Ok everyone this is what im going to do, im going to ask certain people on different speices as such,
water parameters, pH,
KH,
GH?
DOCs?
Nitrates from tap water?
plants?
CO2?
substrate?
UGF vs.
HOB vs. canister?
aireation with air stones?
footprint of the tank (tall, hex, long)?
Tank mates (lg fish will eat small fish)?
LFS? (
LFS will encourage more fish because that's how they make money, not because they're right.)
Likelihood of getting diseases (fish more prone to illness should be lightly stocked)?
What fish do better with others? (A school of tetras will draw out a shy discus)
This is will be the intial “species profile”
Then more advanced
Things that figure into stocking:
1. The amount of work the aquarist wants to do. For example, I know someone who put two
FW angel fish in a 90 gallon tank. He automated the lights with timers and filled an auto feeder once every two weeks. Not much work to do for that tank. Heavier stocking requires more work.
2. The experience of the aquarist. One with more experience will be able to recognize when things are going downhill in a tank faster than a newbie. Thus perhaps a newbie should stock more lightly to start off.
3. Filtration equipment. If someone has a lot of extra filtration on a tank then perhaps more fish can be happily housed in it. If someone has a canister on a 30 gallon would they be able to house more fish than for an
HOB? .)
4. Plants. Do plants affect stocking plans?
5. The type of fish. Large bodied fish need more tank space than smaller ones.l (e.g., goldfish
need more tank space than a guppy). It would be good to give guidelines according to the kind of fish.
6. Some fish are schooling fish so there should be at least 6 of them (e.g., tetras). I didn't know that you really should count on having multiples of some kinds of fish. In a stocking guideline this would be good to mention.
7. Tank size. Some fish need more swimming room than what can be had in a particular tank. For example two african ciclids make up about a total of 10-inches of fish. But to put them in a 10 or 15 gallon tank would be cruel because they need something closer to 55 gallons to be able to swim around.
8. Aggression. If a fish is more aggressive/territorial, then it needs more space in the tank, not just more hiding places.
Credit to Cool chinchilla for all this cool info!!
This will all be put in a question forum, any that has any knowledge please by all means complete this with the Species of your expertise! I think ill be PM’ing Pufferpunk for Puffers , um and I don’t know who else can anyone please point me to some speices oriented people? Lol it would be a great help!
EDIT: KUDOS TO CCC !!!