K.R.B. Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 Hi! New on this forum, although I have been reading threads as a non-member for months. I have a 29 gallon planted community tank and am wondering how to tell if I can have more fish or if I already have too many. This is my first aquarium and I have only had it since December 2023, so please be nice, I love to learn and improve. The livestock I have are: 6 mystery snails, 4 adult cherry shrimp and about 25 juveniles, 1 hillstream loach, 5 endler's, 13 white cloud minnows, 1 one inch baby bristlenose pleco, and 5 peppered corydoras. I also have a bunch of aquarium plants. Ammonia and nitrite are at 0, and nitrates are never over 10 even after two weeks without a water change. I have a sponge filter and LED plant light. My shrimp and corydoras are breeding like crazy and I have mystery snail eggs now, too. If water parameters are good, how do I know when I am fully stocked and need to stop? The question is, can I keep more in here or do I need another tank/bigger tank to keep babies and get more fish? I have room to get a 20 gallon addition or upgrade to a 40 or 50 gallon single tank. I am afraid of moving everything I have into a new tank, though. Thoughts on a good course of action would be very much appreciated!! Thanks! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllFishNoBrakes Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 Welcome to the forum! By the number of fish, I would personally consider that tank stocked. Especially with the 1” Pleco, you gotta remember that things will grow and take up more room. When it comes to hatching eggs and raising fish, the simple answer is you will need more tanks. Ask me how I know! 😅 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shrimpee Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 On 5/12/2024 at 6:09 PM, K.R.B. said: Hi! New on this forum, although I have been reading threads as a non-member for months. I have a 29 gallon planted community tank and am wondering how to tell if I can have more fish or if I already have too many. This is my first aquarium and I have only had it since December 2023, so please be nice, I love to learn and improve. The livestock I have are: 6 mystery snails, 4 adult cherry shrimp and about 25 juveniles, 1 hillstream loach, 5 endler's, 13 white cloud minnows, 1 one inch baby bristlenose pleco, and 5 peppered corydoras. I also have a bunch of aquarium plants. Ammonia and nitrite are at 0, and nitrates are never over 10 even after two weeks without a water change. I have a sponge filter and LED plant light. My shrimp and corydoras are breeding like crazy and I have mystery snail eggs now, too. If water parameters are good, how do I know when I am fully stocked and need to stop? The question is, can I keep more in here or do I need another tank/bigger tank to keep babies and get more fish? I have room to get a 20 gallon addition or upgrade to a 40 or 50 gallon single tank. I am afraid of moving everything I have into a new tank, though. Thoughts on a good course of action would be very much appreciated!! Thanks! I would suggest using AqAdvisor to find out your stocking capacity for the tank. You just put in your tank size and filter and the fish you have and it will decide for you. Personally though I think it would be better to switch everything over to a larger tank with a more powerful filter if you'd like if you want to have more fish in there. Nice tank you got there! You could also probably just get a more powerful filter such as a canister filter just put a pre filter on the intake to protect the shrimp and fry. Moving everything to a new tank is easy if you have a plan to follow. Hope to see some Corydoras fry! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony s Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 You have room for the moment, but unless you have all male endlers, the tank will fill in with them very nicely. To test your stocking, use aqadvisor.com 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 aqadvisor is stupid; the tank is fully stocked esp when the bn get larger. Theonly thing i would consider is another 1 or 2 peppy cory but that is just a number. I'm also concern about the conflict in temp between the pleco and white cloud. For the pleco and cory you will probaby want around 76 but the white cloud are going to prefer a temp closer to 70. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLFishChik Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 On 5/12/2024 at 6:47 PM, anewbie said: aqadvisor is stupid; the tank is fully stocked esp when the bn get larger. Theonly thing i would consider is another 1 or 2 peppy cory but that is just a number. I'm also concern about the conflict in temp between the pleco and white cloud. For the pleco and cory you will probaby want around 76 but the white cloud are going to prefer a temp closer to 70. Well, no, it isn’t. It’s a very good tool and starting point for beginners to help with knowing how much you can fit in a tank, how much filtration you have and if certain species are compatible with others. It does err on the conservative side, which for brand new aquarists is a good thing until they gain more experience. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pepere Posted May 12 Share Posted May 12 Bioload isnt everything. Space itself becomes an issue even if nitrates stay low. That being said a densely planted tank helps in some ways to give areas of refuge out of sight. But space still matters. I would be thinking a new tank. Rather than a 55 I personally am looking to add a 75. Same length, but more depth and height. The worse thing about a 29 in my opinion is the lack of depth from front to back. A bigger footprint and depth front to back is attractive for planting.. what do you find daunting about starting a new tank? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 On 5/12/2024 at 5:56 PM, FLFishChik said: Well, no, it isn’t. It’s a very good tool and starting point for beginners to help with knowing how much you can fit in a tank, how much filtration you have and if certain species are compatible with others. It does err on the conservative side, which for brand new aquarists is a good thing until they gain more experience. Well then.... i guess we will have to disagree on numerous points regarding the tool. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anewbie Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 (edited) On 5/12/2024 at 6:57 PM, Pepere said: Bioload isnt everything. Space itself becomes an issue even if nitrates stay low. That being said a densely planted tank helps in some ways to give areas of refuge out of sight. But space still matters. I would be thinking a new tank. Rather than a 55 I personally am looking to add a 75. Same length, but more depth and height. The worse thing about a 29 in my opinion is the lack of depth from front to back. A bigger footprint and depth front to back is attractive for planting.. what do you find daunting about starting a new tank? I hate the word depth 😉 Deep depth; width depth.... I'm not the @op but having a large number of aquariums from 10 gallon to 600 gallon I will just note that the 29 (at least before the pandemic) was the cheapest 'large' aquarium and certainly after the 40B you start talking serious money. Not just the aquarium but a quality stand; risk of water damage et all. Having said that i always prefer wide tanks to tall tanks or long narrow tanks. 55 is among the worse dimension for an aquarium despite how popular it is - 75 is pretty decent. There are some less common aquariums in the 60-65 range. The op has quite a few problems with his aquarium he will have to think about but those are out of scope with regards to his question but I will note with regards to stocking a lightly populated aquarium usually results in healthier fishes all else being equal by a wide margin. Water changes are good and highly recommended but they don't replace sparse stocking. My nice 29 has 7 fishes - a pair of a. winkelfleck and a few left over pangio of various species. We can consider the pangio virutally no bioload even the large myersi but i still do a 50% water change once a week. Gotta scrub those fishes clean else they get dirty. Edited May 13 by anewbie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mynameisnobody Posted May 13 Share Posted May 13 I absolutely have to agree with @anewbie. Aqadvisor will give a very general idea of bioload which isn’t accurate, but what about space. A cluttered tank is just as stressful as a highly aggresive tank, imo. Also unless those are all male endlers then you’re going to have more fish than you’re going to know what to do with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Cory Posted May 13 Administrators Share Posted May 13 I believe you could be either enough or add more. If you're new to the hobby, taking some time to let things mature and learn how the fish interact and how an aquarium that is 1 year, or 3. years old vs an aquarium that is 6 months old runs. You might find you want more and love doing water changes and trimming plants to keep up with it. You may also find you want different fish down the road, or more tanks. I can only speak to could someone keep more. Yes, At the store for instance we can keep 300 tetras in 10 gallons of water. You can get into all the other areas of, should they be stocked that much, do they have quality of life, how long will they be that way. And all the other things. I'm locking this topic for now as it would seem some people are eager to fight about aqadvisor instead of helping the question at hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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