"Margolis" wrote in message
...
sorry, don't get too offended at my post. After reading it, it sounds
much
more harsh than I meant it to be ;o0

Just as an example of what I consider very heavily stocked I will give my
75
gallon which is actually about 80 gallons with the water included in my 20
gallon sump.

13 cardinal tetras - 1"
3 oto's - 1.5"
3 golden chinese algae eaters - 1.5
3 juhlii cory's - 1.5"
3 panda cory's - 1"
2 clown plecos - 1"
4 discus - 2"

thats 39.5" of fish in 80 gallons of water, and that is VERY crowded in my
opinion. But I do have very good filtration and do 50% water changes at
least once a week.

Plus, what are the internal dimensions of your tank? I have yet to see a
tank that actually has the capacity that is advertised. All of the tanks
I
see go by the outer dimensions of the tank. The internal capacity is
usually several gallons less, then you have to consider the displacement
of
the gravel and decorations.

by my calculations with the fish list you gave I would say you have at
least
35-40" of fish in probably less than 50 us gallons of water. This is all
opinion of course. Your platy's and neons I would not count as any
smaller
than 1" even if they are.

fish stocking is not an exact science.

--

Margolis

http://web.archive.org/web/200302152...qs/AGQ2FAQ.htm
http://www.unrealtower.org/faq




Hi,
Thanks for your posts. Ok even allowing 1" for the fish I still don't make
the figures the same as you but let's agree to disagree....:-). The fish are
healthy and happy and the water quality is good - 0 ammonia, 0 nitrate, 0
nitrite and PH 7.0 (it's usually 7.5) - these are todays readings. Any
problems and some of the the fish will be moved (we have more than one
tank). Plus the first two Rams died with far less fish in it than there are
now.

A quick one on the tank capacity - in the UK tanks are now sold with metric
measurements. I got confused as to what the exact water capacity of my tank
was so I asked the LFS who sold it to me - he told me 47.5 UK gallons which
roughly equates to round 55 US gallons.

The tank was up and running (with plants) for just over 2 weeks before the
first fish went in (3 Gouramis)....the rest went in very slowly in small
quantities at 2 week intervals and only after a water quality check. As far
as I'm concerned no more fish are going in this tank because I do not want
it over-stocked....I do a 20% water change once a week and include a gravel
clean in this.

The reason for this posting is that we are setting up a new tank and wanted
to put some Gold Rams in it but did not want the experience I had before -
I've had some good feedback on this and now have more of an idea how to try
and achieve it - or it might just be our water (hard/PH7.5 usually) just
doesn't suit them. The new tank will be set up tomorrow, using a mix of
existing tank water, substrate, plants and filter medium and topped up with
new water - and I'll probably add some Cycle to it. It will then be left
until the end of the month before any fish go in (at least 3 weeks). Before
any fish go in the water quality will be rechecked - it is unlikely we will
put Rams in as the first fish as we will want to ensure everything is fine
before they go in.

Cheers