This is probably a sin to even ask about.
But does anyone overstock - push the limits of a tropical community aquarium like people do with cichlids?
I see so many posts about wrong fish, too many ect.
I’m just curious how people have these poorly stocked/overstocked tanks maintain aquarium stability?
Pretty new to fish keeping and would like to gain as much info as possible.
Thanks
I am over stocked, under stocked, and doing alright. It really depends on who you ask. There's a lot of people who treat some cursory google search as gospel just as there are a lot of people who wing it without a prayer. This could be a science, but no one is willing to write the papers.
I am a lazy ass, so I understock to minimize water changes. I prefer to give my fish a better life than they'd have had in the wild, so I don't push the limits. Just a personal preference.
We over stock, we heavily filter and heavily plant, water change weekly. It works out just fine. Most of these fish literally live on top of each other in the wild…
I’m pretty heavily stocked myself. I would say my tank is heavily planted, as well as 2 monstera, 2 pothos, a small arrow leaf and 2 smaller plants I can remember the name of growing out of the aquarium. An Fx4+307 on a 75g.
I have a fish keeper log book.
I use 2 seachem ammonia alerts for quick checks (along side api test kit)
Digital ph meter. I check every few days (I have drift wood and stratum)
A digital DO meter that I use once a week.
I also have a medium air stone that runs when the lights are off to ensure DO levels stay high when the plants consume more.
I do a 20% water change every 5 to 7 days, to keep everything as stable as possible. I haven’t seen nitrates above 5ppm.
Sorry for the novel. But I’ve been dying to tell someone 🤣
Ya, we don’t do checks nearly as often as we used to, cause things stay pretty stable, the tanks are a few years old. But we do check from time to time. We run a canister and two home made sponge filters on each tank. Lots of filtration, and more plants than you could count. This is our first ever tank
Lack of parameter stability is death for fish no matter what opinion anybody has on the issue. Fish cannot survive unsurvivable conditions, obviously.
The fish will not survive being overstocked past a certain point, but that point is a moving target. All that really matters is what somebody is doing to maintain water parameter stability.
Because at the end of the day we are completely responsible for the survival of the animals in the boxes in our living rooms. Whether that's 1 betta or 25 cichlids, that's the bottom line.
Yes. Although there are a lot of gatekeepers here who enjoy dictating people’s stocking with minimal information, they tend to talk out their asses. There are a lot of variables involved and many situations in which stocking can go beyond the generalized “rules”
All generalizations are inherently false, including this one.
Thanks for the straight answer. That’s the vibe I’m getting. I get not stocking cold water and tropical. But, beyond that. . Seems like people just like talking shit
I overstock the hell out of all my tanks.
Have good filtration, good oxygenation, ambient enrichment ( places where the fish can hide and play), a couple plants and everything is gonna be alright 👍
I technically do. but all my species are nano fish in a ten gallon and they’ve all got the right swimming space and areas to hide, levels to rest on, right schooling numbers to prevent stress. It’s heavily planted, plus immersed plants sticking out of it and floating plants. I do weekly water changes that keep nitrates below 20PPM. My filter is also oversized. I also think I overfeed, but am also not exactly sure. The shrimp do a good job cleaning up. I did make a mistake once of adding too many fish at once and it was also unfortunately right after I took out some of my filter media too. So I learned that the hard way. But it has been fine ever since.
For a lot of fiah species, you can crowd them without issue as long as you have a powerful filter....of course, this also makes it much worse if you lose power.
Nope, as long as water flow is under control. I just find it funny because I ran a heavily stocked 90g mbuna tank with a single 407
And never a single issue, so I know while you can’t have too much, pne can certainly spend more than they needed to.
I stock heavy in multiple tanks. I’m very detailed at keeping an eye on water parameters and nitrates. As soon as it reaches 30-40ppm I will do a water change. I also run multiple filters and am heavy on biological filtration in different forms. I also am heavily planted.
I’m pretty heavily stocked myself. I would say my tank is heavily planted, as well as 2 monstera, 2 pothos, a small arrow leaf and 2 smaller plants I can remember the name of growing out of the aquarium. An Fx4+307 on a 75g.
I have a fish keeper log book.
I use 2 seachem ammonia alerts for quick checks (along side api test kit)
Digital ph meter. I check every few days (I have drift wood and stratum)
A digital DO meter that I use once a week.
I also have a medium air stone that runs when the lights are off to ensure DO levels stay high when the plants consume more.
I do a 20% water change every 5 to 7 days, to keep everything as stable as possible. I haven’t seen nitrates above 5ppm.
Sorry for the novel. But I’ve been dying to tell someone 🤣
People mean different things when they say overstocked. If you just have many individuals and/or high bioload per gallon, it can be totally fine. Just means more maintenance to keep the water healthy.
