ufiiish;1095422; said:
The general rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. Remember to use the future adult size of your fish when computing the total inches of fish you can have. This rule is pretty silly if you think about it though. Do you think a 20 inch fish would be comfortable in a 20 gallon tank? A better rule would be 1 inch of fish per 2 or 3 gallons of water. Avoid the temptation to overcrowd your tank. If you do overcrowd the tank you will need to perform maintenancemore often.
More fish care here!
I think I will have to post a sticky on this,
Please people, don't be so dogmatic about that old general guideline..., I will explain.
The "one inch of fish per gallon" rule of thumb is a general guideline that works quite well, IF you remember that the inch refered to is a cubic inch.
This means that an adult 3" corydoras catfish will require about 3 gallons but a 1 1/2" rasbora will require only around 1/5 of a gallon, and a 10" oscar will require about 45 gallons.
I will clarify,
A 3 inch long cory is about an average of 3" long, 1" wide, and 1" tall (3x1x1=3) so equals 3 gallons.
A 1 1/2" long rasbora is 1 1/2" long, 1/4" thick, and 1/2" tall (1.5x.25x.5=.1875) rounded up for safety this is .2o or 1/5 of a gallon.
A 10" oscar is 10" long, 3" tall, and 1 1/2" thick (10x3x1.5=45) for 45 gallons.
You must also remember that you have to allow for any anticipated growth that may occur.
Apply this guideline properly as general rule and you will see that it is quite close to reality for a well filtered and aereated tank in most cases.
There are always exceptions so you must allow for the type of fish, temp. water requirements, etc.
I hope that this helps clarify the confusion.
Guppy
