Too many fish in my tank??

Question

I have a 29 gallon, the water is perfect and everything is clean and running good. It has been running for 3 weeks. Please tell me if this is too many. I believe it also depends upon the type because they grow?? I would like to get a few more.

I have
1 male guppy
4 fry black molly
1 female black molly
1 male black molly
1 cave fish
2 big fin zebra danios
2 corydora catfish
1 plecostomus
2 ghost shrimp
1 crawfish

Answer 1

Yeah, that's too many, and many of those don't belong in a community tank.

The cave fish, for starters, is a little big. They can hit 4". If you want to keep him, you would have to get rid of almost everything else.

Mollies, too, can get quite large. 4". If you want to have as many mollies as possible, you should have maybe 8 mollies, and nothing else, except the fry. Also, for every male molly you have, you should have 2 or 3 females. Males are very amorous :)

Zebra danios are schooling fish, and you should have at least 6 of them. Same goes for the coydoras.

The plecostomus has no business in there ;) Plecos can hit 18-24"! And they are poop machines. If you happen to havea rubber-lip or a bushy-nose, you can get away with it, because they only hit 4-5", but you would have to cut back on everything else.

The crawfish should be removed. When he grows, he'll eat anything he can grab on to.

I don't which of your fish you're most attached to, but permit me to suggest what I think is a good solution.

Go with
1 male black molly
2-3 female mollies (get 1 or 2 more)
6 corydoras (get 4 more)
8 big fin zebra danios (get 6 more)
2 ghost shrimp (you can get more of those if you want)
And you could hold on to your mollies if you wanted to, until they got bigger, then sell them

OR

1 cave fish
8 zebra danios (get 6 more)
6 corydoras (get 4 more)
2 female mollies (get 1 more)
2 ghost shrimp

I think that would be a more appropriate for your tank size. Bring the rest back to your pet store, I'm sure they'd give you store credit.

Good luck :)

Answer 2

The hard and fast rule as far as how many fish you can put into a certain size tank is one (1) inch of fish length per gallon or water for freshwater for saltwater it's (1/2) one half inch of fish length per gallon of water. From the list of fish types you have listed I can tell it's a freshwater tank.Therefore for your twenty nine (29) gallon tank the limit is twenty nine (29) inches of fish length.Going over that amount will stress the fish and the less hearty ones will start dying and you could end up upsetting the waters ammonia,nitrite balance which also can contribute to the death of your fish.

Answer 3

well try getting rid of the crawfish but did you mean a crayfish, they are able to eat your other fishes and it will get bigger. also the cave fish will get aggressive since it has no eyes they run into your other fishes and they wont mind to bite alittle so when it gets larger you will find bite marks and missing fins on some of your fishes.
and add more decorations like driftwood or make a nice rocky decoration in the back for the fishes that are weaken or bit up to restore and heal itself.
and i think if you do that it should work.

Answer 4

Get another 29 tank or larger, cycle it with a couple of your fish or ammonia, and gradually move half of them over. Until the second tank is ready, get a bottle of Prime for the first tank and use it if you intend to do any water changes or filter maintenance because you will get an ammo spike from the delicate bio load.

Or you could simply give a handful of them to friends or a shop if you don't want to spend the money on another set-up.

Answer 5

i am assuming u bought these from a reputable fish dealer who told u all these fish can live together . exactly HOW do u know a male fish from a female? i would say to let the fish grow and if u do have a male and female, u will have lots more fish in no time at all. Just make sure u have lots of plants for the eggs to cling to and the fry to live in. good luck

Answer 6

Hey stupid... the rule of thumb is that you should have 1 gallon of space for one inch of fish so if did my math right you should be ok I figure you have about 19-20" of fish and just letting you know if you have less fish that equals more space and your fish will grow bigger and faster.

Answer 7

I'm afraid you will have to thin them out one of these days. It is recommended to keep 1 inch of fish for every 1 gallon of water. I would bet you have more t han that already. I know your catfish and plecostamus and mollies will grow bigger than that.

Answer 8

looks good!
just the pleco could get big, and the mollys might need a small amount of salt, like 1 spoon, diluted in that tank won't harm the other fishes

Answer 9

This is too much because big fish might like a snack and the next thing you know one is gone.You can seperate them into another tank.

Answer 10

Hey Hey Hey, It's time for a fish fry