How many guppies in a 30 gallon??

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Elisabeth83

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I know this question gets asked a lot and I know the 1 inch per gallon rule or well guideline but as guppies are more slim and slender compared to a lot of other fish I thought I'd ask. :blink:

I have aout 20 guppy fry who are all turning out to be very pretty. I was thinking a lot of them would be plain and I'd give them to my lfs but now that most of them have beautiful colors I am having a hard time choosing which ones to give away.

So right now I have 4 adult guppy males in my 30 gallon along with 4 cories and 2 SAE's as well as about 10-12 2-3 month old fry. How many adults could I keep without it becoming overcrowded?
 
Well, is it going to be males or females you keep? You should really have at least 2 females to each male so the females are not harassed too much, meaning you'd need 8 females for the 4 males you currently have. This would be fine IMO for stocking.

What are you readings like? Does you nitrAte rise a lot between water changes? Thisis the only true way of knowing how well stocked you are in terms of bioload (not space though).
 
It's only going to be males in the tank as I am tried of all the fry and wont be able to keep the new ones anyways.

I just did a test the day before yesterday and my nitrAte was at 5. I actually can't remember what the reading was for nitrAte last time I tested but it's usually between 5-10. And that's with the 10-12 fry in the tank.
 
Males only reach an inch so you have plenty of space for about 20-15 more. If your nitrAtes rise higher than 40 before you do a water change, reduce your stocking levels.
 
It depends on what the level of you tap water though. I always judge it like this, as it works for everyone...

- Check level before change (say it's 5)
- Check before next water change

If it has risen to more than 5 then your water changes are not convering the waste being produced in the tank. If you change water weekly, for instance, and it's rising, to a bit higher than last week's reading, each week then you have a problem.

Simple.
 

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