So I Overstocked My Tank A Little . . .

[jdubs]

I have a fully cycled 16 gallon tank that has live plants.  I have 6 dwarf rasboras, 5 ember tetras, which are both relatively small.  I just put in 5 rosy tetras, which are also small.  The kicker is at the same time we decided to rescue a Betta.  The new fish have been in the tank about 2 weeks, but now the ammonia has climbed to .50.  This is the first time I have seen a spike since the tank has been cycled.
 
Question, will it every stabalize or do I need to remove some of the fish?  If so which ones?
 
Thanks in advance for an advice!!!

 

[techen]

Overstocked being a understatement.
 
In a 16 gal tank you can only have one shoal of fish, So say 6 ember tetras. But you have 3 groups of 6 and that's way to much.
 
You'll have to remove two groups, Also the betta may or may not get on with the tank mates. So beware there maybe some fighting about to kick start up.
 
The ammonia read sounds like the cycle has been kicked about and has possibly restarted. Meaning you may be starting the cycle again, Daily water changes are all you can do to keep ammonia down and remove a lot of the stock in the tank. The filter can't cope with the bioload.

 

[ech0o]

It will eventually stabilize, although when you overstock a tank there are a couple things you need to think about.  The first thing is is there enough room for all of those fish to swim freely, and are the confined quarters causing stress in the fish.  The second, when overstocking a tank, it is often times a good idea to ramp up the filter, or add a whole second filter to the tank, both for increased toxen filtration, but also for water movement.   The more fish the more waste, and the more gallons per hour you need to move through your filter to collect all the debris from the fish food/waste release.
 
Also, any debris on the floor of the tank will break down into ammonia, so the amount of time between water changes will have to be shortened from what you were doing before, maybe every 2 weeks you should do a nice large water change on top of a full gravel vacuuming.

Overstocked being a understatement.
 
In a 16 gal tank you can only have one shoal of fish, So say 6 ember tetras. But you have 3 groups of 6 and that's way to much.
 
You'll have to remove two groups, Also the betta male or may not get on with the tank mates. So beware there maybe some fighting about to kick start up.
 
The ammonia read sounds like the cycle has been kicked about and has possibly restarted. Meaning you may be starting the cycle again, Daily water changes are all you can do to keep ammonia down and remove a lot of the stock in the tank. The filter can't cope with the bioload.

 I plus 1 this, sometimes you can get 2 small shoals to live happily in those quarters, but 3 seems a bit much, and the betta might end up eating them all