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Acorrding to this rule, one can have only 5 guppies in a 10 gallon tank because each guuppy is about 2 inches long.
Isn't the tank sort of empty? I'm sure one of my friends had way more than that in her 10 gallon.

as a begginer the inch rule is a good rule to follow, it keeps n00bs from stuffing 50 fish in a 10g, once you start to get into larger tanks and larger fish (ex: cichlids) your gonna only have 1-3 fish in say a 125g, and also, some ppl dare to keep the king of cichlids...... The Dovii, this monster gets around 30" and requires around a 300g tank, and he'll kill anything else in the tank, but back on subject, personally i wouldn't do the guppies in the 10g, cus you may START with 5, but within a month or 2 you'll be up round 10-20, try starting with some dwarf gouramis (2-3) (female) or something on that order, neons maybe (6-8), or possibly smaller corys (ex: Pandas) (6ish, no less than 6 however)

Daka<<<<

The rule is more of a general guide line. It's a starting point. There are other factors as well. Activity level of the fish, is it schooling or not, is it aggressive, etc. It's best to keep the tank level below that level.

Dan


Dan

You can go with more than 5 guppies in a 10 gallon if you do more water changes.

Someone told me that 1 oscar produces the same waste as 1000 neons. Iv seen people put an oscar in a 10g tank, so imagine having 1000 neons in the tank, that is STUFFED, i wouldnt be surprised if the water level would rise by 1/2 after adding that much fish ( )

Personally, i think you can have around 15 guppies in a 10g tank (although the lady on tv lastnight has about 50+ guppies in a 20g tank)

Well, it depends on if the tank has females, as you will want to have room for fry. But i think 5-7 males is a nice number for a 10.

I'll do graffiti,
If you sing to me in French.

this rule is really for small non-aggresive beginer fish. It will not work for larg cichlids such as Oscars, Jags, etc.

The rule is not intended to see how many fish total you can keep in a tank. The rule was done up for the scale of the biological filter system. The rule can be applied to any fish under 5 inches. After 5 inch size fish, you need to use a different formula. The rule is 1 inch of fish, per 1 gallon of water. This does not take into consideration 2 aggressive 5 inch fish in a 10 gal, or 10 one inch fish in a 10 gallon. The rule is a "general" stocking rule only. And does not apply in all cases. But, it is a good starting point. Now, if you have lousy filter system, then you will not be able to go by this rule, as you will become overstocked quickly, and your biological filter system will not be able to keep up with the fish stock. However, if you have a very excellent large biological filter system, you can go way over this rule, as long as you do enough water changes to keep the nitrAtes at safe and healthy levels.

_____________________________________________________________

There is always a bigger fish...

Dont know if this was mentioned yet, but the more active the fish is, the more waste it puts out

newbie53705

Use it as a very loose guide only. The best way to tell is just old common sense.

I think this rule came out of the University of "They" eg They say etc

I have been hearing this rule since I started over 35+ years ago and in all that time I never have found any substance for the rule.

A guide only then experience will take over. Another thing is that your tank will tell you very quickly if something is wrong.

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
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I have to disagree with victim on this one... 15 guppies in a 10 gallon is overstocked. Believe me, I've done it.

I had 12 female guppies in a ten gallon and I knew they weren't growing at the correct rate, despite weekly cleanings. (Mom and 11 of her half-grown female offspring). As soon as I gave away six of the guppies, the juvi girls had a huge growth spurt, to the point where they're now nearly as big as the mother. They grew more in a few weeks than they'd grown in a few months previously.

I now have the six female guppies and one male betta in that tank... it's working out nicely and everyone seems happy.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~