# How many fish can i have ?



## thechaser09

hey i have a 70 litre tank and was wanting to know how many fish i would be able to have in it, i allready have 8 fish and 3 snails, they are -

*2 x ballon mollys, 2 x swordtail, 2 x plattys and 2 x albino corys with 3 small snails.*

am i able to have any more,

any suggestions would be good thank you .


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## willieturnip

What's your filtration?


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## JouteiMike

We will need to know more details, like your filtration as already stated, and your maintenance schedule.

70 liters isn't a rather large tank, so you will need to do more frequent water changes to accommodate the heavier bio-load.


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## MoneyMitch

honestly regardless of your filtration i wouldn't get any more fish but thats just my opinion.


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## JouteiMike

Feel free to elaborate, MoneyMitch. All opinions should be accounted and any details for advice would be great.

His tank is just under 20 gallons, which isn't very large, and 8 fish do seem like a substantial amount. I am also leaning on the fact that 8 fish is fine for a tank that size and I wouldn't recommend adding any more. 

I'd suggest getting a larger tank.

I am still curious on your filtration, and your maintenance schedule (water changes/gravel vacuuming).


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## MoneyMitch

the way i do things is for average size fish i take the tank size divide it by two then take like 2-3 away and come up with the amount of fish to put in. of course this can have variables but it has always worked fine for me.,


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## Jack Middleton

As a rough guide, 1cm of fish per litre is seen acceptable, but once you start putting substrates you in you must account for displacement. so once displacement has been taken into place you left with about 65cm of stocking, that is about 13*5cm fish.

so your current stock brings you up to about 50cm of stock, which leaves you with 15cm which i would use to add 3 more cories as they do prefer to be in groups!

This method only works with fish under 10cm, any larger and you have to think logically, i dont bother using stocking guides any more, I put fish in my tank and when it appears that there are enough fish, i stop!


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## MoneyMitch

Jack Middleton said:


> As a rough guide, 1cm of fish per litre is seen acceptable, but once you start putting substrates you in you must account for displacement. so once displacement has been taken into place you left with about 65cm of stocking, that is about 13*5cm fish.
> 
> so your current stock brings you up to about 50cm of stock, which leaves you with 15cm which i would use to add 3 more cories as they do prefer to be in groups!
> 
> This method only works with fish under 10cm, any larger and you have to think logically, i dont bother using stocking guides any more, I put fish in my tank and when it appears that there are enough fish, i stop!



again dont mean to say your wrong agian in another post jack, but the 1 inch per gallon rule or 1 cm per liter rule isnt advisable and many people will back me on this i can even have them chime in if you like  as i stated above in this thread has been a proven method to keep my fish safe and healthy. yeah you can go by that rule but you risk disease stress frequent maitnance and even fish loss.


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## thechaser09

im not to sure what type of filter i have, i have got a blue planet tank which came with a filter on the tank cover also with a light. but i do not know what type it is, it is about 20 cm long and 7 cm across. sory i couldnt give you more info on that

but for maitanance

i recently had high ammonia and nitrate levels so i do 2 changes a week, 1 on wednesday which i take out 10 litres and nother 20 litres on friday, 

also i have a nother question, when the tank goes through its nitrogen cycle the bacteria is ment to go from ammonia into nitrite and from nitrite in to nitrate, right ? 

because my tank missed the nitrite part, i had high ammonia levels and then out of no where i got high nitrate levels but i got rid of the ammonia, and from when i started the tank(2-3 months ago) to now the nitrite level have never been bad its always been good. is this normal ?

tank is sitting at a :

Ph of 7.6
Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite 0.0
Nitrate 10 to 20


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## MoneyMitch

there is no way that it skipped step 2 but the levels you are showing now are fine


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## Jack Middleton

what I posted was not a rule, but a guide.

there are no rules as to how many fish your tank can support.

Either of our guides are very accurate, because you have to take into account the waste produced by fish, not the size of it 

If yours is proven to work so is mine, atleast 30,000 people on another forum i post on use my method as a guide, and havent had any problems, the thing is, there is no proven way on how to acceptably stock a tank, ive been up to 4 inches per gallon before, but you have to take into account how much nitrate is left over at the end of the process.

As long as the fish have enough space to swim, the nitrates are easy to keep on top of (although this isn't normally a problem as levels into the hundreds are safe) you have no problems what so ever!


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## thechaser09

cool thanks heaps guys, your info has helped me out heaps, much appreciated of it


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## 1077

The only problems I see with adding fish to this particular tank are that the tank is comprised of livebearers which usually leads to more. I would hold off on adding any more fish unless I was certain that the fish presently in the tank were all males. Chances are better than average that fry will be forthcoming if even one female is present.
As for stocking levels in aquariums,, I am of the opinion that fish should all share same water requirements with respect to pH or hardness ,and temperatures. Fish compatibility should in my view also be taken into consideration. For example.. many place young cichlids in tanks and as juveniles,all is well. It is when the fish reaches sexual maturity that things begin to go awry. Fish become more aggressive,and or territorial and may or may not get along as they did before. This holds true with not only cichlids ,but many other fish as well. Adult size and filtration are also very important to consider. As fish grow,they consume more food and produce more waste. Same thing occurs with numbers of fish. While fish are small and few in numbers,the filter may be up to the task. but as numbers grow and fish grow,filter may need to be upgraded or at the very least, more frequent maint.
In my mind, It's never about how many fish can I keep,,. but rather all of the above must first be studied.


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## Calmwaters

Very well put 1077.


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