Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Aquarium observation

I will take the opposite approach as Ryan. I prefer less fish than 1" per gallon of water. For smaller fish (1"-4"), I prefer something on the order of 0.5" per gallon of aquarium water. This allows room for growth of the fish while not overloading the filtration capacity of the tank. This also allows good room for "Operator" error in regards to regular tank maintenance. People commonly put too many fish per gallon of aquarium water. Been there and done that way too many times before.

Rarely do normal aquarium set ups have adequate filtration capacity for long term growth of fish that in healthy conditions will grow to larger sizes. Always remember that the fish is constantly producing ammonia, a toxic substance to them. Also the fish are producing manure with needs to be processed by the aquatic system of the aquarium. Biological processing of the manure wastes also produces ammonia & nitrites. Proper biological balance of filtration reduces ammonia and nitrites into nitrates which have very low toxicity. The more one feeds the fish the more waste products that are produced. As the fish grow in length and weight the amount of waste it produces increases exponentially. Fish in an aquairum live in their own waste products and the filtration system should ideally be oversized to properly handle all the biological wastes. Regular water changes (20%-25%) are also beneficial to maintaining good water quality for the captive fish.