amount of fish per tank

Question
okay so i know the rule about teh oen inch rule but it can be so hard to tell so i wanted and expert oppinio. i have a 13.4 gallon and i have a school of five tetras, two rummy nose tetras, one penguin tetra, black phnatom tetra, 3 guppies, 4 platys,2 pristilla tetras and 1 otocinclus cat fish.. should i stop buyign cause i wanted maybe two or three more?

Answer
Hi Sam;

You have to look at the size they get to be when adults in order to calculate the population. I think you are pretty well stocked already. I looked each of your fish up just to be sure on fishprofiles.com for their adult sizes. Let's take a peek;

Rummys get about 1.5 inches each. You have two so that's 3 inches.

Penguins get to be about 3 inches each.

Black Phantoms get to be about 1 inch to 1.5 inches each. Let's split the difference a bit and call it 2.5.

Pristellas get to be about 1.5 inches each. You have two so that's another 3 inches.

Guppies get to be 2 inches or so each, but their tails are extra long so we could conservatively say 4.5 inches for the group.

Platies grow to be about 2 inches each. That makes 8 more inches of fish.

The oto gets about an inch or so.  

That makes a whopping 25 inches of fish for your little 13.5 gallon! Yikes! You might want to start shopping for a larger tank or a second 13 gallon to move about half of them to. A new tank is an exceptionally fun way to handle it. I'm jealous. I like shopping for new tanks. **grin**

Oh, and don't buy any more for fish for the current tank. They're packed like sardines! (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun.) If the platies and guppies have babies they will be in even more trouble and more crowded.

Have fun shopping...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins