Thinkfish.co.uk

[puppyjess123]

Well i entered my stocking on the virtual tank and except for these problmes:
Three Spot Gouramies may grow too large and/or boistrous to be kept with Neon Tetras"
"Three Spot Gourami must kept in quantities of 4 or more."
I'm fine.
It also says i can have guide stocking level: 145.8cm. and mine is : 108cm not counting the albino and common plecs so when i rehome these will i be able to get 40 cm more of fish or is thing wrong. As someone on here once said i was fully stocked WITHOUT the plecs.

 

[puppyjess123]

no-one know.....

 

[BigC]

Stocking guidelines mean just that... guidelines
You can go over these (within reason) as long as you perform regular waterchanges and keep an eye on you water stats.
Regards
BigC

 

[puppyjess123]

Thanks. I won't go over but i'll go on (if you now what i mean). So when i rehome plecs i will get another 40cm or so of fish. Any recommendations?

Lucy

 

[tyyrlym]

Forget about the "cm of fish" nonsense. It's a guideline and a very very vague one at that. It's also completely useless when it comes to big fish like a pleco.

If your profile stats are right more neons and more corys.

 

[puppyjess123]

Kk i'll get 5 more neons to 10. And i've got 6 cories know. 2 peppered, 2 bronze and 2 albino they all shoal together (unexpected) so i don't need mroe of their own "kind", do i?

 

[tenohfive]

I used the CC on Thinkfish when I first started but theres too many things to take into account to make it accurate - although in its favour it will stop you mixing some fish that are bad for each other (though not all.)

Posting up on here with any potential additions (or for ideas of what to add) you'll get a reliable answer. Just remember to mention your tank size, stocking list and filtration.

 

[drufly]

I have never used the rule of cm/inch its rubbish. Apart from a stunted guppy i have had no probs with any of my current fish which are all in a 90ltr tank atm. I am lookng to get more so i am getting a 240ltr and putting in 2 pair of keyholes and 3 or 5 cockatoo dwarfs in with the current stock. As mentioned just keep everything good water stats and that.

 

[pippoodle]

with the fish and shrimp i got it says my current stocking levels are 110 cms
and my Guide stocking level: 288.456cm

i'm only going to add a few more fish cos i dont want it too full there guide states i could nearly triple what i got in there if i did that i wouldn't think the fish would have enough room to swim

 

[tyyrlym]

You could certainly add more fish but I don't think I'd triple the number you have.

The problem is simple with the inch of fish rule. Not all inches are created equal. Since volume increases with the cube of the length fish get bigger WAY faster than they get longer. For example, a 6 inch red line torpedo barb is four times as long as a 1.5 inch neon tetra. However the RLTB has approximately 64 times the body mass of the neon. While its not accurate to assume the RLTB will eat 64 times the food of the neon and make 64 times the waste it does make significantly more than just four times the waste of the neon. That's why the inches of fish rule is so useless. It doesn't even work that well for small fish, a 2.5 inch platy has four and a half times the body mass of a 1.5 inch neon. Actually its probably more like 6 or more times the mass of the neon because platys aren't as vertically compressed as a neon. That's another place the rule falls flat, it doesn't take into account the shape of a fish. Some fish are naturally big bodied, there's even significant variation within species. Female cories are much broader than males and consequently have more body mass even though they may be the same length.

It's just a bad rule, barely acceptable as a guidline. It's at best a vague notion.