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Working at an aquarium store, I get a lot of questions and comments every day. The most common and annoying comment is “Well you have XYZ in such-and-such conditions.” Generally, it’s about housing multiple specimens of the same species together when they generally don’t get along together, or putting a large fish in a relatively small tank, or, the most common, overstocking.

Yes, at stores, you can house multiple red tailed sharks together, you can put an oscar in a 40 gallon tank, and yes you can overstock. But those are store tanks and not home aquariums. What’s the difference? Well, a LOT!

First thing to keep in mind is that fish in stores are only temporary. Many fish are gone within a week of coming to the store. These are not long term, permanent set ups. So while there may be a couple oscars in a 25 gallon tank, they won’t be there forever. Also, when there are multiple sharks in one tank together, there are more things to consider. These sharks tend to be fine in larger numbers as well. They can form a “pecking order” and the aggression is evenly distributed. Also, they are juvenile, thus they haven’t built up their adult aggression yet. On top of it all, they are temporary. These fish will be sold out to customer and put in permanent tanks where they wont, or shouldn’t, see another shark again.

As for overstocking, yes a store is generally overstocked. Why? Because we can only order once a week. So in order to sell 20 zebra danios a day (a general average), we have to have 20 zebra danios a day. And in order to have 20 zebra danios a day, we have to order about 140 zebra danios a week. Sure we can set up a 100 gallon aquarium for them and them alone, but that’s just one kind of danio. We also want to carry gold, leopard, and blue danios. So we set up a 100 gallon aquarium for each of them. Now 400 gallons set up, and all we have are danios. And that doesn’t even include the L/F varieties.

Its obvious where I’m going with this. It is just unrealistic to properly stock a store. So we must overstock. However, this isn’t to say that we don’t compensate for that. Stores generally super over filter. Also, many stores use a central filtration system. All the aquariums are connected together via plumbing and generally a large sump of some type. This has its pros and cons though. Pros being that you have one system that is filtered together and provides a large volume of water for the fish. However, disease can be transmitted easily. Many stores help to combat this by having UV sterilizers and super filter the system, and some can even close off a tank if one gets sick.

My store uses central filtration, but in a different way. We have sections of systems. We separate the fish throughout the store by wild distribution. South/Central America, Africa, Asia/Indo Pacific/Australia, and Saltwater. In each of these sections they are further separated into general groups. For example, in South/Central America, we have 5 sections. Hardy Tetras, Delicate Tetras, Large/Aggressive Cichlids, Small/Peaceful Cichlids, and Livebearers. Each of system is separate, so we can give each section different water quality.

Anyway these are just some example of filtration for overstocking. On top of filtration, most stores do daily water changes. So waste has a hard time building up.

Sometimes we part larger fish in relatively small tanks. Again, with the filtration, water changes, and the fact that that fish won’t stay there forever. They fish is only there temporarily.

In conclusion, store stocking is VASTLY different from home stocking. Using the excuse that “ABC store has them like that” is not an excuse, but rather a waste of breath.

Hope this helps those who need it

~Jorge

Lol to the point, good article

Good point. Unfortunatly, I have seen the downside of overstocking. I.E. Puffers at a sertain store I used to work for didnt sell well, yet we still had about 20 at any given time crammed into a 10 gal (We sold about 10 at the most in a week) If the fish are selling (like your Danios) then by all means, temperarily overcrowd them. The only time I get upset is when people overstock fish they know wont sell, or that simply don't sell. Basically it comes down to: Some stores are good and some are bad as far as overstocking goes. *ugh* Don't get me started....

GOOD JOB ON YOUR ARTICAL THOUGH!!! ^_^

PS If anyone wants an email forward on my report on Animal Cruelty in Pet Stores (15 pgs, Word Formatted) that I did for my English final let me know and I'll gladly send it to you!

Inky

good point, i remember about 6 months ago i was at a lfs and this lady came in looking at some oscars and started asking the same questions like why do u keep them in small tanks etc..... and the same answer came up that these fish are not living there forever, and often get sold. very good point& article.

The fish in small tank for a week or two is little a person staying in a hotel and eating take-out. Its probably not the best thing for you but it won't kill you.

20 Gallon Long:
Aquaclear 300
2 Bolivian Rams, Mikrogeophagus altispinosus: Gumby and Pokey

"The most common and annoying comment is “Well you have XYZ in such-and-such conditions.”"

I agree. I hate it when customers say that.