If you're talking about swimming space, you can get different levels of fish (corys for the ground, tetras/other small cyprinids for the mid/upper part. Probably not more than 4-5 of the upper level, and same for the lower, unless you go pygmy cories, which you could fit like 10 of them in there and not even notice them there, given enough coverage. I would think small small fish like ember tetras you could have more as well.
Weigh in: is it really "overstocking"?
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Bottomline (and sorry if this comes off wrong)... "I have at least 20 adult guppies and endler's (males about 1", females up to 2"), 15 juvenile fry (about 1" long), 15-20 juvenile fry (about 1/2" long), 30-40 new born fry (1/4"), one 2.5" male betta, and one 3" pleco..." is a stocklist for a very well (canister + HOB) 55G IMO. I can't imagine that many fish in a 10.
What do you want to happen to your 30+ juvenile fry of various sizes and your newborn fry? They can't possibly grow in that tank with already 20 adults 1-2" each and a betta and YIKES what the heck is a 3" pleco doing in there with all of that?
Get rid of your pleco or move it. Is it a bn pleco? Cause if not, it will get huge. Get your betta a 2.5-5g for himself, they don't even cost 20 bucks. And then see if your lfs will take some of your adults.
People will admit to having overstocked... but I doubt anyone here would give you any other kind of response to your tank. Water parameters be damned, you're talking about fish on top of fish and about 70 fry that can't possibly make it to adulthood in that size of a tank. You need to upgrade that tank to larger tank - at min a 30 if you wanted to be cheap about it but I'd agree with the 55. Either that or you need to do what I said and thin your stock way down. No one wants to give you a hard time or discourage you, but you asked for opinions. No one is going to give you a thumbs up on that tank no matter what your water is like... are you actually doing weekly tests?
Bottom line in my opinion - fish cruelty for lack of swimming room. There is no way to tell that your fish are 'happy'... just that they aren't yet showing signs of disease and are still acting rather normal. That won't last long, especially as the mix of guppies and endlers continue to breed.
Get rid of your pleco or move it. Is it a bn pleco? Cause if not, it will get huge. Get your betta a 2.5-5g for himself, they don't even cost 20 bucks. And then see if your lfs will take some of your adults.
People will admit to having overstocked... but I doubt anyone here would give you any other kind of response to your tank. Water parameters be damned, you're talking about fish on top of fish and about 70 fry that can't possibly make it to adulthood in that size of a tank. You need to upgrade that tank to larger tank - at min a 30 if you wanted to be cheap about it but I'd agree with the 55. Either that or you need to do what I said and thin your stock way down. No one wants to give you a hard time or discourage you, but you asked for opinions. No one is going to give you a thumbs up on that tank no matter what your water is like... are you actually doing weekly tests?
Bottom line in my opinion - fish cruelty for lack of swimming room. There is no way to tell that your fish are 'happy'... just that they aren't yet showing signs of disease and are still acting rather normal. That won't last long, especially as the mix of guppies and endlers continue to breed.
If you were operating on a continuous drip system, then your only limiting factor would be physical space, so in a sense a 100+ guppies could healthily live and properly grow/develop in a 10 gallon tank, but that's with a substantial constant inflow of fresh water. Would I personally do it? Probably not, but that has more to do with my personal feelings than any real worries about harming the fish. I've been in your situation before though, with a group of guppies rapidly overpopulating a small tank, and though the fish lived and bred, I noticed that they slowly became significantly smaller than those growing up in my 30 and 29. With the amount of fish you have now, I would definitely suggest getting a larger tank, rehoming as many as you can, and possibly including a small school of danios or tetras in your next tank as a means of population control.
I'll be honest, I have a similar set up for guppies, about 25 adults, and countless juveniles in a 10 gallon. I set them up as a feeder fish breeding system, and once a month, I take out half of my adults for my juvenile senegak bichir in my 75 gallon
Agreed, any talk about that would have to include numbers for nitrates, TDS and/or DOCs. Just saying "my water always tests perfect" doesn't really mean anything. If all you test for is ammonia and its always zero, does that mean you have perfect water? Not by a long shot.
It depends on the situation and tank size. I'll agree that you are overstocked on that 10, I had like the inhabitants of my 20 in a 10, too much, not enough space. But people might call my tank overstocked, (umm, added a BN Plec) but I keep up with water changes, and filter the water pretty good, along with a ton of plants.
I am amazed that you water quality does stay within the safe ranges...but like jm said there is more to it than ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate even though we fishkeepers tend to focus on those three readings.
Well, I pretty much expected to be crucified... so thanks for taking it kind of easy on me. I can tell you though, that I have raised over six separate broods of endler's and guppies in this "overstocked" condition, and they have all reached full adult size (btw, I don't have any male guppys in there, only females).
To tell you the truth, swimming room hadn't even entered my mind. But from what I can see, they use all levels of the aquarium, there are no nipped/ripped fins, they all get along (yes, even the betta, he's pretty peaceful), and they really do seem to be normal fish.
To address a few comments:
The pleco IS a bristle nose, so he shouldn't get too big.
I don't only test for ammonia, I do the big three (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates) bi-monthly.
I do a 20% wc weekly.
I completely understand where most of the nay-sayers are coming from though, and if I had the money, you can bet your butt that they'd be in several 55s by now. But as it is, I can't even give them away, believe me, I've tried. Nobody wants endler's that might not be pure.
(As a side note, does anyone want any free endler's?
Just pay shipping!) I'm serious though, a few of the issues raised have made me think, and even though the water and fish seem perfect, it's probably best to err on the side of caution. There'll be a thread in the classifieds as well. Just msg me if you want them. (btw, I've been calling all of my lfs for months and they don't want the fish)
Thanks for your honest opinions.
To tell you the truth, swimming room hadn't even entered my mind. But from what I can see, they use all levels of the aquarium, there are no nipped/ripped fins, they all get along (yes, even the betta, he's pretty peaceful), and they really do seem to be normal fish.
To address a few comments:
The pleco IS a bristle nose, so he shouldn't get too big.
I don't only test for ammonia, I do the big three (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates) bi-monthly.
I do a 20% wc weekly.
I completely understand where most of the nay-sayers are coming from though, and if I had the money, you can bet your butt that they'd be in several 55s by now. But as it is, I can't even give them away, believe me, I've tried. Nobody wants endler's that might not be pure.
(As a side note, does anyone want any free endler's?
Just pay shipping!) I'm serious though, a few of the issues raised have made me think, and even though the water and fish seem perfect, it's probably best to err on the side of caution. There'll be a thread in the classifieds as well. Just msg me if you want them. (btw, I've been calling all of my lfs for months and they don't want the fish)Thanks for your honest opinions.
