Overstocking

[Bubble eye]

Why do people tell us our tanks are overstocked when they are similar in size to the ones at pet shops and have many less fish

 

[OohFeeshy]

Umm, becasue the shop tanks are gnerally temporary? Same reason, um, shops keep loads of hamsters in the same tiny cage.

 

[Shelly_Otterkin]

Alot of tanks at fish stores get daliy water changes to keep up with the fish waste. Also the fish are not full grown and if you look you will see dead fish. I like my tanks properly stocked with living fish.

 

[Bloo]

1) Shop tanks (generally) run one huge sumps with massive water filtration / turnover

2) It's temporary

 

[bunjiweb]

We get asked this question at work alot and the simple answers we give are..

- The tanks in the shop have an automatic water changer that comes on twice a day. NO ONE will do this on their tank at home...
- They are gravel cleaned usually twice a week to remove all the poo....Most tanks are lucky if it gets done twice yearly!
- And most of all its completely temporary, a tank of fish might be half emptied within a week, so even if you have 250 cardinal tetra in a 20 gallon tank, by the end of the week there may only be 50 left, and within 2 weeks the entire batch will have been sold. In your tank the fish are in there for the long run so you can't cram the tank full of fish and hope for the best.

Ben