Help with stocking levels needed please!

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wakijaki

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Jun 21, 2011
Messages
17
Location
Wales, by the sea
Can anyone advise me on stocking levels? Everywhere I look says different things! I don't want to overstock obviously but would like to make the most of the tank.
I have a 190litre corner community tank currently home to -
6 neon tetras
2 rosy tetas
5 lampeyes
3 sterbai corydoras
2 pygmy corydoras
2 endlers
2 guppies
2 swordtails
2 blue rams
2 neon dwarf gouramis
2 red honey gouramis

I have an external filter for the tank that is meant for a tank size 200-400litres.

I was advised to use AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor but can't because it won't recognize that my tank is a corner one. Have also explored the community creator on Think Fish - The Tropical Fish Keeping Resource - Community Creator but that says my tank is only a 1/3rd full.

I mostly just want to make up the numbers but would like to put more in there if I could but obviously not at the risk of stressing the fish out.

Just wondered what everyone out there uses as a guide and do you go by fish size ect or take into consideration filter size? Any advice would be great! Thanks :fish2:
 
IDK how accurate this is, but when I first did research on the web about stocking amounts, the rule of thumb was 1" of fish per one gallon of water. You should calculate the adult size of the fish and give more consideration to "fat bodied" fish as they require more water/space than narrow bodied fish. I have seen many people on this forum mention that some fish have a higher bioload than others meaning that say a goldfish would generate more waste/mess than a similiar sized fish. Good luck!
 
Stocking Levels

Hello waki...

If my math is correct you have close to a 50 gallon tank. The important thing to know is the surface area of your tank, that's just the length times the width of the top surface of your aquarium. A 50 gallon long, tank can safely handle more fish than a 50 gallon tall, because there is more surface area to allow oxygen into the tank and carbon dioxide and other wastes to go out.

Here's one stocking rule: Multiply the length times the width of the surface of your tank, and allow 12 inches of surface area for every 1 inch of fish. If I have a 45 gallon tall tank 36 inches tall X 12 inches wide, that's 432 inches. Divided by 12 inches, that's 36 one inch fish I can safely have in the tank.

If you have good water filtration and a steady source of aeration in the tank, you could add a few more fish, but just a few.

Hope this helps!

B
 
Can anyone advise me on stocking levels? Everywhere I look says different things! I don't want to overstock obviously but would like to make the most of the tank.
I have a 190litre corner community tank currently home to -
6 neon tetras
2 rosy tetas
5 lampeyes
3 sterbai corydoras
2 pygmy corydoras
2 endlers
2 guppies
2 swordtails
2 blue rams
2 neon dwarf gouramis
2 red honey gouramis
Fifty gallons of water...this is what I suggest. Fill out your corydora school and tetra school, get rid of some of the fish, and call it a day. Guppies are like rabbits, they will breed like crazy. I'm concerned about your gouramis as well, did you just get them? How have they been acting? If you're not careful, sometimes dwarf gouramis attack each other.

I have an external filter for the tank that is meant for a tank size 200-400litres.

I was advised to use AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor but can't because it won't recognize that my tank is a corner one. Have also explored the community creator on Think Fish - The Tropical Fish Keeping Resource - Community Creator but that says my tank is only a 1/3rd full.

Many people frown upon AqAdvisor. I am one of many members that do not recommend using it. It's good for a very rough ballpark estimate, but nothing to be using as a general guideline at all.

I mostly just want to make up the numbers but would like to put more in there if I could but obviously not at the risk of stressing the fish out.

Just wondered what everyone out there uses as a guide and do you go by fish size ect or take into consideration filter size? Any advice would be great! Thanks :fish2:

I wrote in bold red.

As for stocking rules, there are none. Stock your tank by adult size of the fish, their level of activity, their personalities, their demeanor, your filtration, size of tank, and of course practicality and common sense.

Mentioned in some of the posts was the inch per gallon rule. That, like AqAdvisor, is not a very good rule. Maybe as a super rough stocking guideline for the fish it was created for and stay one inch, like neon tetras, but nothing more. Why? ---->http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...inch-per-gallon-rule-and-stocking-165674.html

Good luck! :)
 
I wrote in bold red.

As for stocking rules, there are none. Stock your tank by adult size of the fish, their level of activity, their personalities, their demeanor, your filtration, size of tank, and of course practicality and common sense.

Mentioned in some of the posts was the inch per gallon rule. That, like AqAdvisor, is not a very good rule. Maybe as a super rough stocking guideline for the fish it was created for and stay one inch, like neon tetras, but nothing more. Why? ---->http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...inch-per-gallon-rule-and-stocking-165674.html

Good luck! :)

agree with bruins...some of your stock needs to be in school of at least 6 or more (tetras and cories). I hope your dwarf gouramis are both females or male and female, coz if they are all males, they will kill each other. They are pretty terrotorial like the bettas.
 
To use some online calculators with a corner tank, I find it easier to compute my the actual surface area and then define a custom tank size that is close to the calculated actual surface area of your tank.

You didn't mention whether you have a bow front or not, but I did a quick Google of 190L corner tanks and all of them I saw were bow fronts. One of them gave an engineered drawing showing a length of 70 cm for the back and side with a bow front. That makes sense because my 55 gal corner bow front is 27 inches on the back and side and is about the same capacity as what you say yours is.

I compute for a circle with a radius of 70cm and then divide by 4. That gives you the actual surface area for the quarter of a circle your corner bow front makes.

The calculation for a circle is the radius squared times pi, or 70 times 70 = 4900 times 3.14 = 15386. Then we want to take only 25% of the full circle, or 15386 divided by 4 = 3846.5 square cm of surface area.

