Put it down to inexperience

[Mcor]

I'm in a quandary. This is our first tank, we went for a big one to begin with as money is tight and we couldn't afford to upgrade further down the line. Essentially we have overstocked our tank. Now I need advice as to what would need rehoming.

It's a 250litre tall. In it we have 2 opalines gouramis, 2 golden gouramis, 11 danios, 7 penguin tetras, 9 adult platys and a lot of fry, 3 yoyo loaches (questionable advice from LFS regarding not being overstocked despite being at the brink of full), and 6 baby bn plecos who we rehomed for a friend whose breeding pair just keep breeding!

As we stand, knowing that many are young and still tiny, it's not *URGENT* per se, but our nitrates are consistently high and I need to do something sooner or later. So. What do I rehome? Or do you think we're actually not as badly overstocked as I'm imagining? The plecos definitely have to go. I want to keep one of them only. (Don't want any breeding happening!). The penguins are actually the main culprit for eating fry so that's excellent population control but I'm still ending up with 5-10 survivors with each drop from the platys. The danios could probably go. I don't know. HELP!

 

[Coyne]

For sure reduce the BN to just one, as planned. Then see about reducing your Platys to only 3 or 4. All females if you want to stop the madness Then you should be pretty good as far as stocking quantity goes.

What kind of filtration do you have? How often are you willing/able to do water changes?

As far as stocking quality goes....
What kind of Danio do you have? The smaller variety might be eaten by the gourami and/or yoyo loaches.
I'm no expert on gourami, but a little research suggested the two species may get aggressive with each other. Maybe in a tank that size it won't be a problem. Hopefully somebody with experience can speak to this.

Will your LFS or any friends be able to help with taking the extra BN and Platys off your hands?

 

[Mcor]

Haha!! Thank you!! D'you know I hadn't considered just getting rid of the males! Problem would be solved then!

The danios are zebra, leopard, and some other silvery colour ones. The gouramis have sorted out their pecking order so no issues with them.

Excellent things to consider, thank you!

 

[Coyne]

I went ahead an filled out an AqAdvisor for you. I wasnt sure what kind of filter you had, so I just picked one. The percentages it gives isnt the final word on whether or not youre overstocked, but I think it gives you a good idea of roughly what to aim for.

AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor

Plug the right filter into the equation and play with the numbers of different fish to help you out more.

 

[Mcor]

Thanks. I tried that, but It messed around with me. Was entering fish and then it randomly started deducting fish so every time I added more I ended up with less in the tank (!?). I think I'm around 150% stocked. That, and curiously, I entered my tank dimensions and it thinks my tank is 95g but its 66g. Odd. So, I don't think I can trust it even if it entered my fish in right. Confused.