OVER STOCKING EFFECT!!!!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
In a larger thank, he aggression is simply "diluted" with the more fish you put in. In tanks like this it's usually a good idea to have a rather large sump.

The reason it often doesn't work with new world cichlids what is that people are mixing many different species from different locations, and that in the wild you'll often see african cichlids swimming together while new world cichlids tend to be more loners. However, it can be done, for example the shedd aquarium has a large tank (500g+?) of nothing but red devils/midas. There's hardly any aggression at all, and the only problem is the issue of bio-load, which the shedd doesn't seem to be taking care of very well...
 
Whether or not its a big no no, is definable by the goals of keeping the fish.

If you want to enjoy fish displaying natural fish behavior and thriving in a healthy environment... than don't over stock. Period.


However, if you have a fish farm and your goal is to see how fast you can grow a huge number of fish to marketable size using the least amount of resources, you had better have those tanks/ pools stocked to the max.

Tilapia are ridiculously aggressive. My 15" tilapia would kill my 17" pacu if given a chance and that pacu has got to be about 4x as big. Yet tilapia get rasied (Quite successfully) in densities of 0.5-1 lb per gallon. Pound, not inch... POUND!

My single tilapia in a 125 gallon tank is my friend, a wonderful pet, full of personality, he could NEVER display that in a tank with 75 other tilapia.


So it depends on your goal. Overstocking causes stress and shortens life spans, leaving fish prone to all sorts of trouble. On a fish farm, the fish reach market size long before the shortened life span kicks in, so its just not a big deal. If it was my pet... a shortened life span would really bother me.
 
Poklei;3887496; said:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=307573

yup its pretty true, before i had a few chalceus, they were always fighting, i kept buying more and more and they all swim together now. heres my stock above
Click to expand...

Yes very true. i seen ur thread earlier and I was going to say that ur tank was nice but WAY over stocked but I went against it. I didnt want to come across as being a jerk.

Anyway nice setup!!!
 
bitteraspects;3887168; said:
first off, overstocking is not a "no no". its not recommended for novice keepers, and is "generally" frowned upon, but if done responsibly and proper measures are taken, it is a very common and successful practice. it really depends on how much youre willing to put into it.
Click to expand...
I think some people call it JDM? I don't much care for the practice but it seems to be pretty popular in some circles.
 
First off I would like to clear something up for a new fish keeper who reads this now or reads this later by doing a search. Theres a big difference between overstocking a tank and putting fish in that are two big for a tank. When you over stock a tank all the fish in there are the right size for the tank they are in. So putting an Oscar in a 10 gallon and saying I'm overstocked but other people overstock there tanks so I should be fine no this is not the same thing so don't do it.

I think a lot of it comes down to how the fish live in the wild. As we all know it is a common practice to overstock a mumba tank. Now even though these fish are not a schooling fish in the wild they can be found in groups of hundreds are even thousands feeding and what not. Now with some of the bigger fish like New Worlds and such most of these fish are usually loners so they may not do so well in a overstocked tank.
 
erk419;3887775; said:
Theres a big difference between overstocking a tank and putting fish in that are two big for a tank. When you over stock a tank all the fish in there are the right size for the tank they are in. So putting an Oscar in a 10 gallon and saying I'm overstocked but other people overstock there tanks so I should be fine no this is not the same thing so don't do it.
Click to expand...

I think that is a really smart observation . . . or at least, one I agree with :)

my first concern is always that the size of the fish is appropriate to the size of the tank; after that, I consider whether or not I might be pushing the stocking limits (which I generally don't do anyway)
 
its true for sure . i have 2 yellow heads (Parachromis loisellei) with 4 convicts in a 75g sumone said im overstocked so i moved my 4 convicts to other tank. and the other day i saw the the male yellow head beat the f@#$ outta female. she lost scales got torn fins and the worst part is she got eye cloudiness that i tried treating but nuthing changed F#$%@#$@ :irked:. so i put hthe convicts back and it was much better now obviously with a lil bit fighting but not that much.
btw anyone know how do i treat eye cloudiness without any chemicals just natural way?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom