How do I know the fish I want will fit in my tank?

[mattrox]

I came across this article that helps calculate minimum tank sizes for fish.

It focuses on cichlids, but can be applied to other species too.

Which Tank Size Will Fit My Fish?

 

[reefdiver]

basic rule is one inch per gallon tropical fish. But you can also say there is bio load (poop) tetras have smaller bio load so you can have more. It would also count how much filter you have and how much maintenance you willing to do.

 

[DragonFish71]

The one inch per gallon rule is a farce. Think about it, going by that a 10 inch oscar would be fine in a 10g tank. What they don't explain with the one inch to gallon thing is that you need to consider the adult size of the fish.


I go by my own rule, I know how big the fish should get by researching, then I mentally "divide" my tank into sections, from that I can say this fish needs roughly this much room. Then I go by what parts of the tank they prefer. Like my dragon gobys in our BW tank, they are bottom dwellers. The glass fish in there are mid to top, the mollies are all over and same with the shrimp.

But yes, bio-load also plays a big part in tanks. Some would consider our 115g tetra/angelfish tank grossly over stocked: 120 neons, 9 black neons, 5 harlequin rasboras, 6 glow light tetras, 12 guppies (for live food) 4 angelfish, 4 GBRs, 1 chocolate/albino pleco, 12 ghost shrimp, 9 nerite snails, 6 mystery snails, 3 peppered corys, 3 albino corys (with 10 more in QT). Sounds like a lot of poop right? That tank gets cleaned every other week and has less waste than our 115g or 120g cichlid tanks. Those get cleaned every week.

 

[reefdiver]

[Moderator edit] all that in one tank! Put a pic I got to see that tank sounds awesome!

 

[Fastfossil]

Yeah a pic would be great to see that amount of neons together.

 

[Sharkbait_Ls1]

Yeah a pic would be great to see that amount of neons together.

Not goingto lie... That does sound like it would look awesome!

 

[mommytron]

I go by my own rule, I know how big the fish should get by researching, then I mentally "divide" my tank into sections, from that I can say this fish needs roughly this much room. Then I go by what parts of the tank they prefer. Like my dragon gobys in our BW tank, they are bottom dwellers. The glass fish in there are mid to top, the mollies are all over and same with the shrimp.

i like this way of putting it. i mean it really comes down to research and a judgment call. knowing the adult size of the fish, and the area of a tank it will inhabit, can lead you to make an educated guess on how many fish of a certain size can fit in your tank. another thing to consider, especially when buying larger fish, is the shape of the tank. i mean, a 55 gallon is quite large, and holds an adequate volume of water for an oscar, but at adult size, the oscar is most likely to strech the entire depth of the tank. you want to make sure your fish has enough swimming space to turn around in the tank.

i would also agree to pretty much ignore the 1" per gallon rule, because there are simply way too many other factors to consider.

otherwise, if you are looking to stock a particular size tank, maybe you could let us know what size tank you have, and what kind of fish you are interested in, we could help you figure out what is suitable.

 

[DragonFish71]

Here's two pics. I took them so they are rather horrid. My husband takes better pics. These are about 2 months old and prior to the GBRs being added.

 

[Jason7894561230]

Its a good method DragonFish, considering that all fish swim in the same places as all fish is silly. For example panda corys will stay at the bottom (except when they come to the top) but Neons will mainly live around the middle to top.

 

[Fastfossil]

Nice one thanks

 

[Mark Hewitt]

The neons do look good, but what's always put me off them is that they always seem to space themselves equidistantly! Where as the likes of rummy noses stay in a light shoal.