# Is my tank too overstock?



## Andra2000 (May 15, 2012)

Hi Everyone,

I recently set up a new 60 US gallon tank, and I have heard many different things about stocking. I have read about the 1" per gallon rule, but also that many factors play into the max stocking of the tank. So, I'd like to share with you the current stock that I have because it is more than 1" per gallon, but the guy at my LFS says that it should be fine as long as I have good filtration and I keep up with water changes. Here it is:

• Golden Giant Danio x 5 • Black Skirt tetra – x 5 • Red minor tetras x 5 • Buenos Aires Tetras x 3 • Twinbar gold platy x 1 • Sunset wag platy x 2 • Sword wag platy - red x 1 • Dwarf Gourami Blue x 1 • Glofish tetra(black skirt) x 4 • Glofish zebra danios x 4 • Red Parrot Cichlid x 1

--> I've also got 4 about different live plants - I know one of them is an anubias and it's growing pretty fast so it's the biggest one as well. --> The parrot cichlid is about a year and a half old about 5 inches and is the newest fish. What do you guys think about this addition? The guy at the store said it would be totally fine because the other fish are much faster, but all the other fish run away when it's near and it has been very territorial for the past day or so. He has also been tearing one specific plant and every time I put my hand in the tank to fix it, he bumps at my arm.

As far as filtration goes, I have a Hagen AquaClear power filter 70 and an Eheim Classic 2215 canister. I've been doing weekly water changes of about 25 percent and plan to continue to do so unless you guys think once every 2 weeks would be adequate for the amount of fish we have. The guy at the fish store said once every two weeks would be fine after a little while of doing once a week. The water levels have been perfect according to my LFS for the past couple of weeks.

What do you guys think? Is it overstocked? Is this going to be too much for a beginner like me to handle? Suppose I was an experienced aquarist; would I be able to keep all these fish and maybe more in the tank that I have? All the fish are pretty new, and none of them are anywhere near their max sizes, so for now I'm below the inch per gallon rule. The tank dimensions are 24" length (vertical) x 48" width (horizontal) x 12" depth. Many of the fish are still within the return period, so I could take some back as well. I absolutely don't want to get rid of the blood parrot though because I really love it, it's such a beautiful addition to the tank.

If it is overstocked, or I'm doing something really wrong, please just let me know so I can fix it. I'm not a bad person or a fish torturer. I've never even eaten a fish in my whole life! I have received a lot of false information from guys at Petsmart and Petco, however, and I'm just looking for an expert opinion.

Thanks in advance for your advice!


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Do yourself a favor and take the cichlid back and stop listening to the guy in the store. Just remember most can talk you into stuff, but very few actually have experience keeping fish....and doing what they do in the store is not the same thing. That fish does not mix well with your other fish, IMO.

Personally, I don't think you're overstocked. I would increase water change % to 50% weekly and keep your nitrates and feeding under control. I think you're way understocked in plants and would add quite a bit more.

How long have you had the tank and how long have fish been in it? Has it been through the nitrogen cycle?


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## navigator black (Jan 3, 2012)

The blood parrot is an either or. You keep it, or you keep the others. It will grow to be a big aggressive animal, and will also be a serious charge on your filtration. Sorry to bring bad news...


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## luananeko (Aug 27, 2010)

Please do yourself a favor and research about a fish species before buying it. There are many many very interesting and pretty fish in the hobby, but you can't put them all together in one tank without getting most of them killed. Cichlids by and large must be kept with other cichlids due to their size and aggressive personality, and even they won't always get along with each other unless you pick the right tankmates. Community fish (platy, sword, tetra, rasbora, danio, guppy, etc) are far more forgiving of tankmates and can be mixed without too much trouble usually. 

Google is your friend and will easily pull up lots of care information about just about any fish you might want to add. If you don't have luck there, you can also try Aqadvisor.com's stocking calculator, although it's compatibility warnings are typically on the overly cautious side. It also has a stocking calculator that works a bit better than the 1" of fish per gallon rule since it takes each fish's bio load into account, but again, it's still just a starting point. It can't perfectly predict what is a good stocking level, as that is dependent on how full of decorations substrate the tank is, what the layout is, plus many other variables. Do your own research and ask questions to double check!

Edit: Also, cichlids are typically near impossible to keep with plants. They usually tear them to shreds, like you're seeing with the blood parrot. So like the others have said, you either keep the cichlid or you keep the other plants and fish. You can't keep both or you'll still end up with just the cichlid at the end.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Hello A...

If you'll commit to removing and replacing half the tank water every week, then you can have more small, adult fish per gallon of tank volume than the tank keeper who doesn't change out the water as often. I have several 55 G tanks, and follow an aggressive water change routine. I have at least two hundred small "Livebearers" of various ages in each of my tanks. Attached is a pic of one of my tanks. If you enlarge the photo, you can see there are a lot of fish in it. They thrive in the pure water conditions.

However, if for some reason, you're unable or unwilling to do large, frequent water changes, then you shouldn't have more than one, small, adult fish per gallon.

B


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## Tomorrowland (Mar 9, 2012)

Andra, personally I don't think you're overstocked. As jrman83 said, I would increase your water changes to 50% and I would also consider increasing your filtration. I have a Blood Parrot in my 75 gallon, and they do have quite a large bioload. I am running two Marineland Emperor Bio Wheel 400's (pro series) on my 75 gallon so I have roughly a 15x/hour turnover. It's highly suggested that for fish with larger bioloads to have at least a 10x/hour turnover.

