Define Overstocking.

[ergo sum]

An over stocked aquarium is any aquarium where the fish are not healthy. They have physical and psychological needs. These should be met. You can keep a human child in a cage in a closet but it is not really all that good for the child.

Those people who harp on these needs often inform the new people in the hobby to the simple fact that a two inch fish in a store will grow to be a much larger fish in time. There is a real value to that for people who are new, uninformed and can’t afford to keep these fish.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

An over stocked aquarium is any aquarium where the fish are not healthy. They have physical and psychological needs. These should be met. You can keep a human child in a cage in a closet but it is not really all that good for the child.

lol i like that. i usually say what if we locked you in a phone both.

 

[fishcatch22]

an overstocked tank is one with fish that are improper for the tank:
1. due to specific species requirements should be given more room.
2. due to potential adult size.
3. due to potential complications because the speices are not compatable.

 

[Slappy*McFish]

If you're unsure if your tank is 'overstocked' or not, then it probably is..regardless of opinion.
But it's kind of pointless without extremes.
There are folks that think that their tanks aren't overstocked, but someone else may disagree.
Then there are the folks that think they are overstocked yet don't care. But at the same time someone else may think they're not overstocked at all.

Madness!

 

[Rallysman]

I'm reading lots of opinions

 

[Mgamer20o0]

I'm reading lots of opinions

as long as you know that i win everything will be fine.

 

[Ghostshrimp55]

You can keep a human child in a cage in a closet but it is not really all that good for the child.

Ooooooh.......yikes...........this really isn't good for the child? Yeah........wow. I......uhhh....I'll be right back.....have to go unluck the closet..........



I'm KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!! No calls to child protective services, please!

 

[pugwash]

I think rbishop sums it up nicely:

I think one would have to also include in the overstocked discussion, the terms

inappropriately stocked (temps, foods, chemistry, behavior, tankmates, etc)

inappropriately maintained (water changes, vacs, food, chemistry, lighting, flow, temp, etc)

You're dealing with closed eco-systems, and no one variable should solely be relied on to monitor and control the system, but utilise as many as variables as you can for controlling the environment in as stable manner as possible.

You get it all right, and will be rewarded with breeding, get it wrong and end up like this:

 

[Atomix-MFK]

Overstocking - The act of populating an aquarium with to many fish or too large fish as to stunt the inhabitants growth and natural behavior.

 

[phaedraeos]

I know that my tanks are on the very cusp of overstocking. This is why I didn't mention the numbers of fish in my sig. I really don't feel like taking a lot of crap from people I don't really know.

HOWEVER I know for a FACT that my params as perfect as is possible in any understocked tank. I am also pretty confident in the 'happiness' of my fish: My livebearers are having a lot of sex, my corys are exhibiting typical cory behavior (sit . . .sit . . . mad dash to surface . . . swim a little . . . sit), my dojos are playing with each other, my betta is out and not harassing other fish, etc. Also, my livebearers are having a lot of sex.

I also know that my fish occupy all levels of the tank well.

So . . . I want to agree with the posters who said that overstocking is not just the number of fish, but also the water quality, the ability of the fishkeeper to take care of his tanks, and the ability of the fish to be "happy" (i.e. have a lot of sex).