a fish tank's maximum capacity can be measured by lining up all the fish tail to mouth. If the line of fishes excedes 1/4 of the tank's lenght, it is over stocked!
its an interesting idea hans. It would probably be more effective for larger fish though, dont you think? You could 100 neons and not take up moch length of the tank, haha
Nope, won't work. Look at kuhli loaches--according to that, they are the same bio-mass as ram. Or, my spiny eel, which is about 8 inches right now, is the same as an 8-inch oscar?
When dealing with complex systems, there is not a simple way to calculate the load.
Its not just size that determines what kind of fish can go into your tank, its a whole bunch of factors (behaviour, filtration, etc. etc.) that determines what can go into your tank.
It'd be great if someone could come up with some sorta formula... it'd make things for everyone so much easier, but thats just not gonna happen. For instances, what if I had a bare tank that has a dimension... oh say, 96"x24"x24". If I went by your suggested stocking, I could stick a jardini arowana and a bunch of guppies into the tank. Well... it doesn't take a very experienced person to tell you that it just isn't gonna work.
i guess it would work better for the humane reasons, not bio load. for example, sure it might be mean to put a fish in a small tank, but not if the fish is only half an inch long!