tank levels?

Question

does it really matter if you have certain fish in a tank smaller then there actual minimum tank size? I mean will it actually kill them?

Answer 1

Depending on the size of the fish, as long as you are doing regular weekly water changes of 30-50%, no it will not kill them. If you are not doing enough water changes, the build up of ammonia, nitrites and nitrates will stunt their growth and eventually compromise their health resulting in sickness and/or death.

Obviously you would not keep one 10" fish in a 10 gallon tank, in spite of that lame rule of 1" of fish to 1 gallon of water. The bigger the fish, the more bio-load they put on a given volume of water, forcing you to do larger and more frequent water changes to keep them healthy.

I would say that the maximum size of one fish in a 10 gallon tank would be 4", no larger. This would be with regular weekly water changes of at least 30%.

Answer 2

Yes it matters, theres several reasons.
The fish will grow to the size of the tank?
No actually if the fish has evolved in running water then the gland that produces the chemical and then measures a waters content for said chemical is redundant and won't work
The fish that have evolved in still waters have the facility to produce a chemical which is released into the water this is then measured by the glands and if the water becomes to strong with the chemical the fish will stop growing, it does the fish no harm it may shorten its life it may not. However if you are doing water changes as you should guess what your diluting?
The warmer the water the less oxygen absorbed in the water, water can only contain an finite amount of oxygen otherwise it wouldn't be H2O. The surface area will dictate to large extent the amount of oxygen that can be exchanged.
The larger the fish the greater pollution will be generated, if 100lb fish produce 1oz of sewage (hypothetical) how long do you think 10 gallons of water are going to remain uncontaminated for? Then add to it that some large fish eat some of the worse concoctions on the planet.

My Oscars loved dog/cat food which is a ........ to get the oil of the surface.

Chances are if you get something thats blatently to large for your tank and do water changes everyday, it may survive however, it will not reach its full potential and will die in a comparetively short period.

AJ

Answer 3

depends
if u have a clownloach in a ten gallon the loach gets a half a foot long even if in a small tank so it will die
on the other hand if u have a pearl gourami in a 16 gallon it will just stunt growth and stay 2-3 inches

though it will be unhappy

add details on what u were hoping to do and i will tell u

Answer 4

It does not kill them right away. It will stunt their growth and sometimes cause body deformations. If a fish is not able to grow and thrive in its enviroment it will probably die now if your have babies and are keeping them in a tank that is small and moving them this is a different story. With fish that get big like African Cichlids and South American Cichlids they will become more aggressive because of lack of territory.

Answer 5

The usual rule of thumb is one square inch of fish (at full growth) per gallon. There are always exceptions, especially when dealing with aggressive fish.

Answer 6

yes it can kill them and it hash for them because they dont have alot of room to swim in