Visually speaking, more than 4 fish in a tank is too much.

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divemaster99 said:
I can see your points here, however I'm a big fan of tanks with tons of fish (though not overstocked bioload or aggression wise) with lots of natural decor. For the 75 gallon riffle tank Im planning, it's going to look EXACTLY like an actual riffle. Changing contour, natural gravel,plenty of flow, and plants flowing in the current with fish darting in and out of caves. The number of fish is also going to be in the low 40s since I'm going to have smaller fish (most will achieve 2-4" but some up to 6") and I'll be overfiltering. So my point here is this tank is going against most things you've said, though we'll see if it turns out good visually in time.
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Stocking levels are like a freakin art. I dont like the look of fish occupying every inch of a tank. But dont like single specimens without some sort of dither. I think bioload is the easiest issue to address more wc, good filtration, plants, purigen we ect. Aggression is a whole other subject. Just because the fish arent showing signs of aggression it doesnt mean they arent stressed from not have ample territories. I try and get fish that wont compete for the same areas of the tank and different sizes or appearances. My 150 is my sons tank and is in our living room so i wanted a comm set up. The stock constantly changed for some time. Its now a pearsei, heterospilus, spotted raph, L200, and ,L600 with 4 rainbowfish that are gonna be rehomed they just dont fit for some reason. I tweaked the stock rehoming an oscar and hrp and having to remove a metea.

The funny thing was the metae never bothered anyone but when i added the pearsei things went south there was something about the pearsei that she didnt like and was relentless. I moved her to another tank to give the pearsei some time to grow hoping size alone would deter aggression but now like the look of the tank with just the two cichlids i think it would look overstocked with a 3rd.

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Redearsunfish said:
But its not really about visual noise, rather its about the relative space between dis-similar objects within the tank.
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Naturally, every person will "sense" space differently, but I agree with the thrust of your post. I feel that I can appreciate each fish more when there is less distraction. Of course for a school of fish, I prefer a lot (more than 6), but I don't want a school in a tank so small that the school dominates the other specimens.

Too much is far worse than too little for me in terms of aesthetics.
 
I dig.

This is why I prefer wet pets or single specimen tanks. The mixed fish tanks are just too busy for me. It's probably why I'm not a fan of reef tanks...too much too take in and too many colors.

After a particularly trying day, I like to sit in front of my biotope with just driftwood and leaves and just stare at my fish.

It's such a sight for sore eyes! :)
 
Drstrangelove said:
Naturally, every person will "sense" space differently, but I agree with the thrust of your post. I feel that I can appreciate each fish more when there is less distraction. Of course for a school of fish, I prefer a lot (more than 6), but I don't want a school in a tank so small that the school dominates the other specimens.

Too much is far worse than too little for me in terms of aesthetics.
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Yes, and i agree about schools of fish.
 
there are other ways then having one fish to make the fish a focal point. I have a painted back and bottom both black.. Bare bottom African tank. With black PVC Y pipe pillars. he fish POP against the all black

Super easy tank to clean and fish r focal.
 
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