Will overstocking your fish tank stunt fish growth?
- Thread starter fbgm123
- Start date
stupid question i know but i just wanted to know.
Maybe. I haven't had too much overstocking so I haven't seen too much of an effect. GOOGLE it and tell us what you find. I'm sure the other users here on MFK will give you lots of good advice!
Welcome
Welcome
if you couple overstocking with scant wc then ABSOLUTELY! the dirtier the water the worse their stunting gets and the more fish you have the faster that water will get filthy, but in theory if you still keep the nitrates low (though will be harder with more fish) then no it wont affect their growth but you would have to do more wc than normal to prevent this
Overstocking makes maintaining water quality difficult. Poor water conditions are one of the three main reason fish are stunted, but it is possible to provide proper water conditions.
What you CANNOT avoid are high levels of stress in overcrowded tanks. Stress results in a host of issues, including the susceptibility to disease.
(By the way, stunt-reason-#3 is nutrition, but that's not much of a problem anymore with modern fish foods.)
What you CANNOT avoid are high levels of stress in overcrowded tanks. Stress results in a host of issues, including the susceptibility to disease.
(By the way, stunt-reason-#3 is nutrition, but that's not much of a problem anymore with modern fish foods.)
Some fish only grow to the comfortable size of their container others (like the snakeheaded fish) continue to grow until they cant turn around and die
Deep Blue Sea;3869828; said:
its not the size of the container or tank that a fish is in that stunts their growth it is the water quality of the tank the fish is in, not just snakeheads will out grow any tank, any fish will keep growing in any size tank as long as the water quality is great, with saying that, everyone knows that it is hard to keep the water quality good in a 10 gal tank with any kind of fish that is already too large for that tank.
I have had examples such as an oscar i had when i was 9 my friend also got 2 while he was with me they were all about the same size but my friend had a 50 gallon and i had a 20, my water quality was always good but i noticed after about a year his fish were noticably larger then mine was
Deep Blue Sea;3869920; said:
Not a very good example. Too many other variables that could have caused the size difference.