I don't have too many fish in my tank, do I?

Question

Hey there,

I have a 10 gallon tank with 2 female Lyretail mollies, a female dalmation molly, a common male molly, a male dwarf gourami, 2 spotted cories, and 1 green cory. One of my Lyretails is pregnant, but I'm going to let the babies live naturaly, I'm not going to take them out. Let some get eaten, but if some hide (I have alot of good hiding spots, one has a reall small cave, small enough only a baby molly could fit in) I'll just let them grow up in the tank, no help by me, execpt for food. None of the fish are over an inch, except for my dwarf gourami, just an inch and a half. If I only have 8 fish, why do people say its over crowded? I thought they rule was an inch of fish for every gallon? I have 8 1/2 inches of fish.

Answer 1

Well, that rule is BS! No one should use it and you can end up with an overcrowded tank of 5 2 inch oscars in a 10, so that's bad or under crowded with 5 2 inch guppies! Your tank is a little crowded because the mollies will get 3 inches, as will the dwarf gourami and the corys. Plus mollies really need at least 15 gallons, 10 is ok. So it is a little crowded and I would not keep any of the babies or you will be WAY overcrowded! Once the babies grow up you can sell them to the pet store.

Answer 2

First of all, the 1 inch of fish per gallon rule is not a hard and fast rule.  It is merely a guideline to help people new to fish tanks not overcrowd their tanks.  Secondly, that rule applies to the adult size of the fish.  You are adding up the size of your fish as they are now, not as they are going to be when they are fully grown adults.  That's what you have to figure on when you use the inch/gallon rule.  Your cories have an adult size of two to two and a half inches which is 7-8 inches right there!  Add your gourami and your mollies and you're immediately overcrowded.  Once your fry come you are going to need more room for sure.  At the moment you can probably keep your fish living in ok conditions by doing very frequent water changes, but it's just going to get harder and harder to keep up with it as time goes on and your fish grow.

Answer 3

no you dont, but it would be best to get a breeding tank

Answer 4

First that rule is so you will not overcrowd your tank with fifty fish  because its so easy to over crowd.Second,that is not too many and even though your mollies can and often do have many fry they most all get eaten so no worries on that.I have been raising tropicals for 20 years in every size tank and have had little problems.If you do one-half or one -quarter water changes every 2 weeks and you do not over feed and you change the filter monthly you will have few problems.Never take the tank down completely unless you just have too.If you get slime of any kind take it down immediately,I don't mean algae,I leave the back wall for that.Always give your mollies salt,if you must use household salt,only use PLAIN salt with no iodine in it.One tablespoon per 5 gallons of water.Keep some live plants if you possibly can it helps cycle your tank in an emergency,provide 6-8 hours light and proper heat 76 degrees and you are good to go.Plants need light 6 hours will do more if you can Of course you will get all kinds of advise and mine is no better just telling you what works and least problems..

Answer 5

Your tank is way too small for that amount of fish.....and more comming!! Your in for a overcrowded and dirty, neverending cleaning, fish dying experiance. You should seriously consider up-grading to a 20-30 gallon tank.

Answer 6

because the rule is based on ADULT size not current size!  its also based on waste...livebarers are "messy" fish and tend to produce more waste than some other breeds.

Answer 7

You are way over stocked and have species that should not be in a 10g tank and will eventually have to be moved to a larger tank.

Mollies can get up to 3 sometimes 4 inches at adult size.  And this is the size you should use when figuring inch of fish per gallong.  With your mollies alone, you have 9" of fish.  And that's a concervative estimate.

Answer 8

No, You've misunderstood the ruling. It's an inch of adult-sized fish per gallon of water, letting you have about 10" of fish.

You have it far too crowded in there, since you have 24" of fish in there now. And since you're female is pregnant, much more are on the way.

I would recommend buying another tank, if that is an option, or buying a breeder net, allowing all the babies to live, and just see if a pet store will take them for store credit or money.