1 inch a gallon or no??

fishcatch22 said:
what if she went home with 11 1" pacus?

the best way to start this hobby is with nothing but accurate info.
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Not that it matters but wouldn't it be 9 1" Pacus if I've been following this discussion correctly? lol. Either way that's pretty bad.

I agree with your last statement completely.

IMHE if people were really concerned with the best interests of fish, under any circumstance, would never have a fish tank at all.... but that would go for any pet that I see contained in a restricted and man made environment. If people have a problem with any aquarium rule, they probably should have a problem with keeping a fish tank at all, unless they have telepathic abilities to know exactly what the fish are thinking... :rolleyes:
 
momar said:
Back on topic, in herbert Axelrod's Mini-Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium Fishes, Dr Cliff W. Emmens gives the best stocking rule I have seen. It is based on the idea I said before that a 1" fish is 1/8 the weight of a 2" fish and therefore uses up 1/8 of the oxygen and produces 1/8 of the waste. But it's still only a rule. The best rule is common sense. Don't put pirannhas with your prize goldfish. BTW if you ever see the book, get it. It's great for identification and for explaining this rule.
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I dunno about the Mini-Atlas, but I have the "Big" Atlas, and it lists pretty good minimum tank sizes for every species of fish, but doen't really get into how many you can keep per tank.
 
pokagon55 said:
First off you said that she left with 11 and it was 9. Do your math. Next most beginners do not want big fish, they want small fish unless they are men then they would have a bigger tank in the first place.Next it is not about the if's it is about the moment and the fact is that some fish were saved buy this rule so hurray it worked. be as it may that it is a wrong way none the less it was good info. at the time. ( wear were you when this happened to tell then they are wrong?) i like the fact that people tell me I am wrong and prove it, it means that I have learned something but the fact remains you have not proven that this rule is wrong, only that you are right and that all people in the world should hold hands and smile. Sorry, this world is not like that and there are other that will retort you. It was a good idea to give this info and I still say that it is a good rule just as a basic tool to go by. Just by you saying what about 11 pacu's show that you are a knob. :joke:
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i know so many beginners who buy fish that have no idea how big they get. come on. go out side of a lfs and ask everyone coming out how big a common pleco gets. i would bet most people have no idea they get 26 inch long. 1 inch per gallon only works in very few tanks with a very few select fish. i would not call it a rule. i wouldnt even call it a guide its just to easy to overstock a tank with it.
 
Well, for one thing its not a 'rule'. Its more like a rule of thumb. Similar to the wpg rule of thumb, it breaks down with extremes (really small tanks, big tanks, big fish). Its intended for smallish fish and average sized aquariums. You must realize how big your fish will get also, not just how big they currently are the day you are in the petshop. Like said already, there are so many variables that if you have any other method of determining proper stocking level then just ditch the inch per gallon. BTW dont forget that is a maximum stocking level, and wise to not even reach that point, like say the inch per gallon gives me x number of fish, then cut that in half and that should be a decent amount. Still better to research the fish first and not use the inch per gallon at all, or come here and post to figure it out.

The thing is stores like petsmart need some 'easy' way to determine how many fish they can sell you. Remember the type of folks these places employ... if they had to so much as look something up then they probably wouldnt do it. But 1 easy rule for all fish, thats doable.
 
Hi,

When I first kept fish I used the 'one inch per gallon rule'. I was told this by our local store employee to use the 'one inch per gallon rule'. And now I've decided the 'one inch per gallon rule' is a okay rule for like Tetras and even Cories (please don't yell at me, its just my opinion!), but is a very bad rule for like Cichlids and Pacus (just my opinion again). I'm slowly moving away from the 'one inch per gallon rule', and using it less for how many more fish I can add to my tank.

Cory Lover
 
pokagon55 said:
the fact remains you have not proven that this rule is wrong
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I'm pretty sure that this rule has been proven wrong. Like loaches_r_cool said, it really is more of a rule of thumb because it isn't absolute, because it does work for some fish. If the rule isn't wrong, though, then a 3 foot long pleco could fit in a 36 gallon tank. This is simply not realistic and I don't think beginners should be given information that will not help them in the long run.

Telling a beginner that they can have 1" of fish per gallon is just as bad as giving them no information at all, because it is wrong.
 
guppygirl123 said:
I'm pretty sure that this rule has been proven wrong. Like loaches_r_cool said, it really is more of a rule of thumb because it isn't absolute, because it does work for some fish. If the rule isn't wrong, though, then a 3 foot long pleco could fit in a 36 gallon tank. This is simply not realistic and I don't think beginners should be given information that will not help them in the long run.

Telling a beginner that they can have 1" of fish per gallon is just as bad as giving them no information at all, because it is wrong.
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exactly. there is no point in using it because even if it does have some limited use, it will always lead some newbs into oblivion and make them give up the hobby.
 
As previously stated....
The one inch rule is OBSELETE!
Research should be done before buying ANY fish at ANY time. People will buy fish and kill them, then buy more without much remorse. BUT those same people would take their dog to the vet to find out whats wrong with him/her. Pets of any kind depend on us and only us for EVERYTHING, therefore you HAVE to make sure you can take care of them the way they would be taken care of in the wild otherwise you shouldnt have them.

Irish
 
Jm1212, I wasn't asking about if I could put angelfish in an 8 gal, I was asking what you thought of 1-inch-per-gallon rule. :duh:
 
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