One of the most important things to consider when preparing to get fish as pets or home décor is how to properly stock your fish tank. Stocking a fish tank is not a simple process and requires more than just deciding what fish to add to your collection.
The common “1 inch of fish per gallon” is a simple guideline but stocking a fish tank requires balancing many factors in order to keep your tank environment suitable for your pets. Surface area, filters and swimming space are all key to deciding what kind of fish you should stock and how many of them you can have per gallon in a tank.
When preparing to stock your tank it is important to remember that there is no one rule or formula that will give you the perfect answer to stocking your tank. There are simply too many factors to consider for any one system to work across all tanks and species.
Does The “1 inch per Gallon” Theory Work?
There is a common misconception that you should add 1 inch of fish to your tank for every gallon it holds. While this can be a helpful guideline if you have small fish in a small tank it is not a perfect rule. There are a number of factors and misinterpretations that make this a bad metric for deciding how to stock your fish tank.
The primary problem with this theory is that it does not take into account the full dimensions of your fish. Fish have a length, a width, and a height and measuring only by length can lead to overcrowding. This can also lead to overflowing as every object you put into water displaces more of it, causing the water level in the tank to rise.
Another key problem is that the inch per gallon formula doesn’t factor in when you purchase your fish and how much they will grow. Fish fries bought from a pet store might measure less than an inch long but grow to be two or three times their original size once they mature.
The last problem with this concept is that there is that a tank does not necessarily hold as much water as it claims. When you take into account the space taken up by fish, substrate, plants and other decorations a ten gallon tank may only hold 8-9 gallons of water. This is because everything you put into your tank displaces more water and causes the level to rise.
How Surface Space and Tank Capacity Affect Fish Density?
The first factor to consider when deciding how many fish you can put in your fish tank is figuring out the surface area and capacity of the fish tank. Both of these factors are important in calculating how many fish you can safely fit into your tank so it is important to keep them in mind.
As a general rule the larger a tank is the more forgiving it is when it comes to stocking the tank with fish. It is harder to overstock a 50 gallon tank than a 10 gallon tank but this is not a universal rule. How safe a tank is for fish depends on many factors and one of them is the tank’s surface area.
Fish breathe by filtering oxygen out of the water they swim through using their gills and then exhaling waste into the water the same way. Oxygen is added to a body water through contact between the air and the surface of the water so a tank with more exposed surface area will take in more oxygen and release more waste. Meaning that even if two tanks hold the same amount of water if one has a narrower top than the other it will have less oxygen for fish to breathe.
How Good Are Your Filtration Systems?
Another factor to consider when stocking your tank is how to keep your fish tank clean and what filter you should use. Which filter you choose and how often you need to clean depends both on how much waste your fish will produce and how you large your tank is in gallons.
Generally the larger a fish is the more it eats and the more waste it creates so keep that in mind when choosing fish to stock your tank with. If you overfeed your fish they will also produce more waste so be careful of how much and how often they are fed.
In order to keep your tank clean it is important to have the right filter for your tank size. The general rule for fish tank filters is that your filter should process four times the amount of water in the tank every hour. So if you have a ten gallon tank your filter should process forty gallons of water every hour.
If you are still concerned about keeping your tank water clean then feel free to use a more powerful filtration system. A fish tank cannot be filtered too much and unless you have very small fish that might swim into the filter it should not be a threat to their safety. Consider a larger filter if you have large individual fish or many fish in one tank to help balance out the waste they produce.
How Compatible Your Fishes Are?
Obviously what type of fish you want to stock your tank with plays a role in how you stock it but there are many factors you may not have considered. Besides size and diet some fish have specific behaviors or temperaments that restrict how you stock them in a tank or if you should stock them at all.
Fish swim at different levels and at different speeds. Fish can swim at the top, middle or bottom of a fish tank and if there are too many fish swimming at the same level the tank can seem overcrowded even if you have a small number of fish. More active swimmers also require more space even if they are physically small so keep that in mind as well.
Fish species have individual social behaviors with themselves and other fish. Schooling fish like dainos and tetras require a group of at least six other of their kind to be content. Other fish like cichlids or bettas are more aggressive and will become violent with any tank mates that are too small or too meek to protect themselves.
The diet of your fish can pose a danger to other fish in the tank. Larger predatory fish might accidentally or deliberately eat smaller tank mates if they see them as food. Of course if you stock too many fish with the same diet they will compete with each other for food if not properly supplied.
How to Stock a Tank
After you have prepared a proper tank environment for your fish you need to know how to properly stock your tank. While it might seem logical to just dump the fish you want into your tank you should not do this under any circumstances. Tanks work by maintaining a balance of temperature, oxygen and chemicals that keep its inhabitants alive.
Only stock a few fish at a time. If you add all of the fish you want at once to a tank the sudden shock to both the balance of the water and the fishes’ systems could kill many of your fish. Instead you should add around two fish each week to let them and the water around them adjust to each other. If you are unsure about your tank environment start by stocking hardy fish species like barbs and dainos at first to test the waters.
Keep tabs on the chemical balance in your tank. As you add fish to your tank it will change the chemical balance of the water. Be sure to take regular chemical checks for ammonia and nitrates which are deadly to fish. As your levels are low or negative your fish are safe and you can continue to slowly add new fish.
Conclusion
When stocking your fish tank it is important to remember that there is no perfect formula that will give you the right answers for every situation. There are many factors involved in stocking a fish tank that no one system can account for.
The advice above consists of guidelines and suggestions to help keep your fish happy and healthy as you prepare you tank. As long as you are careful and keep a close eye on your fish you should have no problem properly stocking your fish tank.
