Fish Are Happy.....but Want More!

[Ali-Jack]

Hi all,  hope you're all good?  I have a 90L Fluval Roma.  It's fairly heavily planted, sand substrate, bog wood and small stones.  Have an Eheim 2073 external filter running so loads of filter capacity.  Change about 30% water every week.  Stocking is:
 
2x Bolivian Ram
3x Honey Gourami's 
3x Agassiz Corys
5x Pygmy Corys
5x Cardinal Tetra's
3x Otto Dwarf Catfish
 
All the fish seem really happy.  The ram's have their own resting area and love playing with the cory's.  The gourami enjoy taking up all areas of the tank and the male has his own bubble nesting area.  Thing is.....i have a burning desire to add 5 Harlequins into the mix.  The tank is bottom heavy so want some more mid/top fish to balance things out.  
 
The tank doesn't look over crowded in the slightest and when i test the water it always shows zero nitrite and ammonia.  
 
Do you think this would be overstocking?
 
 
 

 

[the_lock_man]

Honestly, yes I do think so. Your cory species, and the tetras really would prefer to be in groups of 6, but I think that would be pushing it too.

 

[Ali-Jack]

Thanks for the reply mate.  Out of interest...why do you think it would be overstocked?   The tank doesn't look overstocked at all and every fish seems happy.

 

[the_lock_man]

There are 2 stocking rules that are prevalent in the hobby. 1 is the Inch per Gallon rule. The 2nd is the centimetre per litre rule.
 
If you work that out, you'll realise that no.2 gives you about twice as much fish as no.1. It also tells you that there are no hard and fast rules!
 
But your current stocking is about 103cm, in a 90l tank. If you were to go by the first one, you would be massively overstocked. I tend to work around the latter one being a bit more reasonable. But even by that rule, you are overstocked.
 
Your fish may well look happy. In the wild, a fish that doesn't look happy gets picked on and killed, survival of the fittest and all that. In other words, they mask their unhappiness very well. When you see an unhappy fish, you know there's a problem. They may well actually be happy for all I know. But will they still be happy if you stick another shoal into the mix? Dunno.
 
Ultimately, it's your tank, it's your choice, but my opinion is that it would not be a good idea.

 

[Ali-Jack]

Cool, I appreciate your frank and honset reply.   I've been in the hobby only 1 year so still learning.  It's just frustrating i guess when visually the tank doesn't look overcrowded and water quality is good. 
You're right though bud.  And deep down i think i knew it already.    Thanks again

 

[the_lock_man]

No probs.
 
The problem you've got is that you've got lots of bottom dwellers (2 lots of cories plus the rams), and only the cardinals mid-water.
 
If you were to rehome the agassiz cories, you could probably fit in a shoal of chilli rasboras or celestial pearl danios.

 

[Joshwainwright]

Spending so much money on a big filter like that is frustrating but at least you'll have nice clean water and the filter won't need cleaning often
 
Your best bet would be to re-home some of the bottom dwellers as locky has said

 

[This Old Spouse]

I'd love to take your Aggazzii cory as I only have 3 and can't get any more! 

 

[Mikey1]

your fish are happy in their tank, it is well stocked, leave them alone,
 
this hobby is addictive, like a drug, no matter what you have you always want more,
 
if you want more fish then you need to get another tank, or a bigger tank,
 
i started with one 10 gallon tank 25 years ago, i now have over 20 tanks, most of them being 100+ gallons

 

[Shelster]

Wow mikey that is some collection!
I worry about my two tanks - (soon to be three) enough when we manage to get away for a weekend.

 

[Ali-Jack]

Thanks all for your advice everyone. Josh, that's exactly why I bought the Eheim.  Great flow rate and crystal water.  Would highly recommend it.  Old Spouse, get yourself to the UK!   Agassiz's seem fairly common in LFS's over here.  
I would love a bigger tank, but my wife thinks the 90L is already too big so my chances of anything bigger are zilch!!   Can always win the lottery and get a bigger house though 

     I love all my fish, but do wish i'd invested in some more mid/upper level fish and not so many bottom dwellers.  I had hoped the Ram's would help there, didn't realise how much they enjoyed the depths!
Thanks again everyone.   Great forum as always