Have I Overstocked?

[Lizzie71]

Tank is 20 gallons. Well planted and mature (running since January), regular water changes and no problems with fish health.

After moving out some livebearers, I decided to restock and I have now ended up with the following:

1 BN plec (fully grown I think, about 4 inches long)
4 otos (I think they are still there, I never see them!)
3 Dwarf Gourami (1m 2 f)
6 x ray tetras
8 neon tetras
quite a few cherry shrimps (impossible to count, they breed like rabbits and every so often I take a bagful back to the lfs).

I added the gouramis 2-3 weeks ago and the neons at the weekend. I think that the neons might have been a step too far, and I might be overstocked. I know I'm well over 1 inch per gallon (shockingly so!) but I believe that you can stretch this a bit for mature tanks, especially if they are planted.

Have I gone too far? Should I rehome the neons?

Thanks.

 

[susankat]

I would re home one of your schools. It will help with your stocking levels, but also help with the look because a 20 gal looks better with just one school to me.

 

[AJ Tudor]

Agreed, it is a little overstocked so rehoming one of the schools should be adequate to bring the bio load down.

 

[Corleone]

If it's been running since January and there's no water quality issues, I think you'll be alright, though I wouldn't add anything. You're about 1.5"/gallon just for fish, which is easily sustainable - a number of people on the forum run mature tanks with good filtration over 2"/gallon, and mine's around 1.75 with one last fish planned.

If you don't see the otos, they might be gone - mine slowly disappeared over four or five months. Put a few pieces of zucchini in and see if they come to any of it (more than one because IME bristlenose won't share their food nicely, and otos won't eat around a more active fish).

Overstocking would come more from the shrimp breeding than the fish - they may be low bioload, but they still add up. As long as you can keep taking them to the LFS there's no problem. The fact that they're breeding so well is a good indication that water quality is up to snuff - shrimp will die to levels of ammonia that barely show up on tests.

 

[paul_219]

Well it seems fine not bad. If there are weekly maintenance then you shouldnt have any problem in the tank.

 

[Lizzie71]

Thanks for the opinions. I think I will keep an eye on how things go with the neons in there over the next few weeks, and look into rehoming if the water quality goes down. Shrimps are still breeding like nobody's business which as Corleone says is a good sign.

I saw two otos this morning when I put some algae tablets in, so at least those two are still alive. Will put in some courgette overnight and see what happens. And you're right, Bertie the BN isn't good at sharing