# every fishkeepers tank overstocking nightmare..



## black_lung (Dec 19, 2006)

So I was talking to my ex boyfriend today on the phone, and the topic of fish tanks came up. Now he has a 10 gallon aquarium- with a current stocking list consisting of 3 neon tetras, 3, golden barbs, 3 rosy barbs, 3 blackskirt tetras, a bala shark, a black ghost knife, a 3-spot gourami, 3 cory cats, a pleco, and an oranda goldfish. ..now am I the only one who thinks this is insane? I hope not.

Anyway, I have been arguing with him about the way he cares for his fish since he got this tank, not that it does any good, because apparently I don't know what I'm talking about according to his 'fish expert' in North Carolina. Apparently I need not fret, because according to him, his fish guru corrected his original belief that the stocking rule was 1 fish per gallon..and that he can actually keep more than that! Up to 20 fish in that 10 gallon. Far better than my saying the rule is 1" of fish per gallon..what do I know after all, I'm not the owner of an lfs with more than 40 years experience (which is what this 'fish expert' is)? The expert says his stocking is fine, and that he can put in even more because his tank contains no decor apart from gravel.

Now I ask you, is this not utterly appaling? To think in this day and age where information is at everyones fingertips, that a lfs owner of all people can give out such bogus info. And of course because of his title and 'experience' alone, actually find people who will believe it without an ounce of doubt. 

My question is, is there anything we can do to educate people beyond this? 
Also, does anyone actually find any logic with this 'stuffed sardine' method to fish keeping? aside from more fish bought= equals more store profit


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

I think that one oranda is overstocking on its own!

Lets not even start about how incompatible it all is regarding parameter requirements.


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## HoustonFishFanatic (Feb 26, 2007)

Hey your exactly right. What your EX is doing with those fish is Outright Cruelty!!!!! I hope PETA doesn't Knock on his door!!!!!!!!!!LOL

Tell him to fish by a nice Aquarium Reference Book.


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## slickwillislim (Oct 11, 2005)

I have seen this same story played out a lot since I started keeping fish. I was lucky enough to find the internet before I got to carried away with fish stocking. It sounds like this tanks is bound to crash. If he won't listen to you rent a book from the library or email him some links to articles or a general fishkeeping forum. His tank is so absurdly overstocked that I am sure his fish will start dying. Sadly enough, that seems to be the only thing that gets some people to listen.

WOW I am slow I got double ninja'd. Kind of wierd since this was posted over an hour ago...


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## stepheus (Jun 13, 2006)

I hope it dint get too sour between you and ur bf. Its kinda obvious what the fish storekeeper is trying to pull here...he is trying to sell more fish. its quite simple. maybe the shop owner is very... convincing... your boyfriend can send the fish back for some store points, exchange for plants and lights? lol. hope things get better


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Perhaps you should direct your ex to a variety of web sites and forums and ask him to read through some posts, since he obviously doesn't believe you. Or call the lfs owner posing as the parent of a kid who just purchased all these fish for the little tank, and call him out on it.


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## Freerider (Nov 8, 2006)

My guess is his LFS wants to overstock his tank so that some fish die and then they make more money restocking the tank. Bad Bad Bad!


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## SnakeIce (May 9, 2005)

Yeah this store owner got caught up in seeing $$$ instead of making sure the guy has a better chance to stay in the hobby.

Inch per gallon is a flawed idea because it leads to over stocking, but to say following it leaves one with an understocked tank is pure balony.

Inch per gallon falls apart as the adult sizes of the fish get larger. It would be horrible to suggest that a 10" oscar would do fine in a 10 gallon tank.

I worked up a slightly more involved set of guidelines that lead to more decent stocking levels no matter what the adult size of the fish.

1. 
The volume of the fish can be used to approximate the waste produceing potential of the fish. So I came up an equation to approximate the volume of your fish.

Take Body only measurements of the Length, Width and Height of each fish. For each fish multiply LWH and devide by 3 to get the aproximate volume of that fish. 
In that 10 gallon I wouldn't go over .75 cubic inches total because smaller volumes of water are less stable. A 20 gallon I consider 2 cubic inches to be the max. Very large tanks, 300+, can get away with as much as 3 cubic inches per 10 gallons.

LWH/3=volume of individual fish

2.
There is also the matter of the mental health of the fish. A person locked in a closet doesn't do very well. The same goes for fish without much room to move about. I consider a tank that is 6 times the total length of the fish long and 2 times the length of the fish wide to be the minimum horizontal space needed for a size of fish.

Adult length of largest fish

2x6x^= horizontal size of tank
3.
The tank must be large enough to limit agression for the type of fish kept.

I wrote this idea up into an article which can be read here


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## black_lung (Dec 19, 2006)

Well apparently the pleco went bye-bye and the blackskirts kicked it..so he's added a glass catfish, a chinese algae eater, and 2 jellbean parrot cichlids :doh: 

Believe me, I've been sending him tons of web links and book suggestions ever since he got this tank a year ago. It goes through a monthly die-off with all but a couple of the original inhabitants dying off..yet and he cleans the tank out once every two months and stuffs, stuffs some more. Hopefully he'll get a clue eventually. 

