Stocking Back Up To Max

[Shifty1303]

Hi everyone!
 
Just a quick one for you today if anyone could help me?
 
Haven't stocked up in a while and i know the old inch per gallon rules etc are a little too basic in the grand scheme of things so need some advice on stocking.
 
I have a roma 200 with about 180l of water in it after decorations which currently contains:
 
7x praecox rainbows
7x black ruby barbs
1x snakeskin barb
1x glowlight tetra
12x panda cory
 
I would like to get more tetras as i feel so sorry for the little chap on his own but I am wondering how many i can get in there? basic calculation suggests about 4-5 more but im unsure. I have a fluval U4 filter so no extra quota from high filtration etc. 
 
Also would only glowlight's mix properly with the existing one or can I mix tetra species a little? I always love new species if anyone has a good tetra suggestion but most important is proper company for the little fella.
 
Cheers!
Shifty

 

[Akasha72]

I can only speak for the tetra here but he needs at least 8 or 9 of his own kind. Tetra's are a shoaling species and need to be in groups of around 10. That would be a group of the samw species not 8 or 9 different species of tetra. I'm no expert on barbs but I know these are better in larger groups too as it breaks up the aggression. The snakeskin barb (not heard of this one) is there some reason it's on it's own? Has it's tank mates passed on? It's possible that the black rubies might see this as an opportunistic way to bully it so keep a watch on that.
 
I know nothing about rainbows - sorry.
 
The cories are all good. You've got a nice group there and so they'll be fine. As they are a bottom dweller and the others are middle/top dwellers there's no issue there.
 
As to over-stocking. You can normally tell by looking if there's over crowding. It is okay to be a little over stocked, a lot of us are, but so long as you keep your weekly maintenance routine good there's often no real problem, just keep an eye on the Nitrates and keep the water changes at the higher end