Counting inverts in fish tank load.

1398 Views 7 Replies 6 Participants Last post by KraKen, Feb 16, 2009

Tobias

Discussion Starter · Feb 11, 2009

Right now in my planted 20 long I have the following

7 ember tetras

2 celestial pearl danio

1 peacock gudgeon

1 sparkling gourami

I had planned on adding 3 more celestials and 3 more sparkling gourami, 2 otos and 4 cherry shrimp.

That would push my total for the tank up to 23 animals. The Ehiem Ecco is rated for 30 gallons but I am wondering if I am pushing the bio load envelope a little here and it also raised the question for me on inverts because I don't think I have ever seen anyone count them in their surface area or inch per gallon fish ratios etc.

Thanks.

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Six

· #2 · Feb 12, 2009

it can vary with tank care/water changes.
there's a guy in my LFC (local fish club) that had more than 100 shrimp in a 20g all bred on their own. Inverts are hard enough to give a rating for bioload to without knowing much about your filteration, care, and feeding routine. If you feed alot and dont do water chnages the qty will be much less than it could be.

if you're good with care you can do your listed critters and have room for baby shrimp as well.

GL!

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Tobias

Discussion Starter · #3 · Feb 13, 2009

I feed twice a day once in the morning and once at night. I try to be careful about over feeding. I have been doing 6 gallon changes every week. I have an eheim ecco filter with the bio material it comes with and a small packet of purigen in there. I also have a coarse sponge pre-filter over the intake and a spray bar for the output.

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Valthenya

· #4 · Feb 13, 2009

wont the gouramis eat the babies?

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mkeevil

· #5 · Feb 13, 2009

My local fish place told me once that fish add load, and inverts subtract load... he was talking about a salt tank at the time... but I am not sure if it's the same.

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Six

· #6 · Feb 13, 2009

That is not true at all. Bioload is the count of life that takes in resources and creates waste. Shrimp certainly do both in FW or marine. Perhaps he was refering to coral bioload? That is an invert. Coral bioload is much different as they use different resources than fish and motile inverts.

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mikaila31

· #7 · Feb 15, 2009

I have never counted shrimp as bioload.

I have a 20gal high with the following fish:

6 male gerturdae rainbows
2 threadfin rainbows
5 -some kind of little rasbora

9ish male endlers
2 dwarf frogs

I have no idea how many cherry shrimp are in there as well. I had to tear the tank down last summer and I counted over 100 shrimp. I can tell you from experience that the sparklers will hunt down any young shrimp. I've kept them before and the shrimp population doesn't increase when they are in the tank.They don't bother the adult shrimp though. My filter is rated for 24gal and is always set on the lowest flow.....

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KraKen

· #8 · Feb 16, 2009

If you have enough hiding places the gouramis won't be able to eat all the baby shrimp, a coarse sponge filter is particularly good for this purpose. I have a cherry shrimp in my 10 gal FEMA trailer tank with bumblebee gobies and black khuli loaches and the shrimp population still rises slowly.

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