Overstocking World Record

[fishydude]

I was in a work colleagues house the other day, and I believe he has the worst case of overstocking ever.

In a 70 litre tank (16 gallons?)

1 Clown Loach
1 Bristlenose plec
2 Cories
2 Pearl Gourami
8 Neon tetra
10 Cardinal tetra
2 Red-Claw crabs

My colleague does not believe in water testing, so I offered to test his water for him. I could not believe the results

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 25

I have no explanation for these great test results with such overstocking, my colleague looked so smug when I told him the results, told me I did'nt know what I was talking about when I mentioned the overstocking. I was kinda hoping that some poor test results would back me up.

Can anyone explain to me how he can get away with such high stocking levels. By the way, his water change routine is 20% every 3 weeks, and the tank has some java moss, but no other plants

[Rhys]

Originally posted by fishydude
Can anyone explain to me how he can get away with such high stocking levels. By the way, his water change routine is 20% every 3 weeks, and the tank has some java moss, but no other plants

Get away with it lol..I would expect his fish to be dead from the nitrite levels lol.

[fishydude]

Whoops I think I've got my nitrate and nitrite mixed up, should be nitrate 25

[Rhys]

ok then i withdraw my post lol......NFI on how he has got such good results but have you thought he could be lieing to you about how often he does water changes??

[fishydude]

I guess he could be, but I have known him for years and a half-assed attitude to water changes certainly fits in with his general character.:shake:

[DEmigh]

Is he half-starving them? I predict eventual disaster for his tank and all its inhabitants, but if he feeds very lightly, the inevitable could be postponed.

[OrionGirl]

Biological filtration is only maybe a third of the picture. It's very easy to provide adequate bacteria colonies to support way more fish than the tank can.

The size, age, and behavior of the fish is more telling than the presence/absence of testable chemicals. For example, I had a chocolate pleco in a 40 that was packed--for one year, this fish stayed about 5 inches long. Good color, fat tummy, just didn't grow. I moved him into a 55, with only a few other fish, and he grew to about 12 inches within 3 months. The 40 got weekly 50% changes and never had any ammonia/nitrite spikes, but it still inhibited his growth.

[fishydude]

This sounds more like it OrionGirl. His bristlenose is supposed to be over 2 years old, yet is only about 2.5 inches long, I believe they normally grow to 4-5 inches. He must have fantastic biological filtration though, I would hate to think what would happen if anything upset this.

[TKOS]

It could also be that you tested his water just after he did a water change.

[Katz]

Maybe he's 'old school'. My dad just sent me some of his old fish-keeping books from way back when he had a tank. I remember his tank being green all the time.

Anyway, in one book it said you could have 17! (yes that's seventeen) fish in a 5 gal tank, well planted, and NEVER do a water change, just top it off...

Scary!!

[dethjam316]

i've seen worse. a friend of mine had a 20g with exactly 20 african cichlids in it before he finally upgraded to a 90g.

"they're all 1 inch or under!"

[kveeti]

Or, the local paper's gardening columnist, who I tried to tell that you can't put "a few" goldfish in a 1 gallon vase water garden that she wrote about.... She wrote back "I have 20 comets in one 35-gallon tank with filter, aerator, etc. and aside from going outside into the pond for the summer, have doing very well for the last few years."

[750t]

I just had 7 female guppies give birth at pretty much the same time. There are so many fish in this 20 gal planted tank. I cant even count them.:shake:

[Slappy*McFish]

lol...I knew a guy that takes the cake and is the king of all overstockers. He had a 40 gallon breeder tank(36X18X16), and in it he had 2 oscars, 1 red devil, 1 carpentis, 2 salvini, 1 nicaraquense, 2 channel cats, and even a young silver arowana at one point. I remember it being a nice looking tank with a huge rock structure all along the back half of the tank going up to the surface with numerous caves. It was in here the catfish lived. He also had 2 aquaclear 500s on it, supplimented by a vortex diatom filter. Most of the fish looked amazing and one of the oscars was probably the prettiest I've ever seen. It was jet black with bright red markings. The only fish that didn't live long was the arowana.:rolleyes: ...some people amaze me.

[Must4ng s4lly]

I dunno! Those are all amazing but I have one for ya!

I have in a 58 for two years:
20 - 25 cories
2 paradise gouramis
2 long fin rosy barbs
3 albino tiger barbs
3 striped tiger barbs
2 4 inch pictus cats
5 chinese algae eaters 3 are 4 inches
1 10 inch pleco (need to trade him as he is a common & BIG!)
7 swordtails
8 guppies
2 mollies
3 molly babies
4 cherry barbs
6 small stipped barbs have 5 stripes and are orange?? not tigers
2 clown loaches - growing fast!
2 otos
1 4 inch long finned pleco
1 large gold gourami
1 4 inch flying fox
1 Bumble bee Goby
2 upside down cats
1 african swarf frog - fat


1 painted sub
3 metal airplanes
1 castle
1 piece driftwood
3 shells (has been in aquariums for 10 years)
1 model of the Uss Lexington
* I will upload a pic of all this soon!