Now, I recently quit my job at a lfs partially because my store owner wanted me to promote goldfish as the ideal inhabitants for a 2 gallon hex aquarium. I used to breed ranchu, and I don't recommend keeping an adult pair in anything less than a 90 gallon, 10 gallon absolute minimum for a single pet. A potential 8" fish in two gallons is ludacris, but people like the 'stuffed' look and will buy it, but it is certainly not ideal. I tend to go the other way..I actually feel kinda bad keeping 2 dwarf puffers in a 10 gallon with nothing else but a ton of plants. Probably why I get so stressed out over this disaster lol


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## flandjm (Dec 28, 2006)

Boy, with him not trusting your advice when you obviously know what you are talking about... I can see why you are not with him any more!  

Perhaps an email of good informative links would be a good idea. That way he can "educate himself" and not be taking advice from you.


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## messy_da_legend (Feb 18, 2006)

The Ghost Knife will eat the smaller fish eventually anyway


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I won't even go into everything that's so horribly wrong with the whole picture, but unfortunately it happens far too often. People think of the fish as being disposable, and just keep replacing all of the ones that die with new ones doomed to the same torture.
When you get irresponsible store owners who keep promoting that sort of thing, they aren't helping one bit.

Here is a photo of my adult Bala right after he passed. I stuck him in front of a 10 gallon tank and took the photo just to try to drive the point home to even a couple of people. You would think a picture is worth a thousand words, but some people just don't get it regardless.


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## MiSo (Nov 4, 2005)

wow, i didn't know they got that big!


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## Minsc (May 7, 2006)

You could totally fit that bala in a ten gallon. 
Heck, if you took out the water, you could probably fit 3-4.




Sorry for the morbid humor, I get frustrated by this too. My wife keeps asking why I buy such small fish. It's because they are going in a small tank, dammit! And then she complains when I want a bigger tank


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

Black - Can I ask, how come you feel bad with 2 DP's in a 10 gal? I'm just curious because I have 1 DP in a 10 gal and she's doing great! She is housed with 6 juvie endlers, 2 ottos, and cherries. She's very calm, and actually shows signs of being unstressed. I'm just wondering here so I dont do the same thing you ex did. (Then again if i were to get more DP's I'd have a species only tank, i dont think my current girl will make it to my community tank)


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Jan,

That's one of the more convincing posts & photos I've ever seen. 'nuff said.


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## mrbelvedere138 (Jan 18, 2006)

Nice pic, Jan.

Let's be honest, when we started this hobby, did we not kill a few fish, mostly due to ignorance?


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## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

No.....there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with what he's doing.....HA! Maybe he put 200 gallons worth of filtration on it, huh? 

You are the "Ex," so of course he isn't going to listen to you. Now, he's just trying to prove you wrong. 

Geeze.....what a maroon!

Jan---oh, come on! You could at least another one of those puppies into that tank! Maybe they would spawn!


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## black_lung (Dec 19, 2006)

Muirner said:


> Black - Can I ask, how come you feel bad with 2 DP's in a 10 gal? I'm just curious because I have 1 DP in a 10 gal and she's doing great! She is housed with 6 juvie endlers, 2 ottos, and cherries. She's very calm, and actually shows signs of being unstressed. I'm just wondering here so I dont do the same thing you ex did. (Then again if i were to get more DP's I'd have a species only tank, i dont think my current girl will make it to my community tank)


Oh my pair does great in the 10 gallon, have even spawed. I just love to give all my fish a lot of room so they can behave as naturally as possible. And the way I see it a 10 gallon is still tiny compared to what they'd live in the wild.

Has she ever given the cherries any problems? I tried keeping some with mine once, my female didn't pay any attention to them but my male decieded they looked like food and started shredding them true pufferfish style. Needless to say the survivors now have their own tank away from the beak of doom..


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## black_lung (Dec 19, 2006)

donaldmboyer said:


> No.....there's absolutely NOTHING wrong with what he's doing.....HA! Maybe he put 200 gallons worth of filtration on it, huh?
> 
> You are the "Ex," so of course he isn't going to listen to you. Now, he's just trying to prove you wrong.
> 
> ...


lol he really didn't listen to my pet care advice when we were together..
oh yeah, whisper filters are so effective you can now keep the amount of fish suitable for a 300 gallon in a 10! i smell a new marketing strategy in the making..

Jan- ..now i bet you can get four of those babies in a 10..two lined up on the bottom facing one way, and two stacked above them going the opposite direction..might be some room left over for a school of tetras!
i wish more people would take note of how ridiculous it is to stock a fish that grows to be that big in such a small tank..yes, 1" per gallon it may be, but common sense should come into play at some point


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

Black - Ok, I was just trying to understand, thanks for your explination . Right now my little girl coexsist fine with the cherries. I see two of them are berried and are carring eggs, we will see what happens as far as shrimplets go. BUT, when I feed her lunch (frozen bloodworms) some float to the bottom and the cherries eat it, she'll investigate but end up letting the cherries snack on the bloodworm. 

I want to get a male, and another female for them to be a breading treo, but I just cant dedicate the tank yet. Hopefully sometime I figure out how to get my DP to bread, and i'll find her a boyfriend. Thanks for everything Black!!!

P.s. That's a monster stock list, IDK if i could even do that in my 55 gallon. 

Jan - What a fish. Beautiful, big, monster lol. What size tank did you have it in?


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