Is My Tank Overstocked?

[ellena]

I'm having massive problems with fish dying in my tank. It's been set up since easter, fishless cycling till august.
It's had fish in it for just under 6 weeks. I've had one brief ammonia spike in that time, but other than that, stats have been 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite.
I had 6 endlers and 6 galaxy rasboras. The tank is 25l. So I thought, 12 fish, max 2cm each=24cm. about right on 1cm per litre?
I added 4 cherry shrimp too.
I only have 6 endlers and 1 shrimp left?
So was I overstocked with 12 fish and 4 shrimp?

 

[GuppyGoddess]

I'm still learing to convert liters to gallons. So, is 25l the equivilant of 6 US gallons (5.5 UK Gallons)?

I'd say your tank is overstocked. My 10 gallon (22 liters?) only has four fish (female betta and three rasboras). I'm still trying to decide what to do with future stocking, but feel the most I'd add, in addition, would be three more. . .making 7 fish total.

 

[ellena]

yes, 6.5 US, 5.5UK. That's why I go with litres, they're easier

 

[ellena]

Anyone else?

 

[Jonty]

24 cm = 10 inches
25l = 5.5 gal

Was your tank mature? 2 inches per gallon is ok in a mature tank, however I'm not sure about one that small where the water chemistry can be thrown around a bit.

 

[JustKia]

Is this the "bowl", ellena?
Just a thought but bowls usually have a smaller opening at the top which reduces the surface area of the water and thus reduces the capacity for gas exchange.
Something I learned the hard way is that the smaller the volume of water, the harder it is to keep the stats well balanced and the less forgiving the tank is to minor hiccups.
1cm per litre doesn't equate to the age old 1" per gallon. There's 2.5cm to an inch but 3.8litres to a US gallon. Although, I prefer that old "rule" to read "1 inch of small fish per us gallon, with an immature filter".
In a bigger tank with a mature filter you can very easily go over 1"/gallon. And obviously a discus that is 4" is going to put out a lot more waste than an adult kuhli loach - also around 4".
For a newly cycled filter 9.5/10" of fish in 5.5gal was overstocked.

 

[Truck]

its fine stocking wise. as long as aeration is up to scratch there should be no problems

 

[ellena]

Thanks everyone If my endlers get through this, I'm thinking I'll just get a couple more and have a shoal of 8. Not sure what to do about the shrimp. He'd better survive-it's because he's in there I had to use the meds that killed the filter!