**heavily planted with all kinds of plants and large amozon swords

*** I have a FULL tank and am waiting to buy another large tank to divide fish into. I actually tried to catch some to put in another tank but they are so elusive! Ripped up all my plants!

Do 30 - 40% water changes every two weeks.... Full tank gravel vacuum. Feed frozen and flake food. All are healthy, very colorful and growing. I am selling some larger fish to LFS and he is amazed by their great condition....
I have a tester that stayes on the side and tells me amonia levels at all times. Right now it is yellow + good. Hardly ever goes blue + change water.

AHHHH! This is not to brag at all, it is too many and I know it. Trying to remediate!

[Aquarius0015]

My stepfather liked my new Eclipse System 12 so much that he was spending an eery amount of time in my room. Eventually my mother got the hint and took the old 20 gallon out of storage. It was covered in dust and hard water stains and even had a few cobwebs. Guess who got to clean and stock it?

Anyway, before I sold my stepfather on the idea of tropicals, he wanted 50 or so of the twelve cent feeder comets from Wal-Mart. In addition he wanted a few catfish to clean the bottom. On top of it all, he insisted I use the 10 year old UGF (it was turning yellow) as the only means of filtration because he wanted to save money. It took over a week to convince him to get tropicals instead, and he didn't really like the platies I picked out because he doesn't think they are colorful enough and they are "too stiff."

[dethjam316]

wow, mustangsally...that tank is ridiculous. i can't believe everything hasn't died!! by now, they're probably invincible.

[CHINABOY1021]

i have only read the first post. all i have to say is a lot of you get fired up too easiler with this "over-stocking" thing.

if the tank is cycled properly, ammonia and nitrites will not appear with that bioload. plus plants like nitrates. calm down and dont be suprised by the results. you can have ammonia and nitrites in a 90gallon with an oscar. tank size doesnt matter, its the amount of ammonia produced that matters if the tank can support the biload.

[Must4ng s4lly]

My tank got slowly stocked to that level over a year and has the same fish in it for the next year (2 year tank). I keep a very close eye one it a note ANY changes.... I have actually sold some of the fish to my LFS too. Still too many but knida wild huh???

BTW, Aquarius that is a funny story! He didn't get it! LOL! Does he like it (tank) now??

[yhbae]

It appears that overstocking the tank is feasible with relatively low maintenance...

My 25g:
- 5 platies
- 2 blue rams
- 4 panda cories
- 5 harlequin rasboras
- 4 bristlenose plecos
- 2 otos
- java moss and java ferns.

That's 22 fishes totaling about 40 fish inches. It's been running this way for the past few months, with 20% weekly water change. Ammonia/nitrite are zero, and even nitrate is houvering at around 5ppm, BEFORE water change...

I wanted to build a low maintenance tank, and I have one, even though it is overstocked... :D

I have to admit though, I will not overstock my next tank...

[Aquarius0015]

mustangsally, he likes it well enough, but he cannot wait to add more fish. I stocked it with 4 platies, 2 swords, and 3 small cories. He didn't understand why I only came home with 9 fish. He thinks the tank looks empty and 9 or 10 more will do the trick. It is obvious that he is not the one who will be doing water changes (mother is in charge right now and I take over whenever I'm home from school). This is also a man who prefers $1 fish and thinks $4 for a fish is outrageous, so I imagine he will choose small tetras or guppies. On the other hand he really likes mollies (uh-oh.....)

I'm just hoping the lack of cycling won't kill what is in the tank now. I tried to tell my parents that you need to progress slowly, but adults are just too impatient I guess. So now mother is stuck with twice weekly water changes, hahaha. :D

[Must4ng s4lly]

Aquarius Yeah, it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks ;) He'll get it soon enuf! that is funny tho.... I did NOT over stock my 5 & 10 gal tanks, they are just not as flexible.... my theory is get the largest tank possible and then go for it. I think its cute your stepfather found that old tank and got all into it. He'll learn soon enough about it all. He'll figure it out. but in the mean time you get to be on poo patrol with all the water changes.....

The mollies are cute, but OH the babies LOL! :) the expesive fish rule! :) I hope the cycling is OK. I actually had no cycling issues with my 58 gal. My 10 gal was another story. OH what a nightmare! AHhh! Of course I learned it all the hard way :)
take care and good luck!

[blitzen25bm]

this is the worst. its a 180 6x2x2 with a few arapaimas, silver arowanas some oscars and a red tailed cat. i only have 1 silver arowana in my 180. http://www.arofanatics.com/members/toospicynoodle/bigfishes/

[Rhys]

Maybe someone should overstock a scat tank then you wouldn't have to worry about feeding to often as they eat poopoo.:D

[Mark_b]

Correct me if i'm wrong but as long as you have a large enough surface area for biological filtration isn't there no limit on how many fish you could have in a tank as long as it was cycled and then stocked slowly?

