How many fish in my tank?

[cyberil]

For 2 months now I have an 85 gallon (320 litre) tank (Fluval Profile 1200 - W120 X D47 X H65 cm) with the huge Fluval FX5 filter. The tank is filled with about 15% lava rock and plants.

Right now I have 38 juvenile Lake Malawi Mbunas, 1 catfish and 2 small sucking catfish (not sure of their proper name). How many more fish can I get, I was thinking about 10 or 15 but I'm not too sure. I want the tank to be crowded to avoid fighting. Readings for ammonia and nitrite are zero and nitrate is also low.

Thanks for your help.

Paul

 

[Andrewz00]

as a base to start i would input all your into into this website... AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor

its not 100% all the time but it is definitely a good starting point especially for the amount of filtration and interactions between fish.

 

[cyberil]

Thanks - tried the tool but as I've no idea on the names of my cichlids I'm lost.

 

[BigJim]

I generally gauge the fullness of a tank using two metrics, one quantitative, one qualitative.

The quantitative measure involves your water parameters. Do you see measurable levels of ammonia or nitrites because the biofilter can't process them into nitrates fast enough? Do your nitrates rise more than 20ppm in between weekly 50% PWCs? If you answered "Yes" to either question, you're probably overstocked.

The qualitative measure is rather simple. Look at your tank and see if it looks crowded. Do your fish look stressed? Clamped fins? Injuries? Hiding constantly? Do your fish have enough room to swim around properly? Worst case, can your fish turn around in the tank? It's a subjective measure, but it works.

I'm not very familiar with cichlids, but I have a hunch that you're pretty heavily stocked. Start with learning the species of your fish. It's very difficult to properly care for an animal when you don't know what you have.

 

[mfdrookie516]

You are entirely overstocked if you keep those fish until they're big enough to sex. If you're just growing them out to be able to sex them, I think you'll be fine for a while, but keep a close eye on the ammonia and nitrite. Once they're big enough to sex and you remove the extra males, then I'd say about 20. Of course, knowing what fish you have may make somewhat of an impact though

 

[mattrox]

It is about how much territory the fish have. 4ftx1.5ft will hold less mbuna than a 5ftX1.5ft with the same water volume (ie not as tall). Having said that if the fish are not hiding all the time and it is not all out war you should be ok. The FX5 is an awesome filter, make sure you have enough biomedia in it.

 

[cyberil]

Thanks for your help.I think the LFS is just trying to sell me more fish then. At the moment there's plenty of space in the tank. I think I'll hold off though from purchasing anymore fish