I prefer to understock. I look at it this way - would you want to live in a studio apartment with 20+ other humans? If if it's up to me to provide them with an environment for their life - I prefer it to be a non-stressful one
New to MFK but old school thought
- Thread starter bh_aquatic
- Start date
You have the Purist and Non Purist in the fishkeeping hobby. I personally don't like overstocking aquariums. Some species should and need adequate space for various reasons imo.
I'm of the oppinion that it really depends on a lot of variables all of which were listed above basically. But a quick breakdown is
1. Water quality
2. Everyone healthy
3. Compatibility
4. your ability to make sure all the above stay on the "green" side.
Certian fish work "better" overcrowded then just under capacity so to speak. Or in other words its better to have to many then almost to many. African cichlids give them their space or crowd them in between is usually not good.
1. Water quality
2. Everyone healthy
3. Compatibility
4. your ability to make sure all the above stay on the "green" side.
Certian fish work "better" overcrowded then just under capacity so to speak. Or in other words its better to have to many then almost to many. African cichlids give them their space or crowd them in between is usually not good.
Pretty much my school of thought unless it’s a small army of schooling fish of the same species in a tank with crazy depth. But I agree it’s definitely a preference thing to a point... I only respect it when individuals are doing their water changes or a freshwater continuous drip or their filtration rivals a state aquarium...
When I learn tanks in Asia the one thing I found to differ was it made me a clarity and filtration psycho. So allot of their over stocking is tolerated because they are draconian with water qualityWelcome to the forum.
It's all personal preference really. If you can get a tank full of peaceful fish that get on and you don't mind putting the work in to keep your nitrates in check then why not?
My tanks are a little on the heavy side stocking wise but i'm willing to put the graft in to keep my water good.
Saying that though there was an old thread on here about super heavily stocked tanks, I mean absolutely rammed with huge fish. They seem to be, or at least were, i'm not sure whether they still are, popular in Asia.islandguy11 . Those type of tanks are way too much imo.
I guess I’m a centristic purist and agree..lol. But I do like a nice responsibility stocked tank as long as the filtration is heavy.
Omg...lol.. cichlids I arguably comprehend and guilty of in the past. The bottom one burns my wheels. But I don’t tank bash I worry about my own 539 gallons of strategic madness...Depends on the stock.
Do you mean like this
Or like this
Well overstocking cichlids like that can help diffuse aggression which is why its done
Imo most of the pix/vids you see of super-stocked tanks come from Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan (due to generally smaller abodes/space), so I'm personally not sure how common it is nowadays. Here in Thailand you don't see this so much. Also it's mostly well-off Thais who would keep monster fish, and they'd be more likely to keep them in ponds or large tanks, space isn't such an issue here (and costs for tanks are much less).Welcome to the forum.
It's all personal preference really. If you can get a tank full of peaceful fish that get on and you don't mind putting the work in to keep your nitrates in check then why not?
My tanks are a little on the heavy side stocking wise but i'm willing to put the graft in to keep my water good.
Saying that though there was an old thread on here about super heavily stocked tanks, I mean absolutely rammed with huge fish. They seem to be, or at least were, i'm not sure whether they still are, popular in Asia.
