need help understanding something...

M

matt100

AC Members
Dec 27, 2004
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i bought a fish book, "the aquarium fish handbook" by **** mills and derek lambert. for each fish it has the minimum tank size. the i cant understand what the number means though. for example, for neon tetras it says the minimum tank size is 24. when i look up how to interpret that number, here is what it says:


Tank size​
10​
minimun volume​

"Can vary according to the size and particular habits of your fish. The minumum volume of water required is given in gallons/liters or it could just be cubic feet/meters."​

I have no idea what that means, can someone please help?
 
Those numbers sound a little screwed up. It says 10 minimum and 24 minimum. There aren't many 10 gallon tanks that are 24 inches long. The industry standard is 20 inches long. But I agree with redbucket. I think those numbers represent a 24 inch long tank, and 10 gallon tank.
 
10 tetras in a 24inch tank...
 
You guys didn't understand it, then ten has nothing to do with tetras, its just an example. it could say 1,000,000. what i would like some one to tell this means "The minimum volume of water required is given in gallons/liters of it could just be cubic feet/meters"

lets say 24, does that mean 24 gallons? 24 liter? 24 cubic feet? 24 cubic meters? can someone shed like on this plz
 
I'm guessing 24L, which would be about 6g. It's a really small minimum, but it could hold 6 neons and nothing else.

On the other hand Drs. Foster and Smith set a 30g minimum for neons:
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1955&articleid=2539

One of the reasons that I like their site (although a bit comercial) is that they have high minimums because they assume that you'll have a proper sized school and other fish in the tank. On that note, perhaps the book means 24g?

I'd also check really hard to make sure that there's nothing to indicate the units and if there wasn't anything reasonably clear, I'd bring the book back to the store or write an angry letter to the publisher. Unitless numbers are completely useless (unless, of course, you were talking about a ratio), they drill that into you in high school and there's no excuse for a published book, which in theory should have some foundation in science, to have unitless numbers. Make it specifically clear what the problem with the book is and they should be more than happy to replace it or refund you, and future editions should be remedied so that other people don't have the same problem.
 
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I wouldn't put to much faith in a book...its just an opinion that someone bothered to have bound. And I'm gonna bet that 9 times outta 10 they'll opt for uber space.
 
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