Idkitsathrowaway
- #1
We have all hurd the 'inch per gallon' rule, and realized it's stupid. Angelfish for example, would not go in a 6 gallon tank(or 8 gallon if you go by height) But with the pandemic a bunch of people have been trying new hobbies. I personally am one who restarted fish keeping (haven't kept fish since I was 5 and they lived at my grandparents) Now 10 years later Im back in the hobby. (started because my dad and step-mom wanted a dog, i didn't, so we compromised by letting me get a betta, who we kept in a QUARTER gallon tank, yes I was dum, I know better now) But when I started out I wanted a definite rule to how many gallons i should keep a fish. I learned the inch per gallon rule, and a month later realized it was dum with more googling I had to do at my grandparents cause my parents are strict(like have to ask permission to go to the neighbors as a 15 year old, they stalk through my phone on a weekly basis if I have it at all) and are the type to think that larger tanks are harder and a fish only grows to the size of the tank( I tried to teach them they think they are right). Moving on from that little rant. I REALLY needed a rule that would help, I think I got one.
Take the fish you want to get take their average size, and lay a photo on a grid(resize the photo to fit the grid), each square on the grid is a square inch. Every spot where there is fish is a gallon. Even if there is just a pixel. Easy right? But there's more take into the width of the fish as well. 1 inch multiply it by 1, 2 by 2,3 by 3, and so on. If the fish is only half a inch thick, call it a inch.
I'm not too sure if this is too much( wanna keep it simple for new fish keepers) but I'll also add on a activity level guide to it! On a 1-3 scale ex. a pleco would be a 1, for low movement(multiply the previously calculated number by 1), a betta is 2, for moderat , because while they do swim a lot they also will sit on the bottom of the tank to take the weight off from there fins (multiply by 1.5), 3 would be like a tetra or a fish that needs to swim to breath so very active (Multiply by 2)
Of course this is ment to give a base of where to start. And like all rule there are outliers like pipefish. I am very open to suggestions, I literally came up with this in 20-30 min. so its very flawed.
Take the fish you want to get take their average size, and lay a photo on a grid(resize the photo to fit the grid), each square on the grid is a square inch. Every spot where there is fish is a gallon. Even if there is just a pixel. Easy right? But there's more take into the width of the fish as well. 1 inch multiply it by 1, 2 by 2,3 by 3, and so on. If the fish is only half a inch thick, call it a inch.
I'm not too sure if this is too much( wanna keep it simple for new fish keepers) but I'll also add on a activity level guide to it! On a 1-3 scale ex. a pleco would be a 1, for low movement(multiply the previously calculated number by 1), a betta is 2, for moderat , because while they do swim a lot they also will sit on the bottom of the tank to take the weight off from there fins (multiply by 1.5), 3 would be like a tetra or a fish that needs to swim to breath so very active (Multiply by 2)
Of course this is ment to give a base of where to start. And like all rule there are outliers like pipefish. I am very open to suggestions, I literally came up with this in 20-30 min. so its very flawed.