Why do you think some members overstock American cichlids ?

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I think over stocking is done to many different degrees. We have all seen tanks where the fish can't move and they're all beat up from the close quarters and then there are those tanks packed full of fish..everyone gets along.. water is clean and fish are healthy. It all depends on the individual fish.

I admit I'm a recovering overstocker. For me when you buy the fish small, grow them out for a while and get attached you start to place your need to keep the fish over the needs of your fish. You start to convince yourself that they are fine..they're happy. Eventually you realize they aren't happy and you get tired of watching them get beat up in their own home.

With most fish keeper I'd like to say over stocking isn't intentional. It progressively gets that way. It also doesn't help when a LFS just sells fish and doesn't give advice or inform a novice of their mistakes or potential problems. This only ends in dead fish and fish keepers who eventually quit because everything dies or is in piss pour condition.

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bulldovii said:
I think over stocking is done to many different degrees. We have all seen tanks where the fish can't move and they're all beat up from the close quarters and then there are those tanks packed full of fish..everyone gets along.. water is clean and fish are healthy. It all depends on the individual fish.

I admit I'm a recovering overstocker. For me when you buy the fish small, grow them out for a while and get attached you start to place your need to keep the fish over the needs of your fish. You start to convince yourself that they are fine..they're happy. Eventually you realize they aren't happy and you get tired of watching them get beat up in their own home.

With most fish keeper I'd like to say over stocking isn't intentional. It progressively gets that way. It also doesn't help when a LFS just sells fish and doesn't give advice or inform a novice of their mistakes or potential problems. This only ends in dead fish and fish keepers who eventually quit because everything dies or is in piss pour condition.

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Yes I agree, there's such a thing as overstocking to the point where they have basically no leg room. That's just really, really bad.

But otherwise 'overstocking' is not a bad thing, ime. Just that just, of course don't go overboard with it and stick 30 oscars in a 4ft or something.
 
Azedenkae said:
Yes I agree, there's such a thing as overstocking to the point where they have basically no leg room. That's just really, really bad.

But otherwise 'overstocking' is not a bad thing, ime. Just that just, of course don't go overboard with it and stick 30 oscars in a 4ft or something.
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JDM tanks bug me too, but to each his own I guess. I overstock my Mbuna tank but my stocking levels dont even compare to a lot of JDM tanks Ive seen
 
Jc1119 said:
True, but to the original question, why do we overstock in aquariums? Trying to mimc wild conditions for large centrals is nearly impossible and I think we agree on that point.....
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Yes of course, lol. In the wild, fish have infinitely more gallons of water to swim in than we can possibly provide in captivity; there are a lot more gallons of water per fish than we can ever provide, but the distribution of populations within these giant bodies of water is spacially no different than what you would find in your average " overstocked "aquarium.. Unless we have large heated ponds that are upwards of 10,000 gallons to mimic even the smallest body of water in which cichlids are found, it's nearly impossible to keep some species with other fish in the average home aquaria. I was just disagreeing with the idea that it's natural for cichlids to be solitary animals cause it's not true, fish don't stray far from one another. That's why when we go fishing, we always have to find a "sweet spot" or else we won't catch a damn thing, lol. It's also the same reason why shy fish will all of a sudden become confident when you introduce some tankmates. The ones with strong natural instincts tend to hide if there are no other fish present because they are assuming that there is some big bad predator that's making all of the other fish hide as well and that's how we get fish that we deem "timid" or fish with "poor personalities". They don't have poor personalities, their natural instincts are just strong and the lack of tankmates is what is actually stressing them out.


Back to the original question. People overstock because they want more than one species of fish and have very few tanks in which to keep them in, simple as that. Some people also actually love the look of a very busy JDM style tank. You have to understand though, the JDM tank done correctly is a piece of art: it takes a ton of patients and trial and error to get the right mix of fish in there when it comes to New World cichlids.
 
I find it comical that terms such as natural, or unnatural, are being used to describe behavioural traits about cichlids that are being kept in a glass box.


In the end tho, to be honest keeping fish in tanks in and of itself is already unnatural, so why should we really care how much more 'unnatural' it is to do other things? Like having a heater in, or rocks from different regions, or fish from different regions, or feeding food they don't tend to eat in the wild, or any of that stuff. Is there a 'level' of 'unnatural' that tips the scale and makes it bad? I don't think so, unnatural is unnatural to me, and the moment we add them to our tank - or pond even, we're not keeping them 'naturally' and that's that.

So whilst I think keeping a larger number of cichlids together, plus other fish, is more 'natural' than keeping a single cichlid and not let it have any inter-fish interactions (besides the occasional feeder I guess), I don't really care and to be honest I don't think anyone should care. The only thing that matters is if it works or not, and if it does, great, if it doesn't, then sadface. Otherwise yeah whatever. .
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Well said.
 
I will have to post a picture of my 90. I hate to use the term "over crowded". Right now anyone caught bullying the smaller fish get thrown in the 90 with the bruisers. It reminds me of a football locker room. I will tell you thou no casualties in this tank. All my smaller fish are the ones acting up. When they do they get thrown in this tank. I will post picture tomorrow.
 
beacause they are cool and I want as many as cool fish as possoble... I just don't go way too far but I do overstock...
 
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