Anyone think I'm overcrowding? If I am, who cares because the fish are doing just fine!?

Question

I have a 18 gallon with:
- 1 ghost shrimp
- 3 guppies; 1 female, 1 prego female, and 1 male
- 2 chinese algae eaters
- 2 neon tetras
- 3 glow light tetras
- 2 rasbora heteromorphas

and a 5 gallon with:
- a dwarf gourami
- a honey sunset gourami
- 2 sunset coral dwarf platies
- 1 fire red dwarf gourami
- 2 ghost shrimp

For anyone who thinks I'm overcrowding, I cant do anything about it and I am not cruel. I had the 18 gallon for 2 months and they are doing fine. I had the 5 gallon for a week and they are doing fine. Anyone who thinks they are overcrowding should read this. Anyone who agrees that you choose the limit of your fish answer this question otherwise dont make mean and saying I'm cruel answers.

Oops did I say a week? I meant 2 weeks.
Peppersham I had those guppies and neons for over a month and they are doing perfectly fine.

Answer 1

http://www.firsttankguide.net/capacity.php

If your fish are fine, then they are fine.
HOWEVER! If you treat the tank, you may find that the chemicals use up some oxygen, and if there are too many fish, they may suffocate. That happened with my guppies.
The site above has info on tank capacity.

Answer 2

the 5 gallon is definitely over stocked. Only a week old? Sorry to tell you, but almost everthing in that tank will be dead in a week. There is no bio filter built up yet ( I dont know what you are running for mechanical filtration, but that doesnt kill ammonia anyways. If the tank was established for several months, it would still be overstocked. The bioload of a tank shouldnt exceed an inch of fish to a gallon of water. You have 5 gallons of water and like 15 inches of fish in 5 gallons. Are they babies? well, then they are more fragile, and will die from the ammonia anyway. good luck. my advise is to throw everything in the 18 gallon untill the water clears in the 5 and then put the platies, tetras, and ghost shrimp in the 5 gallon. oh yeah, dont go back to the store that was irresponsible enough to sell you all these fish.

Answer 3

tiger barbs can grow to about 3 inches each. with 6 of them in a 10, i think thats a little overstocked. they may have plenty of space now, but when they are mature, they wont. you shouldnt change the filter pad. beneficial bacteria grows and lives on it, and changing it every couple weeks can start a mini-cycle and seriosuly stress out your fish. i recommend leaving the pad in there, and when it gets too clogged or dirty, rinse it out in old tank water (when doing a water change, swish it around in the old, dirty tank water). only change the pad when it starts to fall apart. put a new pad behind the old one for about a week, and by then the beneficial bacteria would have time to grow on the new one. then you can throw the old one out. 78F is a good temp. the one inch per gallon rule never works out. the rule is to have one inch of full grown fish per one gallon of water. so lets take a commpn pleco. fully grown, can reach 24 inches. sicne common tanks do not come in 24 gallons, some would think the pleco would be ok in a 20 gallon. a 20 gallon tank is 24 inches long. the pleco would therefore become stunted and die prematurely and painfully. (stunting is when the fish's body stops growing, but the internal organs continue to grow). i would highly recommend you move them to a 20 gallon long tank. a 20tall is 24 inches long, and a 20long is 30 inches long. these 2 inches increase oxygen in the water and give the fish more swimming room. i wouldnt get anymore barbs. you could get dwarf sucker fish if you would like more fish in the tank. but nothing over 3 inches, and no more than 3 fish. if you do choose to get more fish, youd have to increase the water changes and tank maintenance.

Answer 4

You should be just fine as long as you make daily 25% water changes in the 5 gallon tank, if you don't do this and if the 5 gallon isn't cycled, then you are being cruel whether you know it or not.Keeping a few fish alive for a couple of months does not make you a seasoned aquarist. You do choose the limit of your fish,but then you must properly care for them,and the number of fish that you have in the 5 gallon aquarium will require daily water changes. Also with the population density that you have you will not have any margin of error,when something goes wrong(plugged filter,power failure,whatever);all of the fish will die.Maybe that's not cruel,but I think it is.

Answer 5

Don't know how you can toss: If I am, who cares? And then ask for opinions of only people who agree with you and tell people not to make mean, cruel answers.
I'd agree with MagicMan not to make the 1" of fish per gallon rule the golden rule in fishkeeping. But I also know that if you put too many in a tank, you're going to have problems with waste in the water, conditions changing quickly and the fish won't have enough room to thrive.
I also don't think you can really say you've had fish in a tank for a week so you've proven they can live....for a week. That doesn't even give you time to get into how much maintenance is going to be required for that tank.
You're levels of stocking aren't bad: there's no goldfish, cichlids, plecos or other high output fish. The dwarf gouramis only get to be about 1.5".
I just wouldn't recommend overstocking as you've done in your post. It will allow people who keep 4 goldfish in a bowl to think they're taking care of their fish.

Answer 6

You're wrong when you say you can't do anything about it. You could not buy the fish in the first place. I know not all your fish are alright because CAEs have unreasonable real estate issues and are no doubt terrorizing eachother and other fish in the tank. Unless the tank is larger than 100gallons you can only have one of them. if your CAEs die replace them with otto cats which are peaceful and more suited to small tanks.

The limit of fish a tank can hold isn't accurately measured by gallons. Its measured by surface area because what really matters is gas exchange and wether there is enough surface area so that the fish do not suffocate.

Answer 7

neon tetras and guppies do not mix.Beleive it or not the guppies will kill the neons,I had this happen a couple of times.I have a 20 gallon long and a 10 gallon plant/nursery.ahowever yours maybe the exception,as none of those fish are aggressive.

Answer 8

yes, your 18g aquarium is overcrowded. you should only have 18 inches of fish in there. but you have 29! did you know that the chinese algae eaters grow to 6 inches?!... and for the 5g, yes you are also overcrowding. you should only have 5 inches of fish and you have... 10 inches of fish. so 5 inches over. thought how accurate can that rule be? I suppose if you have a good filter and take care of it well, they should be fine... good luck

Answer 9

I'm no pro at this but if your 5 g tank is only a week old you are going to run into serious "new tank syndrom " with all those fish!! I personally feel you've put in too many fish at once.

Answer 10

Sorry, I had a big speach planned for you, however I'll spare you.

The best advice I will give you, since you are the pro at fish, figure this one out on your own or give your friend the 10 points. PLEASE quit wasting time and answer space. Sorry but when you decide to learn about fish when you give answers, perhaps you should look at your own advice in history before you ask this question. Since you gave the same advice to someone else, ....who ended up loosing her fish.

Answer 11

I think your situation shows clearly how wrong the stupid 1" per gallon rule can be. As long as you take care of the tank, keep the water clean and the filter running well, you can have a nice full tank. Hats off to you for keeping the tank clean!

MM