Tropical Fish Keeping - Aquarium fish care and resources

Tropical Fish Keeping - Aquarium fish care and resources (http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/)

- Freshwater Aquarium (http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/freshwater-aquarium/)

- - How many fish? (http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/freshwater-aquarium/how-many-fish-1791/)

Can anyone give me a rough estimate of how many fish i could keep in an 27.5 gallon tank?

Hi Steve.:wave:

It is not easy to calculate the number of fish in a tank. It would be best if you submit the stocking plan so we can sort that out as most of the fish depending on the size produce different amount of wastes. Some species may have the same size, but most tend to produce a lot of wastes than others.

27.5 inches of fish and this is at their final adult size. There are fish that you can out a few more and some you should put a few less in but your over all stocking plan should follow this "rule". A heavy planted tank changes this, heavy feeders like plecos reduce it and smaller fish like neons and some tetras increase this number.

Like Blue said, if you know what type of fish you want we can help you get the numbers you need and hopefully avoid too many.

I have trouble with this fish per inch thing, it sounds like you mean one fish per gallon of water, which seems low to me, sorry to ask but can you dumb it down!!

(Message deleted by poster)

Ok, at the moment in my tank I have 1 panda cory, 6 neon tetras, and 2 clown loaches, am just worried about overstocking, I want community fish, like tiger barbs and mollys and the like, nothing to big, do you think that would be ok.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steve

Clowns shouldn't be in the 27 gallons. It's far too small for two especially when in a few years, they will take considerable growth. Clowns can reach 12 inches and possibly more in the wild. We have one member here who has a 7 inches clown. 2 clowns are best kept in a 60-75 gallons.
You should add 5 more panda cories. They like company.:)
I wouldn't go over with tiger barbs. In that tank, fin nipping is highly possible. Go over with harlequin rasboras instead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by crazie.eddie

Wider bodied fish, such as angelfish, discus, etc. should be stocked at least 2"-3" of fish per 1 gallon of water.

Whoa! That's backwards, nu? 1" per 2 to 3 gallons of widebodies yes?

(Message deleted by poster)

Everyone has missed the most important word in the "stocking rule". It's 1 inche of ADULT fish... always figure adult size from the beginning so they have room to grow. Most healthy fish will grow fast, and that's where a lot of people run into problems. Most fish sold in LFS's are babies, so it's rare to see them at adult size (with a few exceptions) and its rare that anyone puts an adult size fish into a newer tank.
I agree about avoiding tiger barbs, but I've raised mollys and neons together a few times, and they did well so long as the tank was heavily planted. If you can find them, coral platys are good with your mix. They're a dwarf species of platy, bright orange, and active. They're livebearing like mollys, standard platys, swordtails and guppys, so be sure to keep the breeding under control and don't pair them with 1 male/1 female. In a tank of that size, I'd suggest all male, or 2 females for each male.
Dwarf neon rainbows would also thrive in that tank. White cloud and gold white clouds would also thrive, as would glowlite tetras and gold tetras, green fire tetras, or even badis badis (the scarlet badis are awesome and super colorful with the males).
You have a lot of small options available. I'd get a list from your local LFS to see what of these they have available, and then work on how many of what kind. I notice the price and availability changes according to location.