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how many fish canf it into a 20 gallon maximum? i want a lot of fish! (i dont like the 1 gallon per inch rule)

What came first? the chicken or the egg? No really.....

Hi HG I have never been to sure about that myself and then I started to see more and more Info that agrees with my feelings. You should base the amount of fish on the surface area of water not the 1 gallon per inch. I use about 12 inches of surface area for 1 inch of fish.

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well as a US gallon and a British gallon are diffrent when working out stocking i do it to litres. I would say about 1.1cm to a litre. And dont fully stock your tank leave about 10 cm over as a good safe zone. Also when you measure your fish you dont have to include the tails in the length of the fish (well that is what i was told and have always dont it that way)

Hope this helps

ok, so for fishkeeperjim's idea i could have 25 inches of fish. im still working on juwel's

What came first? the chicken or the egg? No really.....

for juwel's idea i could have 66 centimeters of fish. so thats 26 inches. both ways are about the same, and most fish i want are one inch long soooooo.... i can get about 24-27 maybe? is that ok, or can i do more without overstocking. Can i do more than that, maybe 30 fish, without overstocking? there are so many fish kinds to choose from!!! Thanks for all your help!

What came first? the chicken or the egg? No really.....

soo... can i do around 30 fish without overstocking? i cant decide what fish i want!

What came first? the chicken or the egg? No really.....

You can't go by just size. Go read your other thread. 30" of goldfish or oscar does not fit in a 20g. Hardly 6" of goldfish or oscar fits in a 20g and those are only 1 example. Aside from just the width of the fish and the amount of waste they produce you also have to look at how active they are. A school neon tetras might fit in even a 10g. A school of white clouds can almost be too active for a 20g and a white cloud is only .4" longer than a neon. Then you have to consider territorial fish. You can't put anywhere near as many african cichlids as tetras in a tank. They'll go on a killing spree. Look at bettas. Even in a 55g tank you will probably not be able to add 2 male bettas. There are too many factors. Noone can give you a good general rule that covers all the fish out there. You have to base stocking on each fish individually so what species you choose will determine how many fish you can have.

I don't like the inch per gallon rule either, but for the opposite reason; people who don't know any better put too many fish in their aquarium. Maintaining live fish is a little different from packaging sardines; overcrowding can have quite detrimental effects on your fish. When dealing with fish, many types of fish like their own elbow room. Some types of fish like more room, some are okay with less. However, on top of wanting space, an aquarium can only deal with so many little organisms breathing and producing waste in such an environment. Some fish produce more waste and some produce less, some use up more oxygen in the aquarium and some use less. Lastly, you have to deal with the eventual size of some fish. Some fish get bigger and need a bigger tank, and some fish are smaller and are fine in smaller aquaria. All these issues play a role in what and how many fish you can keep.

The inch per gallon rule is just a basic guideline. For very small types of fish you can get away with going over, but in most situations the inch per gallon rule not only should be the limit, but also should be avoided. Which means a 20 gallon shouldn't contain much more than 20 small fish.

To sum it up simply, if you got 30 fish, you would be basically restricting yourself to very small schooling fish; you would not be able to keep anything like gourami, any species of cichlid, or even some common species of tetras and barbs. IMO, you can have a more interesting set-up with fewer, slightly larger fish, such as dwarf gourami. However, such fish produce more waste and need more room than a schooling fish, which reduces the total number of fish you can keep. It's best to try to find a balance between what nature allows and what you're interested in. It's not all about numbers. Instead, try to find the specific types of fish that you like best and get only a few of them; on the other hand, most small schooling fish appreciate to be in groups of around 6 at least, so take this into consideration as well.

If you want a lot of fish, you need a big tank. Or another tank. No way around it, unfortunately.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

ok

What came first? the chicken or the egg? No really.....