Has Hubby Overstocked Our Tank?

[RadaR]

Try to change enough water often enough to get your nitrates under 40 ppm and you will be fine Mandy. If that takes frequent large water changes you are overstocked. If you can maintain good water with a weekly 50% change then you may be heavily stocked but the levels are manageable. Do not add to your stocking until something comes out of the tank first. You certainly don't want to add to that tank. I have a fry growing tank about that size with that many small fish in it but its sole purpose is to get the fish big enough to move them on to someone else. It stays fairly full because I do save some of my fry to be able to pass them along to other people.

Trouble is, hubby loves fish too much.

You could use that to your advantage really. If he loves his fish then surely he would want to create an environment where they were happy and thriving instead of struggling to cope with the conditions. A healthy fish is a happy and good looking fish.

 

[OldMan47]

It sounds like your husband is prime for being approached on getting a fry growing tank. Something along the lines of 300 litres should give you room to rear many of the mollies that you have and even a few more as long as you feed them well and stay on top of your water changes.

 

[Mummy_Mandy]

Thanks everyone for your advice. Most of the mollies are gone (only the baby ones that are hiding remain) and I'm now trying to persuade hubby to move teh remaining small fish to another tank. The large fish are my favourites so I want to keep them!!

Will let you all know how it goes. Thanks for being so kind and helpful.

Mandy