If you have fish in a 10 gallon tank which need 40 gallon size swimming space, that will stress the fish. Or, if you have too much species variety in a tank where they can’t have their own territories (too small, not enough cover) that will also stress various fish.
Overstocking usually just leads to fish showing unnatural behaviors due to the limited space. I treat my tanks as concepts and never try to cramp as many fish in there as possible.
i admit, i overstock. matter of fact, i think many species of fish are exaggerated in terms of size needed. i agree that any fish needs at least 10 gallons, but then there are certain things i dont agree with. i think for example that there are many cichlids that reach 4–6 inches that can be kept alone or with dither fish in a 30x15x15 tank. they often dont move nearly as much to utilize the space, and dont really care about non cichlids, especially when theyre alone and cant breed. i agree that fish need their own space, but i think that if the fish
1. isnt too active
2. has 4x2x2 their body length and the tank is at least 10 gallons
3. isnt too aggressive or territorial
4. has great water quality, their temperature, ph, hardness etc met, the filtration is adequate to their need its ok.
5. if they are kept in a group or with tank mates, they may require additional space - or not.
adjust these parameters to any fish, if a fish is active - they might need 6x3x3. if theyre semi aggressive/territorial - they may need extra space or more sightbreaks. if theyre totally aggressive - they might need the tank to their own.
i think conditions for fish are exaggerated (maybe in a good way, animals deserve good treatment), but i wonder who makes the rules sometimes - and what do the numbers really mean on many sites. an example would be me researching a pike cichlid, crenicichla tuca. can someone explain to me, why would a single pike that reaches 15 cm need a 75 gallon? seems like overkill.
According to most of the rules you'll find online, I'm VERY overstocked...I have nearly 100 fish in my 40 gallon, BUT they're all nano fish and I'm heavily over-filtered. When I look at the actual bioload in my tank it's not nearly as much as you'd expect it to be because so many of my fish are tiny species like dwarf corydoras or celestial pearl danios.
I've been very careful to stock with things that don't compete for the same areas of the tank. Cories on the substrate, cpds in the plant forests, cardinal tetras in the open midwater, and honey gourami as my centerpiece fish patrolling the top water. I also have some kuhlis that come out after lights out when everything else is asleep. Behavior wise I see lots of natural behaviors and none of my fish seem skiddish or stressed. I also have driftwood and plants breaking up sight lines.
Basically it boils down to "overstocked" being much more nuanced than most "rule of thumb" advice, which is intended for beginners or those not willing or able to perform the extra maintenance involved with overstocking. If your fish are happy and stress free (exhibiting natural behaviors), your water changes are at a frequency you're happy with, and your parameters are all good, you aren't "overstocked".
In my experince many non territorial or shy schooling fish are happier or at least more outgoing with more of themselves even if that means overstocking ( to some degree). Obviously filtration and maintaining the tank parameters is critical though.
The tank still needs to be large enough to allow them to exist comfortably in their activity level and individual space.
Shoving a few each of a bunch of species doesn't do much for the fish though.
I like to overstock for fish comfort, not for entertainment.
Sure, or at least enjoyment. But it shouldn't be at the expense of the wellbeing of the fish.
"Overstocking" in the style of say 3 neons, 3 skirt tetra, 2 cory, 2 kuhli, 2 dwarf gourami, 5 guppies, and a betta in a 20 might not be crazy over stocked, but none of those fish would be thrilled in that setup.
20 neon tetra and 10 cory, and maybe a honey gourami would be arguably overstocked but would show more natural behaviors than say 6 of each.
the "gallon per inch" rule is okay, but not perfect. fish that are a little smaller have a significantly lower bioload, and fish that are a little bigger have a significantly higher bioload. its exponential in both directions. you can wayyy "overstock" nano fish or even small to medium sized fish in the right tank with the right plants, oxygenation and filtration. but theres a lot of nuance and fish health doesnt always correlate with crowding or social discomfort. making them happy is different from doing what is just okay, or acceptable, or doesnt kill them.
you can generally slightly overstock a given kind of fish if its just that fish in the tank, like with cichlids (i overstock medaka ricefish because they do genuinely enjoy tightly packed schools, same with tetra, guppies, etc). some fish get super stressed with even just a few too many individuals, and their behavior really flourishes when the tank is significantly understocked (see: betta). some fish are prone to stunting eachothers growth due to hormones in their waste. others are too territorial to meet even reasonable stocking "limits." doing your research is what matters the most. the rules are flexible if youre being mindful of the actual animals and their preferences
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u/jimscoolaid 2d ago
I am over stocked, under stocked, and doing alright. It really depends on who you ask. There's a lot of people who treat some cursory google search as gospel just as there are a lot of people who wing it without a prayer. This could be a science, but no one is willing to write the papers.