Stocking Advice Please

[lauramikks]

Oh god i have enough trouble with my own dont think i could put up with my fishes aswell.
Plus what do i do with all thoose babies

 

[Wills]

The rule of thumb is 1" of fish per Gallon of water. So 48 litres = 10.55852 Gallons. But dont forget you have put gravel in the tank & 1 kilogram displaces 1 litre of water. So if you have 4 kg of gravel you have to take that away so it actualy becomes a 44 litre tank.
44 litres = 9.67 Gallons.

So if all of your fish grow to an inch long you can only put 10 in the tank at the very most (I rounded the total up).

The inch per gallon rule is an okay tool to quickly tot up numbers in your head but realistically its pointless - especially when you start taking water displacement into consideration. Your just limiting your self to an empty tank.

So long as the gravel is smooth pebbles not like jagged slate etc or rough they pygmy cories would work well but if your worried about the overstocking of the tank go for cherry shrimp or bee shrimp something like that nice little critters for the tank and add an extra level of life to the tank. I would up the tetras to 6 as well - you have to balance stocking with needs and in this case these fish need schools and in a 50 liter tank your not going to have problems.

In small tanks you are always best off with just male livebearers if thats what you want in your tank People say they get aggressive and "frustrated" in just male numbers but it really is nothing at all.

Wills

 

[Carlovel1]

If you have a 10 gallon tank, it doesn't mean you can have a 10 inch fish

 

[fluttermoth]

If you have a 10 gallon tank, it doesn't mean you can have a 10 inch fish

You are quite right, of course, carlovel. I'm always careful to stress to newbies if I quote that rule that it only applies to small to average sized fish like tetras and livebearers. With that proviso in place, I still think it has its uses as a rule of thumb.

 

[Aqua Tom]

If you have a 10 gallon tank, it doesn't mean you can have a 10 inch fish

You are quite right, of course, carlovel. I'm always careful to stress to newbies if I quote that rule that it only applies to small to average sized fish like tetras and livebearers. With that proviso in place, I still think it has its uses as a rule of thumb.

My bad, I was just trying to help, sorry if I came across as a now it all when in fact I know nothing. The information I gave was from reasearch rather than experience.


I do apologise.

 

[lauramikks]

Thanks everyone youve been so helpfull so i will up my tetras to 6 should i stay with the beacons or can i get 3 other tetras and go with pygmy corys. Thanks again

 

[Wills]

3 more Beacon Tetras - for schooling fish like them its minimum groups of 6 though more is ideal though your tank does not allow for this. In the wild all fish termed as shoaling fish are found in schools of 50-1000 depending on species, time of the year and location. In our tanks unless you dedicate the tank to that one species your not going to be able to match that or unless you have a large tank. 6 is kind of the figure people agree as a minimum as it lets the fish gather a sense of security in numbers and also some kind of hierachy as well.

Wills

 

[nattetra]

how about some danios