Inch per gallon

[BozziniINC]

The one thing that really ticks me off is the inch per gallon rule that petsmart and petco use. How i know it doesnt apply is because it is saying that u could stick a full grown red tailed catfish in a 55 gallon tank and u would still have more room for fish. Its absoutly outrageous. Now for fish like tetras the inch per gallon rule i dont honestly know if it okay for them ive never kept small schooling fish but thats what ive heard. The other thing is the people who work their arent likely to know anything about fish, like when i first started i bought a filter heater gravel etc... And they said you would be ready 2 days later for fish. Well of course i listen to them cause i knew nothing on fish and i bought 15 fish large and small and the only thing that survived was a pleco and 2 mollies. Of course they said oh yeah thell all be fine in a 30 gallon. I rarely buy fish from petsmart any more now. So anyways i totally disagree with the inch per gallon rule for most fish

 

[eduguy]

It might work better if you factor in anything special about the fish. All your fish likely died because you probably didn't cycle your tank did you?

 

[creic38]

Don't ever, EVER listen to those people. Get your advise from here. You will be much better off!

 

[eduguy]

Right. And you probably didn't cycle your tank and doing a fish in cycle with a fully stocked tank is not good. Not talking to you creic just to tell you.

 

[BozziniINC]

I never did and this was about 5 months ago and now i know better not to do the mistake i did

 

[creic38]

Right. And you probably didn't cycle your tank and doing a fish in cycle with a fully stocked tank is not good. Not talking to you creic just to tell you.

Not sure exactly what you mean by that, but ok. I did make my mistakes when I first started awhile back, and did learn a few things the hard way. And one of them was to not listen to the advise of employees at the lfs, unless you find a good mom and pop with people who actually care. I am lucky enough to have found a couple of trustworthy lfs's in my area, but I always go in with the knowledge anyway.

 

[terryeckel]

i wish we had a good mom and pop fish store. i'm in lex. ky and all we have is petsmart and increda pet. i know what you mean about not having qualified help.

 

[Bettafanatic]

I once made that mistake too. One of the petco people tried to get some more money off it and tried to sell me six glofish and a molly for a 10 gallon (i too knew nothing about fish all those years ago). Some of them were nicer and convinced me only to spend money on three glofish. All dead. I NEVER buy fish from petco or petsmart under any circumstances. My petco has at least two dead fish and one ill fish in every tank. Not a risk I'd like to take. I don't take advise from the good fish stores either. I just don't trust pet shop workers. At a reef store that got closed down ( ), a worker told me that 80 degrees is way too warm for a saltwater tank. Never listened to them again. The only shop i still trust is a really nice pet shop. The guy gave me great advise on fish in cycling and was really passionate about fish, spending all his work time with the corals and such. It's nice to find an lfs you can trust.

 

[Musicfreak]

I have a Petsmart in my town as well. I was in there just the other day and was surprised that the guy was actually somewhat knowledgeable about the fish. I mainly go there to get supplies for my fish and stuff for my cats. Other then Petsmart the only other place is Meijers which is pretty much the same as a Wal-mart.

There is one great pet store in town and the people there are great but sometimes their priced are just way to high for certain things. I would trust them fully with all of my animals that I own.

 

[Zimmanski]

By the inch per gallon rule I could have a 8 in coy in a 10 gallon tank with room to spare, for some reason I don't think that would work. Haha

 

[tamtam]

The inch per gallon rule is extremely out dated and you are right, it does not apply at all. Sadly a lot of people don't know this. There is so much more that should come into account. Temperament, adult size, behavior/social needs, bioload and activity level. I wouldn't even use it for smaller fish because it still isn't an effective tool. By that standard you should be able to keep 3 neon tetras in a 3 gallon bowl and the reality is you can't. They may be small with a small bioload but they are very active fish and are schooling fish. So they will need not only more room to give them the space they need but also to allow for a proper school to meet their needs.

Personally I always advise against listening to any store clerk. Take the time yourself and do your research, what works for 1 person may not work for someone else. Many times these people are a general clerk that work all aspects of the store, they aren't specialized in this pet or that. Maybe they do have a good interest in the hobby but most likely not. In the end, there are tons and tons of fish out there and everyone is different. It's not realistic to expect someone that is probably making a bit more than min wage to know everything there is to know about every fish. Learn, research and weigh the info you get.

There is a lot of false info out there in this day and age. People still think you can keep gold fish in bowls. Even the petsmart website I think says they can go in a 10 gallon tank which just is not true. Most people don't realize they get to be more than 8 inches big and can live upwards of 10-15 years. In the end these people are there to sell stuff. You wouldn't walk into the hardware store and expect the stock boy to tell you how to replace your roof, it's not his job and he's not educated to do that. Maybe he's replaced a roof before and you lucked out with a guy that knows it but maybe not.

 

[vanimal]

I think it is fine for small tetras. Like 20 neons in a 20 gallon would be fine. IMO

 

[wawgt]

I think the problem is when we look at 1 inch per gallon as a "rule" instead of a guideline for beginners. There are, of course, thousands of counter examples where the guideline falls apart. But I don't think it's a bad idea for a newbie to start thinking of the trade-off between tank size and amount of fish - and the inch per gallon guideline is a simple way to accomplish that. The problem is when someone pitches it as a hard and fast rule.

 

[Bettafanatic]

I agree I think the inch per gallon should be used as a guideline and it should be known to everyone that there are perhaps hundreds of exceptions.

 

[Zimmanski]

I think it may be a little more true with a bigger tank size I think, say you have 1000g with a whole bunch of fish, the temperament, activity, that sort of thing is less important and maybe the inch/gallon rule (or guideline) may be more effective. Versus like I said before an 8in coy in a 10 gallon. But I have nothing to back that theory up and it too probably has holes in it haha