What is Overstocked?

[thecoolguy]

recently, while seeing the numerous pictures/posts/threads in regards to monster fish, monster tanks, monster stocking, and monster over stocking....i have come to wonder what the general public here (granted the average member here is far from "general") thinks about tanks.....

but before going there, a quick note on fish health in general:

- healthy fish eat
- have good color
- grow at a good healthy pace
- live in "clean" quality filtered water
- live the proper life span

most of these coincide with a fish that is living in lower stress environment also in my opinion.....

so......i have seen many tanks (on here and else where) that almost anyone non-monster would consider completely unhealthy and bad for fish....yet we argue that it is "ok" cuz the fish is obviously healthy and water is good...(i.e. the things listed above)

so, if the fish is exhibiting signs of health, low stress, and is "thriving" - is there really a "set" method to fish keeping?

examples:

pacu in a 70-80gal tank.....small for the fish at large size, but have seen it succesfully done

arros/pbass/etc.....housed in "smaller" tanks (100-120 gal) that are "thriving"

10-14" max sized fish housed in 30-50 gal tanks but filtered perfectly, reaching size potential, and being healthy....

etc...etc...etc......

bottomline - i am new to this hobby....but have come to see that "to each his own" can successfully be achieved in the game of fish keeping.....

 

[dovii88]

can we really say wat is overstocked cause look at some of these japanese style aquariums. They house upwards to 30 or 40 fish in a 300 gallon tank, and all these fish are no smaller then 12 to 13 inches...so wat is trully overstocked...i say if your fish are healthy, and you do water changes and your tank chemistry is good then..keep the fish you have...

 

[pacu mom]

Overstocking primarily has to do with water quality. All the standard filtration in the world is not going to deal with the build up of nitrates, the end product in the nitrogen cycle. Unless you have specialized denitrators, or your tank is heavily planted, your only other option is to do water changes to remove the nitrates. When you find yourself doing frequent, massive water changes to keep the nitrates at an acceptable level, you know that your tank is overstocked. High nitrates have been implicated in stunting, HITH (hole-in-the-head disease) and premature death among other things. Yes, your fish will eat, have good color and the water will look clear and clean even in high nitrate conditions. The only way to know the quality of the water is to test it. You should have and be using a freshwater master test kit to make sure you have good water parameters.

 

[Euge]

Overstocking primarily has to do with water quality. All the standard filtration in the world is not going to deal with the build up of nitrates, the end product in the nitrogen cycle. Unless you have specialized denitrators, or your tank is heavily planted, your only other option is to do water changes to remove the nitrates. When you find yourself doing frequent, massive water changes to keep the nitrates at an acceptable level, you know that your tank is overstocked. High nitrates have been implicated in stunting, HITH (hole-in-the-head disease) and premature death among other things. Yes, your fish will eat, have good color and the water will look clear and clean even in high nitrate conditions. The only way to know the quality of the water is to test it. You should have and be using a freshwater master test kit to make sure you have good water parameters.

Great answer!

 

[johnptc]

it does seem however that with really big fish which eat pounds of food per day large water changes ( 24/7 running in clean water ) are required and that alone is not enough to call a tank overstocked IMO..........

ps i keep nitates at 25ppm which is probaly better than many small understocked tanks....

 

[Miguel]

Agreed...but as long as nitrates are kept in check and fish are happy in the sense that they act natural and eat, there really should not be this stress over the overstocking theme.

As John puts it, there are low populated systems that are lousy and heavily populated ones that are a credit to their owners.