prairielilly

I'm stocking my 20g and currently have 4 cherry barbs plus a dwarf gourami in QT. What I want to do is:

1 male dwarf gourami
7 cherry barbs (2 m/5 f)
4 oto's

I know that in terms of fish-inches/gallon this is considered overstocked (23), and I should probably do 6 cherrys and 3 otos instead (19.5). I was thinking this setup would be better because otos and cherrys are both happier with more of their own, and the otos have a really small bioload (I've read).

Thoughts?

Alessa

I would recommend that you dont overstock. Especially ottos are very sensitive of water conditions and in an overstocked tank they would be exposed to high nitrates.

simplestoryvile

the rule of one inch of fish per gallon is a general rule. this is based in the average bio load of the fish howeverthis rule usually is off espically for small fish.
for example: in my tank i have

a school of 7 tetras (5x neons and 2x glo light)
a school of danios (3 glo zebra danios and possiblly an addition of of 2 more)
a school of 3 cory cats
and maybe a few ottos soon.

now i have done my research and this is over the inch rule however currently my tank holds about 25 inches of fish possibly (more soon) . i wouldn't get double over stocked but bak to the point
you can add more fish (not to much)
ohh and i would wait a few days after buying the other fish before the ottos because they need a very good water quality

prairielilly

I know otos are very sensitive, but I don't allow the nitrates to get over 10. I was planning on adding 2-3 fish every 2 weeks. According to the research I've done, otos have a really minimal bioload, and both fish are happier in larger groups. They also use different parts of the tank and eat different things. I'd rather be safe than sorry, but I think if I base whether or not my tank's overstocked purely on fish-inches it's not an accurate reflection of the tank's holding capacity. When you're doing it the first time, you really don't want to find out the hard way - I did that with other species, but these are different fish.

I guess what I could do is go with the DG, 6 cherrys & 3 otos and see how it goes, then maybe add another cherry &/or oto....sound good?

Shawnie

I think 3 inches over is ok with great maintenance..lots of hiding spots for the gourami to call his own...and a close eye on the tigers for fin nipping...

prairielilly

Cherry barbs, no tigers...the ones I had before weren't nippy but I didn't have a gourami then. Are cherrys usually nippy too?

There's lots of plant cover and a couple caves in the driftwood.

simplestoryvile

i think that'll work
is that'll even a word?

(that'll=that will) lolz??

Shawnie

it is now! and I think it would work also...oops on the barbs...not sure if the cherrys are as nippy as tigers...

David593

yes that is fine. I personally do not follow the inch rule. I can typically tell if a stocking list is fully stocked, over or under.

prairielilly

Well I gave this some more thought and decided I must have had a bit of a brain spaz...I just got the tank over a major disaster, and now I want to potentially overstock it? That might be ok...or not. I'd rather not take a chance on the 'not'.

Right now I think the DG, six barbs and four otos might even be overstocked. I may do that, or 8 barbs and no otos.

The main reason for the otos (other than that I now think they're cute as heck) is that 2 wks ago or so I was returning something at petsmart and saw some otos in a tank with some guppies. None of them looked too good - one guppy had a really weird looking mouth - well that's bc his lips were rotted off. All the otos were hiding in a corner. I felt so sorry for the little guys. I bought 3 and yelled at myself all the way home - I had just lost a betta bought from that same store, there were sick fish in the tank and all I had to put them in at home was a (recently sterilized) 3g. Yes I am crazy. One oto was dead the next morning, another four days later. The last one seems like he's going to make it, but being a lone oto in a 3g is very less than ideal I know. He sits on a leaf all day and sucks on his zucchini at night. I thought to get some more, QT them all together and then add them to the 20g, or I may ask the store I got my cherry's from (different store! lots of healthy fish!) if they'll take him in.

I'm not buying any more stock from petsmart or petland. I found a new LFS (small, privately run) that's short on looks - old carpet on the floor, leaky ceiling - but an amazing variety of fish, with no visible evidence of disease and NO dead fish in the tanks (first time I've seen that since I started this hobby). They told me they QT all new stock for 14 days before they go up for sale. Their otos were schooling together around their tank and swam right up to look at me, rather than hiding in a corner. My new cherrys swim up to say hi too, while the last ones I had (from petland) always stayed in the plants. And this new store's bettas were in 1/2 gallon fish bowls - not quite 5g/heated/filtered but still an improvement over filthy dixie cups.

Ok I'm done now. Thanks everyone for the feedback - I find that even after learning lots I still want to know what others think and what they've tried/had success with.