As for the Blood Parrot... I have a roughly six month old Blood Parrot that I purchased recently when my eight year old passed. They are absolutely amazing fish in my humble opinion, who will come to know the appearance of their owner and swim to the front of the tank to greet you. They have dynamic personalities that vary greatly from fish to fish. This is largely due to the fact that they are hybrids between the Gold Severum (generally considered to be on the lower end of aggression for Cichlids, i.e. semi-aggressive but usually quite peaceful) and the Red Devil (who are extremely aggressive and territoral by nature).

I have heard that Blood Parrots do quite well with Giant Danios, but if you decide you want to keep your Blood Parrot, I would get another tank and move ALL the other fish, rehome them, or return them. Or do so with the Blood Parrot. As hybrids, Blood Parrots' teeth are not as prominent as other Cichlids due to their deformed mouth and they generally lie far back in their mouth / throat and are unable to actually "bite" other fish. However, they are still semi-aggressive by nature and will hunt and stress much smaller fish, and eat any that can fit in their mouths. I had successfully kept my last Blood Parrot with a range of semi-aggressive and larger peaceful fish over the years including Bichirs, Clown Loaches, Red Tailed Sharks, Angelfish, Three Spot (Gold, Blue, Opaline, Lavender) and Kissing Gouramis, Pictus Cats and other medium sized catfish (a BP will occassionally go after Corys) and other "mild mannered" semi-aggressive Cichlids such as the Gold Severum and Apistogrammas.

I wish you the best of luck with your tank.


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## ElChef194 (Dec 25, 2011)

as everyone else has said you are perfectly stocked with your community fish. i do agree with people when they say either a chiclid or nothing. i have done my research, and my tank style is not conducive for chiclids. if you really want a colorful member of the chiclidae family, look into Rams or Angelfish. rams are smaller and very peaceful; angelfish get to be abt 5 inches and, kept in pairs, should be just fine. if you want a big colorful fish for your tank look into a gourami, but if you get multiple males have designated territories. also floating plants will benefit angels and gouramis.


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## vgupman (May 17, 2012)

I don't know who the OP is, but I originally posted this topic on the aquatic community forums. I can't post links yet, but if you just google the title of this post, you'll see it. I don't know why anyone would want to re-post a specific question about my tank on this forum...

Anyhow, as far as the responses go, I appreciate you guys taking the time to give me your feedback. The tank is doing fine with the blood parrot in the tank. 

The fish store I bought the blood parrot from is not a PetsMart or Petco type deal. It is a legit fish store with the cleanest, best maintained tanks that I've ever seen. It's been around since 1975, and many of the employees there do what they do for a living, not just a hobby. The guy who sold me the fish has been keeping fish for over 25 years. He assured me that it would be fine in my tank because it's too slow to do any real damage to the other fish in the tank.

The blood parrot was in their tank with some of the same fish that I had in mine. He is 1 1/2 years old, and much bigger than many of the fish in the tank, most of which were very young. It's been in my tank for 3 weeks now, and all the fish are doing fine. They're co-existing quite well with each other. When I first put it in, all of the fled to the opposite corner of the tank as soon as it came near them, but after a few days, I guess they figured out that it couldn't do any real damage and now they're all fine.

To those of you that claim I'm not doing any research before putting fish in my tank, you are wrong. I have spent many hours researching. The problem is knowing who to listen to. I have read many different things across different websites and forums and heard a lot of different things going to different fish stores.

From now on, I think I'm just going to listen to the guys at the store that I bought the BP from, as they have proved themselves to be incredibly helpful and knowledgeable as well as more concerned about the safety and lives of the fish rather than just making a sale.

Thanks and whoever posted this, if you are a real person, why did you re-post this here?


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Is the post word for word from the other forum? If so I would like the answer to that question of why myself. I googled the topic and in 6 pages never found it.


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## zero (Mar 27, 2012)

this forum is so strange!!!


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## vgupman (May 17, 2012)

susankat said:


> Is the post word for word from the other forum? If so I would like the answer to that question of why myself. I googled the topic and in 6 pages never found it.


Just Google "Is my tank too overstocked" it's the same thing word for word. If you can't find it I'll post the link once I have 3 more posts here


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## zero (Mar 27, 2012)

Is my tank too overstocked? [Archive] - Aquarium Forum


this it?


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## vgupman (May 17, 2012)

zero said:


> Is my tank too overstocked? [Archive] - Aquarium Forum
> 
> 
> this it?


That's the one.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Ok, got it. Will take care of it


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Only thing I can say is whoever copied it over maybe wanted to see what everyone here would have to say about the situation compared to the other site. Not that I'm saying it is right, just may have been the reason.


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## luananeko (Aug 27, 2010)

Am I cynical for immediately thinking that it's a spammer that's trying to up their post count so they can start posting links? If it were someone that was interested in the responses you'd think they would have come back to the thread to respond...


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## Crazy (Mar 1, 2012)

I agree, something seems off about all of this.


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## ElChef194 (Dec 25, 2011)

there's a mystery afoot!

duh duh duhhhnnnn!


had to do it.


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