comm tank

Question
Hello,
I have a 10 gallon community tank. I was wondering if I had too many fish or if this was okay and not to get any more fish for my tank. I have 2 clown loaches, 3 female sword tails, 4 cardinal tetras....please tell me if that is too many etc. Also, my two clown loaches are super active. They swim alot to the top, click, etc. Does this mean they are not enjoying their surrounding? or maybe they too big? (they are aprx 1.5 inches each) Can i do something to help their strange behaviour? Thank you

Answer
Hi S;

It is pretty crowded in there. Clown Loaches need a tank much larger of at least 70 gallons because they get pretty big, over 10 inches. The swordtails get too large for a 10 gallon but a 20 would be okay for them. The cardinals are just fine in a 10 gallon. Here are profile pages about them to know more;

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/637.htm

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/559.htm

http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/591.htm

I would suggest returning the clown loaches and swords and get a couple of platies and maybe some little cory cats instead. They are more suited to small tanks.

You will want to observe the "one inch of fish per gallon" rule for your little tank too. The difficult part about this rule is that you have to select fish that get no bigger than about 2 to 3 inches as adults. This is because fish that get big are just more messy. For example, it wouldn't make sense to have a 10 inch fish in a ten gallon tank. Even two 5 inch fish would just not be safe or comfortable for them.

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins