"think Fish" Stocking Calculator

[mpoulton12345]

What do people thin the the thinkfish.co.uk stocking calculator. It seems very optomistic to me saying i could have 40 neon tetras in a 36x12x18 tank. or is this ok?

 

[netcode]

neons are like.. under an inch big of course you could have tons of them

the general rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per gallon.

 

[vancouver]

When you're talking 1'' of fish per gallon.. you're really only talking about tetras and guppies/platys..

You cant apply that rule to lets say cichlids.. a 12'' oscar in a 10g tank (24'').. not likely !

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

When you're talking 1'' of fish per gallon.. you're really only talking about tetras and guppies/platys..

You cant apply that rule to lets say cichlids.. a 12'' oscar in a 10g tank (24'').. not likely !

Even with tetras and platies, if you had 5 bloodfin tetras in a 5gal tank it would still be overstocked as it would not offer them enough space to shoal in.
I think overal, the 1inch of fish per gallon rule of thumb is very flawed- its just better to research fish from scratch, as there are too many varied species of fish in fish keeping for such a general rule to be applied to them all with any degree of success IMHO.

 

[Ingwe]

I think overal, the 1inch of fish per gallon rule of thumb is very flawed- its just better to research fish from scratch, as there are too many varied species of fish in fish keeping for such a general rule to be applied to them all with any degree of success IMHO.

I agree. The 1" of fish per gallon rule can be applied in such a small fraction of scenarios that it's not even worth having around. It's not like the rule came about as a result of scientific research. Really, it's only meant to be a concrete way of explaining stocking limits to beginners without scaring them away with talk of body mass and metabolism.

The only "rule" anyone needs to adhere to is to think about whether their fish have enough room that they aren't being forced to behave unnaturally or live in stressful proximity to predators, although keeping fish contained in glass in the first place kind of makes any effort to keep them in an entirely natural environment moot.

As long as your fish have plenty of room to swim and have pristine water, anything goes in my opinion.

 

[Paradise_Gourami]

yeah i dont really like that 1" per gallon "rule" its basically just there so newbies to the hobbie dont rediculously overstock a tank, after you know the basics common knowledge will be your guide to stocking (i.e. tank size, fish size, filtration capacity, etc) but yeah 40 neons would work ing a 36" tank, what is that like a 35 gal?

 

[RESGuy]

Sure 40 tetras though I would only put about 30


Its a 33 gallon tank BTW

 

[AnneRiceBowl]

a 36" tank could also be a 30 gallon long.

 

[Majjie]

What do people thin the the thinkfish.co.uk stocking calculator. It seems very optomistic to me saying i could have 40 neon tetras in a 36x12x18 tank. or is this ok?

The Thinkfish community calculator makes allowances for the amount of waste produced by the fish which is why it allows a high number of neon tetras - they are not high waste producers.

Where the calculator falls down (as do most "rules") is that it doesn't make any comment about fast swimming or large fish in a small tank - although the fish profiles themselves give you a minimum tank size for each fish.

I'd say you could keep 40 neons in your tank - as long as you had nothing else. Using the "1 inch of fish per 10-12 sq.ins of surface area" rule it also works ok

Course, if you don't want to do very regular water changes you'd be better off with a lower stocking level

 

[mpoulton12345]

i get different answers about stocking levels everywhere i look, the thinkfish says i can have 38 inches of fish which seems about right but it counts a neon as 2cm worth.

"The advised stocking level is based on a stocking value expressed in cm for all your chosen fish. This value is different to the fishes size in cm, in order to account for differences in waste production amounts. The stocking level does not account for individual fishes which may grow too large for your aquarium - Please check each fishes aquarium requirements to find out the minimum suitable tank size."

What do people think, i don't want to overstock. Has anyone else used the thinkfish calculator?