Once you have the surface area you can make up the dimensions of a rectangular tank that would equal the same. Just take your actual surface area and divide by either the length or width you want to use.

If you want to use a 40cm width, 3846.5 / 40 = 96.1625, or about a 95 or 100 cm tank length would be close. Obviously, you can use any numbers that equal your surface area.

If you wanted to use the AqAdvisor tank generator, you can choose the 54 Gal Corner option in the drop down menu, but remember to change your cm to inches. You will end up with a 205L tank, which is close. Or, use 95cm length and 40 cm depth with a 50 cm height and you will get your 190L spot on.

Hope that helps,
 
Wow! thanks so much for all your replies!
I am currently waiting for a 90 litre tank to cycle (fishless) so I will be moving the endlers and probably the pygmy corys to that as I have since learned that you shouldn't keep endlers with guppies incase they cross breed.
I know some of my fish need to be in schools of 6 but when I first started out I was a bit like Noah and filled the tank with pairs of different fish so I am now slowly adding to make up the school numbers as I don't want to put too many fish in at once, have also had some losses along the way until I got myself an api test kit and learned all about cycling the tank so that has affected shoal numbers.
As for my gouramis - I had my 2 red honeys for about 4 or 5 months now and because they were so great to watch I bought the neon dwarfs about 2 months ago and they haven't even looked at each other in all that time. I don't know what sex they are so maybe that might have something to do with it? I had assumed that they were all male as they haven't shown any mating behaviour and so far they are the most easy going members in the tank. I was told not to keep more than 1 pair of rams in the tank as they are territorial but haven't heard about gouramis being agressive before. maybe i just got lucky?!
Im pretty sure that the 2 guppies are both male as i know the females are not as colourful and havent seen a peep of a baby guppy so far, but they get on great together.
As for gallonage I was going to say its just over 40 gallons but just realised that usa gallons are smaller than uk one so yes would be 50 usa gallons and it is a bow front.
Thank you bruinsbro1997 for the link - will check that out in a mo!

Dale_I - as soon as i have had my coffee and woken up a bit i will get out my tape measure, calculator and thinking head and give your maths a go!

daileene - won't the endlers breed like crazy if there are more females than males? I have no idea what sex the 2 I have now are and haven't had them long!
thank you all so much for all your help and advice!
 
Hi wakijaki...no problem. yes they will if you wanted to have a breeding team. I didn't know if you were. But if not, two males is fine. I liked it when you said you were like noah, trying to pair them off. :) I feel like that sometimes. The only thing different about noah's time is that, the pair were male and female. LOL. In our fish world, if we don't want them to populate, we can get 2 males and they are fine.

With regards to the gouramis, they do tend to be territorial so when they have other males around, they tend to fight for a certain territory. But maybe yours was able to agree with different areas in your tank to own so they are not killing each other yet. I made the mistake of getting 3 males before and only one survive, the rest died. I think it was survival of the fittest. Anyway, just watch them closely. If they are okay right now, and for that long, maybe they got along together. Your tank is big enough to have a spot of their own. They are very cute and I love them. You can tell if they are males by their dorfins. The males tend to be more sharper and the females are roundish. And of course the male's color are always more vibrant than the females.

Please do post a picture. I would like to see how it looks one day. :-D We are very picture hungry around here in AA. Hehe.
 
Daileene - as much as I am tempted by the flitter flutter of tiny fins I am trying to not breed them! Although saying that one of my swordtails has been getting fatter and fatter since I have had them so i was getting excited thinking it was pregnant...however I'm guessing now after 4 or 5 months that it is just fat!
the 2 pairs of gouramis pay no attention to each other at all and unless they have been organising night time scraps when Im in bed they seem fine although i will bear that in mind as I was hoping to get another pair - maybe pearls - so will watch out for any of that behaviour.
What fish do you have and do you have a problem with being addicted? I find myself searching for hours on end for bigger tanks, got my 2nd one waiting to cycle now although its only a 20g so i won't put much in there!
Everytime i go to get some new tank mates i find myself wanting them all...would love to go into marines but haven't got the money :-(
A picture hey? I will try but the fish won't stay still! Lol x
 
LOL. I know. Those endlers are just so beautiful. Pearl or sparkling gouramis tend to stay smaller so it's a good addition. But yes, watch them carefully. They are known to fight if they became territorial.

I have 4 tanks with fish right now. I have a new 20G long currently cycling without fish so I have 5 tanks now. In the 4 tanks I have the following:

4.4G flatback hex: 1 x halfmoon double tail male betta (my son named him "spidey"

5G: 1 x halfmoon double tail male betta (named him "Brendan")

10G (living room): 1 x Cardinal tetra and 4 x ember tetras (I know this are not school right now. The cardinal used to be school of 5 but they started dying on me from the other tank so I transferred the only 1 remaining in this tank and he seemed fine. But I will be buying more of them so they can be a school. As well as the embers, I will have to get 1-2 of them so I can complete my school.)

10G (bed room): 1 x delta tail betta male betta - "Leonardo" (this tank used to house 5 x harlequin rasboras, 5 x cardinal tetras, 1 rainbow dwarf gourami and 1 female dwarf gourami. All of them died but 1 cardinal-which I transferred to the other 10. I have a problem with this tank before when I went away for a week and when I came home, they started dying one by one.)

For now, all the remaining fish are healthy and thriving. I am planning of adding some residents in my 10G in the bedroom since I am sure now that the water is fine. One of the fish in my list is the black bar endlers and another set of harlequin rasboras. I really loved my old set. They had a lot of personality and they were very pretty.

I hear what you are saying about getting all kinds of fish...they are all so adorable. But like you, I am limited in space (in the house), funds, and time. :-D

Anyway, I did find the images of your bowfront tank. You did a very nice job. Do you live plants?
 
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