Dive into the world of fish tanks: overcrowding or perfect harmony? Are you a yay or a nay? Picture this: a 75-gallon tank filled with magnificent discus, eels, and enormous plecos.
Some might call it overcrowded, but I see the untapped potential of every inch. Join me as we explore the art of stocking a fish tank and discover the unexpected benefits of going against the norm.
From minimizing aggression to maximizing enjoyment, let’s dive in and find out why sometimes more truly is merrier in the aquatic realm.
Looking at how my tank is stocked, A lot of people would probably think that it’s a little crowded or overstocked. But there’s so much space in there, and I feel like I’m wasting so much tank space at the same time.
So in my tank, I have 5 full grown discus, 5 plus inches each. I have a fire eel, 1 tire track eel about half grown (10ish inches), and 7 full grown, probably the biggest L333 plecos I have ever seen.
They are 8-10 inches. They’re huge. Usually, they get, like, 5 or 6. And then I have my stingray in there. And so there’s just a lot of bioload in there, which is fine for me.
As long as I keep up my water changes, then everybody’s fine. Everybody’s got their own space.
The stingray will eventually move into a bigger tank when it gets bigger. But right now, he’s just growing out.
I have a habit of overstocking my fish tanks. It probably goes back to when I kept Malawi cichlids in high school.
Minimize Aggression
They’re just so aggressive that you have to put way more fish in the tank than you would with other fish to handle that aggression.
Just so no one gets picked on consistently, it gets murdered, or killed. But for me, I think it all comes down to how responsible someone is. With overstocking their tank.
One of my buddies has just upgraded to a 240 gallon from 150 gallon tank, and he has 15 full size discus, a few geophegus, a bunch of Cory catfish, 4 medium sized altum angelfish, a large blue eye panaque and a large Royal Pleco.
It is a very overstocked tank, but a beautiful tank.
I love having all areas of my tank being used. I have a 10 gallon tank with some beta fish there are just 2 of them in there.
A 10 gallon tank looks so empty. And so for me, it’s a waste of space even though many people would say it’s stocked correctly.
But there are some benefits to having an overstocked tank one of them, as I mentioned before, to help with aggression. It is so that no one is picked on too much.
The idea is when a fish starts chasing another fish, it gets lost in the crowd, which makes it so that the smaller fish gets a break from being beaten up.
Increases survival rate
I have also found that some fish survive better in bigger groups and overcrowding.
For example, with Guppies when they breed them I found that if I stick to a very strict regiment of only keeping the suggested amount of guppies in a 10 or 20 gallon tank.
I have a smaller yield of babies. I feel like there needs to be some movement, and distraction in the tank, otherwise, the parents just slowly pick off all the babies.
I found that a bunch of adults, and various stages of babies in the tank helps to distract parents and older siblings from eating any of the newly born babies.
Optimize tank space
I believe that enjoying your fish tank is vital in taking care of it. If you enjoy your fish you will take care of it better.
One way I do this is I pick fish that will occupy different parts of the tank and also fish that are active during different times of the day.
Like in my 75 gallon, my stingray sometimes have moments where they’re really, really boring. They just sit there buried in the sand.
Or plecos, they just hide in their caves and hardly ever come out, or even discus can be quite boring sometimes because if everything’s chill, they’ll just sit there and stare at you.
Which is so funny because they will just stare and stare and stare. And so it’s kind of a funny thing to see that.
But if you have a lot of things in there, lots of fish are interacting with each other. They’re causing each other to move around. They have different times of the day when they’re active. It makes it so you can enjoy your tank any time of the day.
Like, my eels come out at night and so do my plecos, and so I get to see them at night. My discus are active during the day and my stingray loves dusk and dawn because the lights are dim. Stingrays don’t love bright lights.
So it’s much more appealing to me because there’s always a fish to see, and it’s not always the same fish so the tank has so much more to offer.
In the world of fish tanks, the overcrowding versus perfect harmony debate is intense. While some doubt densely stocked tanks, I see untapped potential and unexpected benefits. Responsible management, including water changes, ensures the well-being of each inhabitant despite the bioload.
Overstocking can minimize aggression and provide refuge for chased fish, promoting harmony. Every tank owner’s choices are unique, from visually stunning yet overstocked displays to meticulous space utilization.
The joy derived from observing an ever-changing ecosystem fosters a deep connection. When managed responsibly, overstocking creates a harmonious haven for fish and enthusiasts alike.