbuna etc) or for more experienced fishkeepers, you can throw them out of the window; but for beginners, as a guide, to give some idea of roughly how many fish their tank can hold I think they're both quite helpful.