Is overcrowding a goldfish tank really a myth?
The following link says that it is:http://goldfish.freehosting.net/whats_new_1.html
The link is right, but completely wrong in most respects, and for all the wrong reasons. Yes the amount of waste product is the same for the same amount of food no matter what the number of fish. But what sort of dumb ass puts the same amount of food into a tank with 2 goldfish as a tank with 6? One of the major problems new fish owners have is that fish will happily eat all day long. Gold fish are some of the worse examples of this.
The one goldfish per 10 gallons is a rule of thumb. It basicly assumes that you don't understand how to maintain a tank well. It's just like the 1 inch of fish per gallon for slim bodied tropical fish. In reality if you over spec the filtering requirements, do weekly water changes, don't over feed, don't stock your tank to quickily, and monitor ammonia&nitrates. You can easily keep 6 goldfish in a 10 gallon tank if you work at it. The problem is few people are interested in that much effort for gold fish.
no, you can overcrowed any fish tank…………….
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Of course its not a myth. Overcrowding can kill; everybody knows that if they know anything about taking care of fish. Read a book about proper fish care before you do anything else along these lines. You have a lot to learn.
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nope it isnt
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No, I have customers that do this quite frequently. Goldfish are messy and make a lot of waste, so it is easy for them to get sick if you overcrowd them. People also tend to feed them too much, anything they don't eat fouls the water.
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no, u can overcrowd a fish tank like u can overcrowd a particular area with people
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no, it will kill them sooner or later, you should have enough room that fish can grow the max and line up length wise from one end of the tank
to the other without touching
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me
There is a limit to how many fish should be in a tank. Its definetly not 10gal/fish. Its more lik 2-3 gallons/fish.
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Overcrowding is one thing.. Making them look visiable nicely is another.
I have 2 gold fish in the 10 gallon tank and one tropical fish too (the other tropical fish died and one left) First of all, if you are the fish, do you want to be crowded with so many fish?? Absolutely not, only temporary like in fish store.
I would not put too many gold fish. Maybe maximum 5 for 10 gallon. You see, they grow and need room to swim around. A gold fish can grow to 5 inches if they are in a good environment. So, the more the fish, the bigger the tanks will look better on pet owner and the fish.
Besides, you clean the tank less frequently with less fish
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No it's not a myth at all. Basic rule of thumb is an inch of fish per gallon. If you overcrowd a tank you will kill your fish.
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I'd say one 1-inch fish per gallon.
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Overcrowding is definitely NOT a myth. Many beginners get the smallest, cheapest tank available and go crazy, buying this-n-this-n-this fish, and wonder why there are so many floaters.
Fish need oxygen. If there are too many fish in the tank, they use up the oxygen in the water and that the pump aerates in, and they suffocate.
And if your fish are exclusively goldfish, they produce a lot of ammonia in their waste, and it contaminates their water.
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Yes, you really can overcrowd a goldfish tank. Goldfish give off a lot of ammonia and if there are too many fish in the tank then they will actually poison themselves. Be sure that your goldfish bowl doesn't have a lid, or if it does leave it open so that the ammonia can get out and oxygen can get in. If your fish hang out around the surface of the water a lot gulping air then the water needs to be changed and you need to decrease the number of fish in that bowl. There is a ratio of goldfish to gallons but I'm not sure what it is. I think it's something like 1 goldfish to every 3 gallons of water, ergo if you have a 10 gallon take you shouldn't have more than 3 goldfish in it. Hope this helps!
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The rule for TROPICAL fish is one inch of fish per gallon.
Meaning if you had a twenty gallon, You could have like 15 or so little neon tetra or 7-8 angel fishes since they are bigger… Goldfish might be the same assuming it was filtered water and all.
And the dumb Biotch below me, well i believe we are talking about REGULAR goldfish , but if not f-you ok… I have kept plenty of fish, they just never had the name "FANCY" you lame!
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LOL, 1 inch per gallon? Whoever beleives that with goldfish obviously never really kept fish. You need roughly 15 gallons per fancy goldfish. A few hundred gallons are needed for the super dirty, 2 foot comet that need huge amounts of oxygen.
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The link is right, but completely wrong in most respects, and for all the wrong reasons. Yes the amount of waste product is the same for the same amount of food no matter what the number of fish. But what sort of dumb ass puts the same amount of food into a tank with 2 goldfish as a tank with 6? One of the major problems new fish owners have is that fish will happily eat all day long. Gold fish are some of the worse examples of this.
The one goldfish per 10 gallons is a rule of thumb. It basicly assumes that you don't understand how to maintain a tank well. It's just like the 1 inch of fish per gallon for slim bodied tropical fish. In reality if you over spec the filtering requirements, do weekly water changes, don't over feed, don't stock your tank to quickily, and monitor ammonia&nitrates. You can easily keep 6 goldfish in a 10 gallon tank if you work at it. The problem is few people are interested in that much effort for gold fish.
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I think that overcrowding is true to an extent. As long as there is a reasonable amount of room for each fishie to swim, you should be okay. I agree with the author, 10g per fish is insane. It would be practically impossible to keep more than 3 fish for the average person. I think its more reasonable to say a gallon per each 2 inches of fish. That would mean you could have 5 two inch fish in a ten gallon. Completely reasonable. I always just eyeball the number and the tank size. Unless you have like 100+ fish in a tank that is obviously no bigger than 20g (like petsmart keeps their feeders >:0), all should be well if you monitor who gets how much food. So I would say its a myth all your fishies will die unless they get 10g each, but I dont think that you should put that many fish like the site says you can.. But more fish always means more work, no matter what lol
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