For example if you had an xp3 filled with ehfisubstrat then you could probably get away with a huge shoal of cardinals in a 10g.
Obviously that doesnt mean you can have a 12" oscar in a 10g, even if the bioload was the same it doesnt help the oscar turn around!

As for that 180g Blitzen, ive seen that before and it really is a disgrace isnt it!?I cant understand how those people think that it is not cruel to keep those fish in that size tank!:argh

[OrionGirl]

Providing adequate biological filtration for the fish load is just one aspect of correctly stocking a tank. The space needs, aggressive tendencies, growth factors, social structure, ect are all important factors in correctly stocking a tank. For example, you could have one of five different tetras in a 10 gallon tank. Those 5 fish won't come close to maxing out the biological capacity of the tank, they'll have enough space, and ever fish will be able to eat. However, having 5 of just one species would make for more comfortable fish.

[Mark_b]

Well put Oriongirl!
Thats basically what i was trying to say.
That providing enough biological filtration is obviously important but this to me seems the easiest part of stocking to take care of. It is easy enough to provide enough biological filtration using the likes of canister filters. So other aspects of stocking become far more important to consider, eg. space for fish, compatible tank mates, providing a group for species that only feel comfortable in groups, etc.

[dethjam316]

Originally posted by Mark_b
Correct me if i'm wrong but as long as you have a large enough surface area for biological filtration isn't there no limit on how many fish you could have in a tank as long as it was cycled and then stocked slowly?you're right. as long as there is comparable surface area, there would be no limit. of course, to have infinite fish, you'd need infinite surface area!!:D

[LMOUTHBASS]

where did you find that pic of the rediculously over stocked tank - the fish can't even turn aroun! that's just common sense that you can't keep them like that! i think when fish get that big they are boring to watch

[MelJr]

I think the tank that Blitzen posted wins the overstocking grand prize. At least I hope so.

[Slappy*McFish]

Yeah, that one definitely takes the cake.

[sumoschro]

Maybe they were planning on eating them, so they didnt care how overstocked it was. No matter how scrunched that tank is i like the red scales on that big Arapaima.

[blitzen25bm]

Originally posted by sumoschro
Maybe they were planning on eating them, so they didnt care how overstocked it was. No matter how scrunched that tank is i like the red scales on that big Arapaima.

yea those fish are awesome, i wanted to buy one at the fish store but maybe if i lived in the tropics so i can give it a huge outdoor pond. im satisfied watching them at seaworld though. the overstocking thing is just what they do in asia if you look around on arofanatics there are a lot of people that cram tons of arowanas etc into tanks. there are people there who knows the right way to do things and im hoping they are letting the other hobbiest know about it.

[lawdawg18]

My supervisor at work has a 29 gallon tank in his office. In it is prob 10 - 12 corys. 8 or so Common pleco 3 of which are 8 inches long or more, and huge round goldfish bigger than a softball. I'll have to stop in his office and get the exact #'s. He hardly if ever changes water. When I got my 55 gal he told me I would only have to change some water like once a year in it.

[Uncle Bete]

ask him what his pH is
I'm guessing around 4

but don't bother asking about nitrate, someone here would probably throw-up if they see that number :sick:

[lawdawg18]

He prob isnt sure what PH or nitrates are. He got me started with fish tanks but thank goodness I found forums like this to answer all my questions instead of taking his advice. Maybe I'll sneak some water out of his tank and run a test on it. THATS A SCARY THOUGHT.

[Uncle Bete]

If you happen to do that(test his water).

Write down some observations like;
1. filtration types (undergravel/hob/etc.
2. how deep is the substrate/type (small/med/large/sand)
3. if it has mechanical filters(sponges etc. ask how often he changes/cleans them.

Because if his water chemistry doesn't show up too bad, I think I won't be the only one asking these Q's? ;)

People do run tanks like this, probably more than not.

And I'd like to know how and maybe see why it's possible.

[midcuk]

my local granny home has a small 2ft tank in the waiting area with no filtration at all no lights the glass is so green you can hardly see the fish
the fish

6 12" koi
4 large oranda
about 10 small goldfish (from what i can see)
1 18" plec

all look totally healthy water never changed rarely fed (grannies put toast in on a morning tee hee)
weird or what

[LongTime]

Life will go on as long as it can if the existing circumstances can support that life.

You can keep a very large active dog in a 6' x 4' kennel and as long as you provide food, water and clean the kennel, it will live a long life, but not necessarily the best life.

We also "warehouse" people quite well in prisons, concentration/POW camps and nursing homes. Most people don't want to live that way.

It should not be a question, IMO, of what you can stock, but what you should stock in order to provide the best environment for a captive species.