Harlequin rasbora and tiger barb

[zx42]

I had 8 Harlequin rasbora and then put in 6 tiger barb to my surprise they school together:ssuprised: . I was planning to get more tger barb if they nipping at other fish (they are 1.28 ea at my lfs:18: ). My 4 pencil fish also schools with my Harlequin rasbora some times. So should I get more tigers? I have 29 galon and that is all the fish in the tank (+2 cory).

[Honey Badger 1]

i heard quite awhile ago that a general rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. this isnt set in stone as some fish have a larger bioload than others like goldfish and plecos. someone please correct me if im wrong, but this is the rule i always use. i dont count the number of fish i have in my tank but the number of inches they all equal. before you decide which fish to get you may want to make sure you are not overstocking the tank.

[Cameron]

i heard quite awhile ago that a general rule of thumb is 1 inch of fish per gallon of water. this isnt set in stone as some fish have a larger bioload than others like goldfish and plecos. someone please correct me if im wrong, but this is the rule i always use. i dont count the number of fish i have in my tank but the number of inches they all equal. before you decide which fish to get you may want to make sure you are not overstocking the tank.

your are right for the most part, its pretty flexible like you said, but WC's are also a BIG factor in that rule. If you can keep them under 20 Nitrates and they have some room to swim its ok.

[PostalPenguin]

My only thought with adding more tiger barbs could be that if you get an aggressive tiger, the tiger school could change their minds about the other fish in the tank and start pestering them.

[Ellen4God]

I would think you'd be able to add more fish. may want to wait for another opinion though. :)

I mainly wanted to offer this link as a good read on stocking an aquarium. FishGuy2727 did a great job of explaining it. :)

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=30940&highlight=stocking+rules

[bushwhacker]

1 inch per gallon doesnt even come close,you cant keep a 12 inch oscar in a 55 gallon tank he cant turn around... when your looking at smaller fish look at their grown size not what they are now.. you could put 30 or 40 tetras in a 55 but maybe 2 or 3 green severums and that would be pushin it.. its all about the fish you want to keep, and what they will need as they grow

[NickFish]

Don't even get me started on the 1" per gallon rule, lol! :hmm3grin2orange:

I will stop this time at just saying 1" per gallon rule means absolutely nothing. You can forget you ever even heard it and throw it out of your head completely.


You could get more tiger barbs, but I would first make it a priority to get more corydoras. They like schools of at least 6, and I noticed you only have 2. They would much rather prefer an extra few fish to the school than the others would, since they have enough already. You could probably add another few tiger barbs, but sometimes you get the problem that the new barbs are not accepted by the old barbs and are excluded and bullied. Not always the case but it can happen.

[mac]

I agree with you nick. The first priority is to get all fish in large schools so they feel safer in numbers.

I agree the 1 inch per gallon rule is not a great thing to go by. Far to clumsy.

mac

[zx42]

I decided to get more cory because they have the lowest number and I feel king of bad that they are the only ones at the bottom of the tank.:scry:

[Honey Badger 1]

1 inch per gallon doesnt even come close,you cant keep a 12 inch oscar in a 55 gallon tank he cant turn around... when your looking at smaller fish look at their grown size not what they are now.. you could put 30 or 40 tetras in a 55 but maybe 2 or 3 green severums and that would be pushin it.. its all about the fish you want to keep, and what they will need as they grow
oops sorry guys, i tend to forget people arent reading my mind. i assumed it was understood that what i meant was 1 inch per gallon when the fish are fully grown.my main concern at the time of the original post was the ability to maintain water quality. i will be more careful if i post again to be more clear about what i'm trying to say.and thanks for the correction.

[terrapin24h]

I think the 1 in per gal fish rule is ok when you're thinking in very broad terms of the numbers of fish you want to keep AND you are not dealing with anything "exotic" like oscars, piranha, eels, rays, leaf fish, and the like. Let's walk through some scenarios, assuming your 30 gal tank:
Could you do:
30 neons?--> sure they stay small, don't mind being packed in tight and are light bio loaders and social. In fact, you could even do more than 30. Maybe even 40
4 gourami?-->NO even though you have more than enough "gallons" or "inches" gourami are very territorial about the surface of the water. You would in fact be lucky to do 2 but most likely only 1
1 oscar?-->NO he's only 12" long(and you have a theoretical 30 to play with) but wouldn't be able to move around much and would produce a tremendous bio load, requiring near daily water changes.
3 goldfish?-->this would be close. You would most definitely need heavy filtration(think canister) and need to do more than one water change a week(prob 2x15%) but would be doable.

In your case(like others have said) bump up your cory count and leave the barbs be, and enjoy your tank! it sounds nice!

I suppose my point is that the 1inch/gal works for very specific situations but for mst isn't very applicable

--chris

[bushwhacker]

oops sorry guys, i tend to forget people arent reading my mind. i assumed it was understood that what i meant was 1 inch per gallon when the fish are fully grown.my main concern at the time of the original post was the ability to maintain water quality. i will be more careful if i post again to be more clear about what i'm trying to say.and thanks for the correction.

mommy1 i never intended that post to hurt you or anyone.. if i did i'm sorry.. the one inch rule is one of those old things that just arent relevent to fishkeeping any more.... with the advances in filtration and newer practices you just have a lot more choices... again i apoligise if i caused you any problems
bush

[NickFish]

Not meaning to offend anyone, and not directed personally at anyone....but....


This rule was designed for neon tetras in unfiltered water in the early 1900's. Nothing else. It doesn't even apply to neon tetras today, because there is better technology and different research has been conducted.


Maybe there are a few cases where it can be used as a rough guideline, but trust me on this, it doesn't help anyone knowing this. Beginners take it too literally, you can tell them its a rough guideline but the majority will take it literally for all fish. Not only that, but many don't know how big a fish will get when fully grown so it isn't even good for that, and its not like their lfs will tell you.
It doesn't take into account any agression either. Try do 1" per gallon with african cichlids in a small tank. According to that you can put a dozen of the smaller africans like demasoni in a 20g tank. They'd be dead in a week.


Sure there are a few cases where it may apply. For example, it can work for male fancy guppies in properly filtered water with a proper water change scedule. However beginners will begin to apply it to everything, and all fish, and all aspects of fishkeeping. Most will take it literally, like I said. You are best to completely throw it out of your head and try not to tell anyone, especially not a beginner, that they can use it for anything at all.


Trust me, I do this for a living. I know how it goes.

[mac]

Nik your explanation about the 1 inch per gallon rule is very well stated.
I once went by the 1 inch per gallon. And ended up having very over stocked tanks. I wished I had learnt about other things, regarding stocking. Like having 3 simple schools of fish. Which is what I do now. Works great, along with the bottom dwellers.

mac