Tank Size Vs Stocking Levels

[sannesley]

Just need a little help with a reminder here. As far as I remember the rough rule of thumb for stocking a tropical tank is 1 inch of fish per 1 gallon of water. Which would mean that the 70 litre tank I'm getting should hold about 24 inches of fish. Am I right, and is there a metric equivelant for this calculation?

P.S.just worked out that the metric equivelant would be 2.5cm of fish per 4 litre of water

 

[dwarfgourami]

A 70 ltr tank is only about 19 US gallons.

 

[sannesley]

A 70 ltr tank is only about 19 US gallons.

So what does that mean for stocking levels??

 

[Andyman77]

Well, you can have 19 inches of fish in your tank.Say you had 6 Tiger Barbs. They each grow to be app. 3 inches and 6 times 3 is 18 inches.Then you would be pretty much full.

 

[mark.w.jones]

Well, you can have 19 inches of fish in your tank.Say you had 6 Tiger Barbs. They each grow to be app. 3 inches and 6 times 3 is 18 inches.Then you would be pretty much full.

However, the rule does not work for bigger fish over 3". For example, we wouldnt recommend that you get a 19" Oscar. You also need to be careful that what you buy is compatable and will suit a relatively small tank like yours. You cant really get anything too active in your tank as it doesnt have the swimming length needed. Some fish books, like the one by Baensch, give an indication of the length of tank that will suit them.

 

[sannesley]

Point taken about buying fish that suit the characteristics of the tank. My current stock consists of 1 Platy, a neon tetra, 3 glowlight tetras and 1 red eyed tetra. I'll want to transfer these fish over to the new tank. using the Community Creator on another site I'd eventually like to end up with the following:

6 glowlight tetra
6 Neon tetra
2 Platy
5 Red eyed tetra
4 Fiveband barb
3 Catfish

 

[dwarfgourami]

That thinkfish community creator lets you put a lot of fish in a tank- too many in my opinion. It leaves you very little leeway should the filter go wrong. You may at least want to look at a back-up filter, though even that may not help much if there is a power cut while you are away. For this reason I prefer to stock more moderately. I have a 70 ltr tank sitting next to my computer and just turning my head and looking at it makes me think that your plan would make it quite full. I would leave the barbs out of the equation and up the numbers of tetras. As for your one platy- is it male or female? If female, adding another female should be ok, but 2 males may fight and a pair can be stressful for the female.

 

[mark.w.jones]

That community creator is a pulsating boil on the a**e of beginners fish keeping. You might as well pluck a random number out of the air to decide how many fish to get. Stick to 1" per US gallon in the beginning and you can't go far wrong. Once your tanks more mature and you get more experienced you can think about over stocking but must understand the impliacations of this.

 

[sannesley]

I bought a Juwel Rekord 80 with monolux lighting yesterday . I've had it filled for 24 hours now and the temperature has stabilised at the same as the 20 litre existing tank. I have 3 pieces of new bogwood and one large plastic plant which I got with the tank. I've also added 2 ornaments and a small plastic bush from the existing tank to start some of the bacteria off.

I'll probably add the fish from the 20 litre tank on Friday and stuff the filters from the existing tank into the filter system in the new one and hang the substrate from the 20 litre tank in the new tank for a couple of weeks to get the bacteria going. Then I'll slowly start building up the stock after christmas.