Stocking Help Please! Don't Want To Overcrowd

[cd100]

Hi,
My friends say I am being paranoid and there is no way this will be a problem, but I wanted to check with people who know...i.e..you lot! I'm into marines and have only had my freshwater for about 6 months.
I have a 4ft tank, which holds 190 litres. I am using a Fluval 205 external canister, a Fluval u3 internal, and I have a 2,700 lph powerhead. The 205 is rated at about 680lph, but it actually returns only 420 lph into tank. The internal pumps 360lph, so I have 780 lph ACTUALLY being filtered, plus of course the current (2700lph) from the powerhead.  I do 2 water changes per week, 15-20 litres a time.  All water parameters are good. P.H is just under 7.
I have a gravel mix bottom with a fair bit of bogwood and only 3 plants (mainly due to the current/water oxygenation)
Ok. I have 3 little bristlenose, 5 torpedo barbs (babies at the moment, although I realise that they get quite large) and 3 zebra loach (botia kubaoti). 
My question is this...my son wants to put his 4 zebra plecos in the tank. They are only about an inch long each, and I know that they don't get very big, but according to the inch per gallon rule am I already overstocked? 
Sorry to have written an essay for such a simple question, just wanted to give you as many details as I could.
Thanks in advance
Claire

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Hi. Firstly welcome to the forum!

Your tank is around 50 US Gallons so the rule of thumb you can use is 50 inches of fish for your tank, making sure that's the adult size of the fish.

Zebra Loaches get to around 3 inches so that's 9 inches of fish, Torpedo Barbs can get up to 5 inches so that's 25 inches alone and Bristlenose Plecos get to about 3 inches so that's 9 inches, making a total of 43 inches for your tank. Zebra Plecos get to about 3 inches so you could just about squeeze 2 in.

I think what you really need to do is have a look at your Torpedo Barbs. They get quite big so take up half the available space in your tank. If you want them, that's fine, but you can't add much more to what you have.

Personally if it were me I'd stick to the Bristlenoses and Zebra Loaches, re-home the Torpedos and avoid the Zebra Plecos. That would then give you 32 inches of fish to play with and you can get a wide variety of smaller fish that will liven things up in your tank, particularly a nice shoaling species like the Rummy Nose Tetra. You could get 10 of them which would take up around 17 inches of your capacity, still leaving you with another 17.

Dwarf Gourami for the top range of your tank for example? A few of them?

The bottom line is that if you want the bigger fish like Torpedos and even the Plecos which, even though they're not the biggest of the species, they still grow to 3-4 inches and any more than 1 or 2 is eating into your allowance.

 

[cd100]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
I know the torpedo's take up a lot of my space, but they're the whole reason I wanted a freshwater tank, and I was told to not have less than 4 of them

The rummy nose and the dwarf gourami sound appealing, but you can't have it all, right? Would the Gourami cope with the strong current?
Is the inch per gallon rule hard and fast, or can exceptions be made with better filtration/ water changes?
Thanks

 

[the_lock_man]

It's not set in stone, no, but it's a halfway decent rule of thumb for a newcomer to the hobby.

 

[Lunar Jetman]

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
I know the torpedo's take up a lot of my space, but they're the whole reason I wanted a freshwater tank, and I was told to not have less than 4 of them
The rummy nose and the dwarf gourami sound appealing, but you can't have it all, right? Would the Gourami cope with the strong current?
Is the inch per gallon rule hard and fast, or can exceptions be made with better filtration/ water changes?
Thanks

Gouramis would prefer slightly calmer water, however if the Torpedos are your reason for having the tank, you need to ensure any tank mates are of a similar size or at least not too small so I think you will just have to accept the numbers you have unfortunately.

Either that or get a bigger tank...

 

[cd100]

Hi
Yes, thanks for your advice.
I think I will take the zebra plecs for now, seeing as the barbs and the loaches that I have are only babies. This will give my son time to decide what he wants to do, and the time to set up a new tank if that's what he wants. Take it I've got a few months to play with?
I really don't want to lose the Torpedo's..I love them!