How much is too much?

I've always wondered, how much is too much fish?

I see people saying 1" per gallon..yadda yadda..

In my FW 30 gallon tank, I had quite a few fish

4 black skirt tetras
4 angel fish
1 red tail shark
1 kissing gourami
1 Gold Gourami
2 medium plecos
2 Knife fish

They all have plenty of room, they all swim, no problems with fighting, they're all very active, no problems feeding.

Bio-load - I do a 20% water change weekly along with half the gravel being siphoned.

So what really is "too much" for a tank? I'd add until I noticed aggression or too much crowding.

I have a 75 SW gallon tank and assume I'll have 8-15 pretty good sized fish.

What is your opinion on this? It seems as if you just keep track of everything and do larger water changes everything will be fine.

 

IMO thats to many fish. its more about swimming room than how many you can cram into it plus you have to think long term of the size these fish are capable of reaching. the angels alone can get to 4 inches a piece. you also have to look at how long they are alive if your keeping that many fish and loosing one every 6 months or a year then thats not that good.

 

im gonna agree with MCwaters.
its an issue of longterm longevity and creature comfort.
you may cram them in... if wont be natural, and they wont be happy.

 

Another point that needs to be made is that there is a major difference in the amount of dissolved oxygen between the two. Saltwater holds much less than fresh, so that's a major limitation on how much livestock you can keep. While you can improve the gas exchange rate to a certain degree, you cannot force more DO into it than what it can hold.

 

I agree with Mr.Bill. The way I look at it is, if you stock to the complete maximum level, then you COULD BE, ONE piece of equipment failing(skimmer,return pump,ect.) away from COMPLETE LOSS. I prefer to have a little wiggle room, and more piece of mind with my lower skill level.
Just my 2cents.

 

Vankirk has a valid point.I like to have lots of fish and I know im overstocked.I have spent alot of money on back ups and back ups for my back ups.in my opinion if your willing to shell out some extra cash for oversized and extra equipment you can add untill there is aggression.that being said I would advise to keep a light stock list until you have a decent amount of experience.throwing money at problems can solve some issues but not all of them. And the more fish you have the higher the stakes go up in the event of catastrophe.

 

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT A DEFENSE OF OVERSTOCKING, JUST A TECHNICAL POINT.

It is true you can't change salt water's solubility for oxygen much (you can to a degree by, for instance, lowering temprature). It is not true to say you can't improve the situation much. With enough circulation and enough interface for exchange, there is almost no upper limit to our ability to make oxygen available to our critters. You would have to be insane to rely on this however, since even with this crazy flow/aeration system, your power will eventually go out for a little while and everything would be toast.

SORRY FOR GOING OFF TOPIC, PLEASE RESUME THE FUN.

 

15 good sized SW fish could/would have a heavy bio load in a 75 gallon!

Also agree with the above. The amount of FW fish you can have have vs SW in the same size tank is a huge difference. The waste from 1 big SW fish is probably more than produced from a tank full of FW fish (with a few exceptions to some big FW fish)

 

I am not promoting overstocking but this statement is competely meanless. If you are comparing 1 good sized fish to a tank full of tetras than it holds some truth but if you are comparing a SW fish and a FW fish of the same size than the waste it probably pretty comparable. Now take into account diet, fish that eat lots of algae and greens poop a lot more but fish that are big meat carnivours poop BIG less often. Look at oscars, catfish, the tang of the FW world plecos which I like to call mini poop factories.

 

Umm, the surface area of your tank (and sump, if applied) is the limit to your interface for gas exchange. All the circulation in the world cannot brute-force SW to provide an unlimited amount of DO in a little glass box.