Overstocked Already?

[Fish Sticks]

Just read one of my fish books last night and am quite shocked. It said that you can have a max of 4 apple snails in a 25 gallon tank.

I have a 20 gallon with 1 ramshorn snail, 3 apple/mystery snails and 5 platys.

Am I over stocked already?

 

[WILDER]

No lol

 

[Rex740]

It depends what 3 snails you have. Mystery go up to inch and apple go to 6 inch.

 

[WILDER]

What are your water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate, that will tell you if your tanks overstocked also

 

[Fish Sticks]

OK so as long as they aren't mysteries I should be good.

One of the snails has stayed the same size since I got him (about 4 weeks ago) he is still under an inch. And then there is an ivory one that has grown pretty fast in the past 2 weeks (but the tank said mystery snail). My last gold one has grown pretty fast too I have no clue what it said on his tank.


My tank hasn't fully cycled yet and I've been having lots of issues with cloudyness (only green clouds). But my newest results were 0 nitrate, 0 nitright, 7.5 PH and 0.25ppm of ammonia. I'm going to test again tonight.

 

[Musho3210]

What are your water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate, that will tell you if your tanks overstocked also

how?

 

[Dorkhedeos]

What are your water stats in ammonia,nitrite,nitrate, that will tell you if your tanks overstocked also

how?

It tells you your bioload. I base my stocking off of bioload, not the actual inch per gallon stuff. I am not saying the inch per gallon rule is bad, its just focused more towards new people and people with smaller tanks. Makes no sense that i only can have 55 cardinals in my 55 gallon tank and nothing else. That is just like a waste of a tank.

 

[Musho3210]

no i mean even in an overstocked tank you should still have enough space for bacteria if you use a decent filter, so ammonia and nitrite should always be 0, nitrates may rise fast but if you do regular water changes and your source water doesnt contain nitrate, then that should be low too.... Maybe im wrong though.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

IMO, normal stocking should put your nitrates to 20-40 every week

 

[WILDER]

If a tank is overstocked and you don't have a very good fitler water stats will tell you.
Snails are good for keeping things clean at the bottom.
I wouldn't add any more bottom dwellers, but the poster could add a few more little fish in the middle to top range of the tank.

 

[fry_lover]

IMO, normal stocking should put your nitrates to 20-40 every week

That depends on your tap water readings, many parts of the UK have 20-40 coming out the tap, so normal readings for those tanks nitrate wise could be 40-60

 

[CathyGo]

OK so as long as they aren't mysteries I should be good.

One of the snails has stayed the same size since I got him (about 4 weeks ago) he is still under an inch. And then there is an ivory one that has grown pretty fast in the past 2 weeks (but the tank said mystery snail). My last gold one has grown pretty fast too I have no clue what it said on his tank.

The mystery in mystery snail is what species they are. You can search online to find snail ID guides and compare to see what kind of snail you have.

 

[afishdude]

OK so as long as they aren't mysteries I should be good.

One of the snails has stayed the same size since I got him (about 4 weeks ago) he is still under an inch. And then there is an ivory one that has grown pretty fast in the past 2 weeks (but the tank said mystery snail). My last gold one has grown pretty fast too I have no clue what it said on his tank.


My tank hasn't fully cycled yet and I've been having lots of issues with cloudyness (only green clouds). But my newest results were 0 nitrate, 0 nitright, 7.5 PH and 0.25ppm of ammonia. I'm going to test again tonight.

backwards, mystery snails go to 1" in diameter, apple snails go to around 5-6" in diameter and are best in ponds.

when do you do your water changes?

 

[freshwaterfishlover]

no. Can add about another 5 fish platy side assuming you have good filteration.