Hungry Seacow
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
I was reading The Complete Aquarium, and it mentions that the amount of freshwater fish one can have in a tank depends on the amount of surface area of a tank. A ten gallon tank is 10" x 20" giving you 200 square inches. Divide that by 10 and you get 20 inches of fish. I think that in a way this method is a bit silly. You could have a 10 gallon or a 15 gallon high and both would have the same surface area. I am thinking that the authors logic is based on oxygen exchange. But if that is the case then what if you had a bunch of Labyrinth Fish. They would not need such a large surface area for oxygen exchange.
Now with that said, I don't think that either method is accurate. One inch of a skinny fish is going to produce a lot less waste then one inch of a fat fish. Then you also need to think about which fish are OK in large groups and which like to have a lot of room to themselves. Too bad there isn't a grand web site to help one figure out how many of which species will fit into a particular tank.
Now with that said, I don't think that either method is accurate. One inch of a skinny fish is going to produce a lot less waste then one inch of a fat fish. Then you also need to think about which fish are OK in large groups and which like to have a lot of room to themselves. Too bad there isn't a grand web site to help one figure out how many of which species will fit into a particular tank.