is my fish tank overcrowded?

Question

i have a 27L tank, and 1 young kissing gourami in it with a black skirt/widow tetra and also a young black sailfin molly (or a common hybrid between a black molly and a sailfin molly)

and yes i know my kissing gourami will outgrow its tank, but i am planning to try and move it to a larger one when it becomes bigger, but for now since it is still small i am planning to keep it there.
Well for the time being is my fish tank overcrowded?

Thank u =]

however, my fish dont seem incompatible, they r actually going very well.
They never fight or attack eachother, well maybe once they fought over a piece of flake food but other then that which only happened once, they get along very well.
And my molly is still very small too, probably about 3 or 4 cm head to tail.

o and my balck widow/skirt tetra isn't small its actually pretty big compared to the pet sores one hehe. maybe 5 or 6 cm?

well my molly did have a partner but it would always attack it and bite its fins so that it wouldn't be able to eat and would have to always hide. It eventually died. And no this is not coz of courtship behaviour, it was totally different!

Answer 1

I would say unless your gourami is over 3-4 inches that you are fine for now. Once it's that size it will need to move up to a bigger tank as you well know already.

MM

Answer 2

OK, first off, 27 liters is about 7.13 gallons. The Kissing Gourami grows to about 11 inches, so you're right that this fish will outgrow its tank. My concern is that, long before he does that, he will likely become aggressive toward his tankmates, as KG's like to have a good deal of territory, and they can be very aggressive toward other fish that "invade." Below is a link to a profile that talks about their behavior and ideal conditions.

Also, I think your species are incompatible. Tetras are schooling fish. They are not happy kept alone or in very small groups, and are small enough that they will be easy victims for more aggressive fish. Mollies, too, are awfully small for a KG tank. Both types would be better off in a larger tank as well.

I'm wondering if you might want to see if you can take one or more of these fish back to the pet store. Most stores will give you store credit. Then use the site below to research the fish you want to keep and find compatible species to share their tank.

Answer 3

ACK!!! EDIT! EDIT!

(I was wondering why I got a thumbs down!)

I totally missed that you meant 27 LITERS!
Sorry!

So-- Yes, you're overstocked because of the needs of the tetra and molly.

-- the tetra needs to be in a school. You need 4 more, ideally, but, with lots of live plants and more frequent maintenance to help the bioload, you could probably get by with a school of 4.
You'd have to return the molly and get that gourami out of there.

-- the molly needs to be in a pair, but with live plants and more frequent maintenance, you could swing 2 mollies in there.
You'd have to return the tetra and get that gourami out of there.

Or get rid of the other 2 and keep the gourami in there until he gets to 3-4 inches.

Answer 4

Three fish? Did I count that right?

Three fish in 27 gallons should be fine, as long as, like you said, the gourami hasn't gotten too big for the tank. It's young now, so you should be fine for a while.

Answer 5

No, It should be fine even for the kissing gourami. As long as you can eventualy move it. (I have an angel fish in a ten gal. and am going to move it to my 56 gal.)

Answer 6

As you said the kising gourmai will need upgraded when it grows...It wont grow in a small tank, It will be stunted, meening its organs will grow and the fish;s body will not, Upgrade just now.

~ GG

Answer 7

The rule of thumb to see if your tank is this: 1 inch of fish per 1 gallong of water. In other words figure out how long each of you fish are in inches and compare that number to how many gallons of water is in your tank. As long as the fish have at least 1 gallon of water each, you are ok.
Andrea