My Girlfriends Tank Must Be Overstocked
#1
Posted 08 May 2011 - 04:49 PM
My girlfriend and I love our fish, she has a community tank in her room, but I swear it's waaaaaaaay over stocked, definitely looks it. Growth of the fish is obviously stunted lol
It's 160L and contains as follows:
6-7 clown loaches (varying in sizes)
8 silver Dollars (varying in sizes, 4 of them are quite large and over 2 years old, 2 of them extremely small, maybe 1cm, and 2 averagely sized ones)
4 Small Barb Odessas
6 Medium Angel Fish
2 Bristelnose Catfish
1 Red tailed Shark
Now, a tank upgrade for this aquarium isn't possible at this stage, so my question is, A is it overstocked (obviously so) and if so by how much, and B, what fish would need to be removed to put it at a standard and safe amount of fish in the tank, what are the options, I'd love to see these guys grow bigger and flourish, possibly breed, but we'll see.
Also, the silver dollars have taken to attacking each other lately, chasing each other around, biting chunks out of each others fins etc, this behavior was never the case (even when they've been in smaller tanks together!) So what could this relate too?
Water conditions never have any problems apart from the occasional small rise in Ammonia which happens around the time I go to clean it (once a week/fortnight)
Thank you so much for your help in advance
#2
Posted 08 May 2011 - 04:52 PM
#3
Posted 08 May 2011 - 04:56 PM
Basically, her option is to remove fish lol
#4
Posted 08 May 2011 - 04:56 PM
Test ammonia and Nitrates, if its high ammonia levels, that'll lean towards the tank being overstocked, unless she hasn't done water changes haha, i've never seen silver dollars that small.. perhaps your thinking about some sort of tetra, like Black Widow Tetras?
#5
Posted 08 May 2011 - 05:00 PM
I was looking at the inchs on tape measure fml, I mean around 3cm
I have a few photos here are some we took a couple weeks ago:
these photo's don't show the additional filter I put in, it's not big, so probably doesn't make a whole heap of an impact really
#6
Posted 08 May 2011 - 05:11 PM
Edited by the pulpican man, 08 May 2011 - 05:12 PM.
#7
Posted 08 May 2011 - 05:53 PM
#8
Posted 08 May 2011 - 06:11 PM
what are they being fed?
i think some silver dollars need to go, they get too big for that tank and there's so many of them haha
just go ninja and scoop some out when she's not looking hehe.
they do look healthy, and not showing any signs of stunt, signs of stunt are easy to find, usually the eyes and fins of the fish look to big for the size of the fishes body, or you get visual deformities such as the case with your oscar.
either way, i think probably 3 or 4 fish need to go, give them more space
good luck!
#9
Posted 08 May 2011 - 06:53 PM
Oh I always go Ninja...WIN!
I want her to get rid of the barbs but she wont budge on that hahaha very difficult
#10
Posted 08 May 2011 - 07:02 PM
#11
Posted 08 May 2011 - 07:14 PM
We feed them a mixture of pellets, flakes and frozen brine shrimp, we tried my freeze dried shrimp the other day and the silver dollars loved it
I'm still wondering why the silver dollars are tearing each other apart, how do they do in small groups? and also how big do they get? Do they go OK with Oscars? I heard they can be good tank mates
#12
Posted 08 May 2011 - 07:36 PM
#13
Posted 08 May 2011 - 07:39 PM
The clown loaches are also far too big when full grown, because they get to 40 to 50cm long and pretty chunky. However it's hard to keep them alive that long so see how you go. As the bigger ones get too big you can decide between scaling up tanks and getting rid of them. It's always easy to find a home for a big clown.
Aim at 1cm per 2 litres, ie max 80cm of fish. Any more and you have to change water so often to keep them healthy it's just not worth it.
#14
Posted 08 May 2011 - 08:19 PM
#15
Posted 08 May 2011 - 08:29 PM
#16
Posted 08 May 2011 - 09:31 PM
Well obviously the small rise of ammonia would be from the amount of fish
How do Silver Dollars do in small groups? I could move half of them to my Oscar Tank and Shift the Barbs somewhere if I can convince the missus haha
Does anyone know why the silver dollars are chasing each other around and biting each others fins off etc, Targeting the Dorsal Fins
#17
Posted 08 May 2011 - 09:33 PM
even i get ammonia in my tank if i leave a too bigger gap between water changes and my tanks been running for months without a fatality.. and my eheim wet/dry is supposed to help with ammonia, you can't just leave a tank and expect no ammonia.. its the water changes that get rid of the ammonia and nirates.
Edited by the pulpican man, 08 May 2011 - 09:34 PM.
#18
Posted 08 May 2011 - 09:38 PM
#19
Posted 08 May 2011 - 09:49 PM
Water changing to lower ammonia is only when your biological filtration can't keep up. Either due to not enough filter media capacity, over-stocking, excess food, a death or a drop in beneficial bacteria (chlorine/improper filter cleaning, low-temps etc).
Daz
#20
Posted 08 May 2011 - 09:55 PM
Guess you learn something new every day thanks daz!
i guess that means my tank is either slightly over stocked, or my fish like to dig up small ammonia pockets
either way, i'd never not change my water at least once a fortnight!
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