Could I Add Any More Fish To My Tank?
by Aquaboy on Saturday, June 11th, 2011 | 7 Comments
Hello,
Right now i have a 14 gallon aqueon aquarium and its all cycled and has a heater and filter etc. So i have in there 2 golden barbs, 2 cherry barbs, 2 zebra danios, and one small pleco. Yah i know my schools suck but this is what i came out with from fish deaths and the size of my tank. So can i put any more fish in my tank and if so what do you reccomend?
Thank you
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your tank is too small for a school of anything and your pleco will get much too big for that tank , even for a dwarf pleco that is too small. this is really not a good situation you have going on in there… i would advice you to return or trade in the fish you currently have
2 oranda goldfish might look nice in there.
you can put in anything you want that dosent get too big and if your going to sell the pleco after he gets too big you can and get another small pleco!
hope i helped
~fishgirl4evir
As it is now your tank is overstocked because of the Pleco. Small Pleco’s are baby pleco’s. They need 75 gallon tanks. Not 14. And yes your schools do suck. You shouldn’t have schooling fish in anything under 20 gallons.
your pleco will grow big eventualy, but i’d say you have hot more room for about 3 fish which grow to 5cm each.
I like this one. http://getfor.info/421296/cherry Gooooood luck (:
It is good to hear that your aquarium is cycled and good to go for more fish. You might wish to confirm that by either taking a water sample to a shop for testing or to get a 3 in one test kit for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. We all try to eyeball aquarium health and it can get tricky.
If you have been doing weekly 50 to 70% partial water changes, your aquarium probably doesn’t have an accumulation of the eventually toxic nitrates. If you are unsure of that though, test.
Your characterization of your aquarium as a 14-gallon tank is both thoughtful and refreshingly realistic. The model is probably a 15-gallon tank according to the manufacturer. However how many of us keep our aquariums really full?
That kind of tank, with the modest depth, also make great plant tanks because not so much of the light is dissipated by the water’s depth. 20-longs fall into the same category.
Your tank at the moment is lightly populated. The biological time-bomb may be your pleco if it is one of the generic ones. In the wild, they can grow 2 feet long. While they seldom grow a lot more than one foot in aquariums, those largely vegetarian fish produce a lot of waste material and by themselves might seriously tax that aquarium’s resources.
If you are really into suckermouth catfishes, trade it for a bristlenose (the males have the large mustaches) or a “rubber nose pleco”. Be aware of the fact that those fish also produce a fair amount of waste material. And they need veggie tablets or the occasional thin slick of zucchini or cucumber.
And if algae is mostly the product of too much fish waste in the water, remember where all that nutrient goes back to if a suckermouth or Loricariid eat, digest and pass it.
Your barbs and danios are schooling fishes. If the cherry and golden barbs school, you don’t have far to go to arrive at the conventional minimum school of 6. If they don’t keep each other’s company, you may wish to add four of one species (which naturally will upset the equilibrium knows as the nitrogen cycle.) When ammonia & nitrites have returned to zero PPM (parts per million) and nitrates under 20 PPM, then add 4 more barbs of the other species. In time add more danios.
I think you will find the interactions between members of the schools fun to watch. They should remain healthier and less inclined to bother other fishes too.
So long as you are watching the waste material parameters and keeping up with the water vacuuming and water changes, your tank can certainly support that crowd (w/o the pleco).
Good luck and all the best!