Counting Bioload

[Alshain]

Ok, so my brother in law has a 50 gallon tank and several tetras. All of his fish are adult and I doubt they will grow anymore at this point but they are smaller than their normal adult size. I want to take him some of my swordtail fry to fill up his tank once they are bigger but I don't know how to count "odd" shaped fish. He has a 50 gallon tank and about 54" surface area. His fish are as follows...

5 Buenos Aires Tetra 3" long
4 Black Skirt Tetra 2" long
2 Silver Tip Tetra 1" long
1 Golden Barb 3" long
2 Common Plecos 6" long

ok so I've got 40" there, but he also has a Dojo Loach thats about 5 inches, do I count the whole 5"? Hes is long but very small so I don't know how that works.

 

[SCFatz]

Ok, so my brother in law has a 50 gallon tank and several tetras. All of his fish are adult and I doubt they will grow anymore at this point

This statement may be true for every tetra on the list...I'm not familiar with them all,but...

2 Common Plecos 6" long

These guys have a long way to go.....up to 18"...these two fish alone will outgrow that tank imo.

I don't have any for that very reason and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Alshain]

These guys have a long way to go.....up to 18"...these two fish alone will outgrow that tank imo.

I don't have any for that very reason and I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

He has had these for 4 years now, they haven't grown for 2 years. I can't imagine them getting any bigger.

 

[SCFatz]

heres one link...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Pleco

There are others.

Either they not a common plecos or they going to get bigger.You will have to decide which is correct...
I'm just mentioning what I have learned hoping it will help with the decision making process.Best of luck.

 

[Alshain]

One of them looks like that, the other is brown with white spots and about the same size. They are big but haven't grown any in quite some time.

One of them is Liposarcus pardalis . I *think* the other is Baryancistrus sp.

Anyway, I was wondering about the dojo, he is thin and small but very long, so how do I count that?

 

[Speakerman]

I've seen plecos get huge buddy, over 20 inches. They keep growing for a long long time. After 4-5+ years, then you will know how big that particular one will get. Once they get huge like that, you basically have to put them in a pond unless you have a very huge aquarium.

 

[czcz]

Anyway, I was wondering about the dojo, he is thin and small but very long, so how do I count that?

FWIW, I don't think you should worry so much about it in terms of inches. If you're thinking of adding another fish, more effective may be asking if the swordtail fry will be okay.*

Inches/gal, like many things in this hobby, helps but is only a guide. Not to type for them*, but I believe SCFatz and SPeakerman are indicating it is the bioload and potential size of the plecos that will hold your brother-in-law's tank back. Perhaps suggest he bring one or both back to the LFS to widen his stocking options?

HTH

(*edited)

 

[Alshain]

Well the more I think about it the more I think they are longer than I said (I'm bad at estimations). I still don't think they are going to grow anymore but they are probably closer to 10".

I think the reason he has 2 is because he had the black one already in a smaller tank while it was young, when he got the big tank, it came with the gold nugget. He wanted to keep the gold nugget and my sister wanted to keep the black, so they ended up keeping both.

 

[SCFatz]

Not to type for them

Feel free lol....

Your question was about biolaod (inches) in the brother in law's tank.
You were thinking of adding some swords to fill it out a bit more.

The answer is don't imo....even if a dojo only gets an inch long