Stocking The 20 Gallon

[mousey]

'wilder" comments that my 20 gallon is overstocked.
I have
2 male blackskirts,3 females-- 4 years old
3 female guppies
2 full grownSAE's--4years old
2 N corica loaches
1 dwarf gourami
2 baby danios

Before my fish started to die
I had 1 mature blue gourami-- 4 years old
4 SAE"S--4years
4 N corica loaches
3 guppies
1 betta
5 black skirts-4years
addinganother gourami seemed to trigger the dying spree as well as one of the loaches had skinny and died at about the same time.
How do my current inhabitants seem overstocked?

Also on the same topic, my 15 gallon contains 12 teenage platys,1otto,1 baby sae
2 guppies and a gold teenage gourami.2 swords
I guess this is overstocked too?
I recently gave away 4 guppies and 2 platys from this tank and moved the betta out.

What is a decent amount of fish to have?
I guess for the past number of years I have had too many fish in there.

 

[chibi]

The rule of trade is 1 inch per gallon, give or take.

I've got the same problem, overstocking my tanks. I just love buying new fish, but sometimes it just gets crowded! You have 15 fish in your 20 gallon, and that's waaay too many. Blackskirts get about 2 inches long. Siamese Algae eaters get to be about 5 inches long. That's 20 inches already! If you want to get rid of some fish, I'd get rid of the loaches. If you love them too much, then I'd get rid of all the guppies.

Your 15 gallon is very crowded too! Gold gouramis get big! I've seen them at 5 inches. He's probably gonna grow very big, so I'd get him out of that tank. If you plan to keep all the platys, get rid of the guppies and swords.

I know this sounds bad, telling me to get rid of all these fish, but it's for the best. Overstocked tanks have problems with nitrate (aka fish poo) and it pollutes the water. This can kill your fish and cause all sorts of problems. It would be best to find new homes for some of your fish.