What is your definition of overstocking?

[Jeox]

But how do you determine what over crowded is?

We all know water changes bio load blah blah blah ........that can be easily taken care of with more filtration and water changes.

Bioload and filtration aside, how do you determine when there is too many fish?

Too many fish would be.....A breeding pair of arapimas, a school of 20 pacus..10 rtc's...5 arowanas....and a mekong cat...in a 55.

 

[freeskierrocket]

Too many fish would be.....A breeding pair of arapimas, a school of 20 pacus..10 rtc's...5 arowanas....and a mekong cat...in a 55.

U mean that wont work...................Later guys i gotta go rearrange.............

 

[rallysman]

I'm just curious to see how people really feel. It's interesting to see that some people say is overstocking, while others will disagree.

 

[RadleyMiller]

If you have naturally shy fish that you are constantly seeing, and they look stressed out, then you are over stocked.

 

[Jeox]

I'm just curious to see how people really feel. It's interesting to see that some people say is overstocking, while others will disagree.

Haha...Overstocking is my tanks.
Nah...but...if h fish can barly move and the waters crap...Then it's overstockd.

 

[islander671]

excluding the bioload factor...i think it would be harder to judge. generally speaking i would say that the type of fish would determine overstocking, example being a 55 gallon with 5 silver dollars, or other naturally schooling fish as compared to 5 buttikoferi or other territorial aggresive fish; in conjuction with that the size of the fish as compared to the dimensions of the tank. it would seem that its easier to say that someones tank is overstocked than to be able to justify the statement..lol

 

[JardiniBoy]

Everyone's going on about how happy their fish are. I think fish that are alive are as "happy" as they will ever be.

I think if your fish show good coloration, eat well, have enough space to swim and don't kill each other (or die!) then your tank is appropriately stocked..

If one or more of the above are not true and you seem to have a lot of fish swimming around, then you're probably overstocked..

 

[Nic]

when it is almost impossible to physically count how many are in the tank

 

[rallysman]

when it is almost impossible to physically count how many are in the tank

Does that count for the 50000 gallon tank to?

 

[Danyal]

i consider overstocking to be when there is not enough room for the fish to comfortably live. the ag department at my school has a 10g tank w/ a dozen 3/4" comets, about half a dozen guppies and some ghost shrimp. there is 2~2.5" of play sand(looks nice, i'm going to try it in my next tank) and a bunch of anachris and everything is filtered by a fluval 1plus of 2plus, i think it's a 2plus. the tank looks clean the fish healthy at the moment so i'd rate it at slightly overstock, in a couple weeks when the comets grow at all it's going to go to hell. i don't usually consider filtration when determining stocking levels because it's pretty easy to tailor your filtration system to your needs, i still remember a guy who had a nano reef tank(i think it was like 20g) that he had hooked up to a 40g sump and 30g refugium and another guy who had a 5.5g display and a 10g sump.