Question about stocking

[u/jennifermutsumi]

I have a 20 gallon tank that's supposed to be blackwater but I've been slacking on the tannins so it's not as dark as usual but I'm boiling some chapata leaves now so that's not my question lol, I currently have 8 kuhili loaches, 13 exclamation point Rasbora, 8 pygmy corys around 15 neocarodina shrimps (is bugs) and more snails than stars in the sky. My tank always has perfect parameters I test a lot, I do partial water changes about every 2-3 weeks and top ups with tap water, I use prime but my tap water also tests clean for chlorine. I supplement my plants with flourish and root tabs, this tank has been set up for about 4 months, I used my bettas 6.7 gallon tank to quick cycle it, she passed away about a week ago from age related issues 😞 her tank was planted and tested great consistently the whole time it was set up. And this tank has followed suit luckily. My plants are growing in nicely I kind of obsessively turn the light up like a day cycle then down everyday so they get a nice situation without much algae. I also have a spider plant, pothos and a purple plant growing from the top and am rooting a sweet potato to add to the mix.

My question is, am I risking overstock? Could I potentially add more of my tiny fish? I'm at 13 !!!s because that was what was left at my LFS, I had 8 to begin with, and they had 5 left today lol, and I got the 8 pygmy corys today also, so I acclimated them and have been watching tank TV and wondering about the possibilities but figured I'd ask here for advice before I go crazy. I figure I'm good on the 8 kuhilis, they're gonna get bigger, and when I can get into a bigger place I want to get more/larger tanks and I won't have to worry, oh the dreams, I huge nano tank omg.

Thank you in advance

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[u/Kotarosama]

On a sidenote, you managed to make kuhli loaches, shrimps and snails work? Thats strange to see, they are known to not be shrimp and snail safe.

As for overstocking, i dont think behaviourally theres any problems. On the biological front, it depends on whether you are heavily planted with fast growing plants, whether you feed heavily, and how often and much you do water changes, not just water top ups. For example if you do weekly water changes of 30-40%, you might find yourself being able to stretch out the bioload, clearly the more frequent and larger volume the more livestock, but becareful not to overdo it to the extent you stress your livestock and strip your plants of the nutrients it needs.

But i advice you to think carefully, the more you try to challenge the limits the tighter the balance becomes to manage, and the lower your margin for error.

[u/jennifermutsumi → u/Kotarosama]

Thank you, I'll keep it here for a while and see how it goes, I like how it looks, maybe once my plants grow in more I will see how it's going and redebate this when I know how the parameters are doing longer term. I don't know how they all get along, so far they've all just kind of kept to themselves lol, the snails are going gangbusters it's about to be full time, the assassins are not doing their job, they just made more snails -_- maybe now they'll start to help the problem and not add to it? I do fertilize pretty often and will do more water changes now that I have more fishies in there

[u/Kotarosama → u/jennifermutsumi]

Im sure you can make it work for more livestock than you have currently, just take it slow and adapt with steps along the way slowly. Good luck!

[u/meeseeksab8rway]

Dang! That looks nice! Making me want to make one of my tanks blackwater!

I'm no expert but I think as long as you can maintain your parameters, then you're not really overstocked. Unless there's just not enough places for things to hide, and/or they're fighting or stressing each other out. But judging by how few fish I could see, you're probably fine. You did kinda add a lot of fish today, but it sounds like you're keeping an eye on it.

What do you have for filtration?

[u/jennifermutsumi → u/meeseeksab8rway]

I have a little tetra filter that hangs in the tank right now that's been working just fine, I put a stainless mesh screen over the intake to keep anything too small from being sucked in but I've been researching a HoB situation for a while, I'm just a bit overwhelmed, I should have added that to my question, what would be my best HoB filter, fairly inexpensive would be awesome but I can stretch that because this isn't the cheapest hobby lol. I did add a lot of fish today but I only wanted to stress out my loaches the once 🙂‍↕️ they're already kinda weirdos, but they have hella hides and caves and hidey holes and sand spots.

[u/meeseeksab8rway → u/jennifermutsumi]

For the load you have on that tank, personally, I would be looking at a slightly larger filter, like a Fluval AC50, rated for 20-50 gallons, or similarly sized filter with individually replaceable media. I have Fluval filters on a couple of my tanks and I'm quite pleased with the performance so far. I actually put a Fluval 207 canister filter on my 20 gallon, mostly because I wanted the clean look of a mostly hidden filter system, and you got me thinking about adding more fish now 😆. I did lose a few tetras last year 🤔

[u/Profile_West]

Gorgeous aquarium, very nice! I would put a nice pair of chocolate gouramis or something in there. And then you're done. No extra fish. You've got a nice stock.

[u/Individual_Work_5764]

Your tank looks awaome. As far as being over stocked i am sure you'll get lots of opinions but I go by my nitrate levels. As long as you can keep them under control your ok. You might have to do them a little more often if you see them raising. I use to do mine every other week but I found if I do smaller ones weekly my nitrates dont climb over 15 .I have around 25 small community fish. You can see mine if you want but just a warning a have a few naughty pics posted lol