Is My Tank Overcrowded?

[Judgejudy]

I have a 12 gallon tank with 2 gold barbs, 4 platies, 2 ballon molies, 2 rasboras, 6 neon tetras. Idont think its full is it? What other fish would you recomend? How many? Thanks

 

[sadguppy]

Hi JudgeJudy and welcome to the forums.

The accepted recommended stocking for a normal community tanks is an inch per gallon, so with your platies and and tetras alone you are almost at the limit. You can get around this by having very good filtration (what kind of filter do you have?) an additional air pump for extra oxygen and doing very regular water changes, say 25% + a week.

If you are already doing this then you might be ok with your current stock, but I would certainly say don't add any more as that's a lot for 45 litres and mollies in particular can get very big so you might want to think about re-homing them.

 

[mattyeatsmatts]

Its not so much the space left, it is the bio load. Bacteria can only handle so much poo

 

[sadguppy]

Having just read your other thread - if your platies are a pair ie. one male and one female then you will quickly become very overstocked in a very short time! Same goes with the mollies.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Up the numbers of each schooling fish and the stocking would not be out of place in a 50g tank.

6 Neons in a 12g is pushing it, even if you are not getting ammonia or nitrite spikes with a liquid test kit, your nitrate levels will be soaring to toxic 300mg/l levels without >100% weekly water changes.

 

[Judgejudy]

Sadguppy thanks but what shall i do with the fry thats on its way?

 

[sadguppy]

Sadguppy thanks but what shall i do with the fry thats on its way?

If you just let nature take its course (i.e. - do nothing) then most of the fry will be eaten by the tank's inhabitants - it seems harsh, I know, but that really is nature's way and unless you have another tank to put them into then it's not really fair on them as you will be grossly overstocked and all the fish are likely to suffer. Platies can store sperm for around 6 months like guppies or mollies - i.e. now they have mated once, even if you separate them then you can expect about 50 babies a month for six months!

Those babies will be able to mate at three months old and you will have the same problem; you can see why you can't keep them all! One or two from each batch will probably survive anyway if your tank is planted and has lots of hiding spots, but if you start saving them you'll have more platies than you can deal with.

My advice would be to take the female back to the store and swap her for a male, you will be in a better position all round. The same goes for your mollies.

 

[Judgejudy]

Thanks a lot