Poll: inches of fish per gallon

[SciGuy2]

Not by trade or degree, but I deal with flowmeters some. You?

Geophysicist/geologist by degree, but doing a lot of work with wastewater treatment facilities as of late. Many of which could use help dealing with their flow meters. Cheers!

 

[andrewkw]

Inch tall, long or wide? As many have already said this "rule" is beyond useless.

While not a rule I like to have enough hiding spots for all my fish. If I can wake up early in the morning and not see a single fish in my tank I'm pretty happy. The reality is every tank is different. Common sense and water quality indicators will go a lot further than any rule. You can have one jerk fish that won't tolerate another, but you can get another of the same species and he's happy in half the tank size with twice the tankmates ect.

 

[JoeKelley]

1/2" per gallon. its hard to get them to hold still for measuring.

 

[Forsaken77]

I don't know who came up with this "standardized" number of one fish to every 10 gallons, but it's rubbish. Probably was meant for freshwater.

Each species has different needs. Some fish, like frog fish, don't move much, where other species, like tangs, require more than the usual swimming room.

There is no "one size fits all" with regards to fish housing. When folks buy fish, they should plan on the adult size of the fish in their aquarium. Not the baby sold in the store. Not many places will take in fish as donations. By me, out of 6 places, two will take fish. The one only takes fish if you bought it from them and the other only will take fish from select customers that know what they're doing. Besides not having room for large fish on a constant basis, they don't want to possibly contaminate their tanks with a sick fish.

So please... Research the species you plan to introduce BEFORE you buy them.

As to the topic, I don't believe there is a straight forward answer.

 

[code4]

My tank looks empty. 140 gallons, juvenile regal angel, med. Bristle tooth tang, 2 juv. Clowns, two juv. Mandarins, hawkfish, two gumdrop and one grouchy blue spot jawfish.

 

[srad750c]

Depends on tank size, type of fish, size of fish, filtration and equipment and consumers of nitrogen and phosphates. All tanks are different. Your water chemistry will tell you when you get too many or fish are too large. Presently I have 30” of fish in 90 Gal Experiment. There’s about 5 other fish I would like to have I will end up with 40-45” of fish. With the amount of frags, mushrooms, anemones, polyps and 5 SPS colonies my nitrates stay below 1 ppm. But that’s another story to talk about.

 

[JollyReefer]

@Gator0930, meet the R2R information police. Classic R2R scenario: Original poster polls the R2R community for information about everyone's tanks, and then the R2R community condemns the original poster for the poll because they feel the information hold no value.

 

[nereefpat]

@Gator0930, meet the R2R information police. Classic R2R scenario: Original poster polls the R2R community for information about everyone's tanks, and then the R2R community condemns the original poster for the poll because they feel the information hold no value.

You feel an inches per gallon rule has value?

I personally couldn't vote, because there was no option for "it doesn't matter." An option for "other, please explain below" would have also worked.

 

[JollyReefer]

No rule is mentioned in the poll question, and whether such a rule has value is irrelevant to the poll question. The poll question asks about a ratio within your tank. Cheers.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

FWIW, whether one is under-stocked or over-stocked is more then just a nutrient load problem. In fact, with modern nutrient export mechanisms, swimming space is more likely to be the limiting factor.

I agree 100% With some of the newer media's (Matrix, Siporax, etc.) it's possible to keep organics at low levels with a very high bioload, so it really comes down to providing enough swim space to keep the inhabitants stress free.

 

[nereefpat]

No rule is mentioned in the poll question, and whether such a rule has value is irrelevant to the poll question. The poll question asks about a ratio within your tank. Cheers.

True. That's fair enough.

I may have read between the lines too much.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This W A S a rule of thumb years ago for oxygen level saturation and mainly in Freshwater. Components and technology has changed and improve and making husbandry easier and more manageable.
The key is not how many fish per gallon but rather growth potential and size at maturity and if there is room to swim freely, hide AND turn within the system. If you can say no, there is inadequate room in the system. What is 2" today ( such as grouper, trigger, wrasse, etc) will be 2-6X the length in a few years.

 

[mucky1957]

I have 18 fish in a 240 lt tank...no issues at all.

 

[mckinney0171]

This rule is more reef myth than reef fact. I keep seven fish in my Nuvo fusion 10 which some people would say is insanity. But with good rock and careful control of parameters you can keep that many fish comfortably and all of them are content.

 

[Andrewalex11]

should add in the factor that some fish just need territory in general. I would add 5 engineer gobies per 5 gallons, but I wouldn't dare put 2 blue reef damsels in that small of a space.

 

[cracker]

I don't think Iv'e ever gotten to the point where too many fish are an issue. A good healthy looking fish that "I want" are hard to find. I can easily see too many or wrong as for fish for cramped quarters is not good .
As for inch of fish per gallon rule I don't think there is much meaning there.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Outdated measurement just like the pounds of live rock per gallon...

Fish energy levels, social habits, agression, rock structure, filtration... all this comes into play on how many fish you can keep in a tank.

 

[madweazl]

I add 'em until somebody gets pugnacious (currently the yellow tang). If I re-homed it, I'd toss a few more fish in there (probably happen soon). Currently 10 in a 75g.

 

[Dancingmad]

I add 'em until somebody gets pugnacious (currently the yellow tang)

Same exact case. If my YT think's you're in his space he'll give ya a slap to the face w/ his tail. Just a couple of days ago my fire shrimp was hanging' out in his cleaning station and the YT acted like he was parking for a quick pit stop. Nope - SLAP! He moved shop down the way...RUDE!

I don't do any inch/gallon rules. So many factors in stocking our reefs . Research, make a list of livestock and set goals. Get your livestock then realize all the bad choices you've made lol.

 

[ReefSharkBuilder]

I'm too picky about what goes in my tank for this to ever be an issue. I try to recreate an ecosystem. So if I want a lot of fish typically I build according to that goal. I'm usually around 2-4 in of fish per gallon of I am going for a fish only tank