quit crying a river over stuff like this, tang police please focus on something else. I posted my naso post as comic relief. If you dont find it funny, move on. Some of you people need more drama in your life if a tank with fish in it can get your panties up in a bunch. Maybe somebody should die yoru close to, to put things in to perspective.
And to the overstocking question, i was asked how overstocking helps.
Simple. (this works for LFS too, but they exaggerate it) If there are say 5 powder blue tangs in one tank, and the tank is a 55 gallon, they will probably get along. If there was 2? No way. They fit and bicker amoung 5 fish, and eventually theres no territory to fight over, because the tank is overstocked (by other fish as well) and fighting is a full time job, they soon realize being calm is the bes tpolicy.
My FW 125 gallon has 2 10" oscars, 2 8" jack dempseys, a green terror, 2 6" Parrot cichlids, 10 various 4-10" african cichlids, 3 south american cichlids, ranging from 6-8 inches in length, 1 pictus catfish, 3 other catfish im not sure of the species, 1 bala shark (7 inches in length), 1 silver dollar (size of my hand), 3 clown loaches, (from 3-5 inches long) 2 yoyo loaches, one 3 inch one 5 inch, 5 tiger barbs, 3 inches long, 6 giant danios, several baby cichlids that have somehow survived, 2 knife fish (5-6 inches long) 1 albino clawed frog, 4 cory catfish (1.5-2 inches long.. IT CAN BE DONE) 2 rosy barbs (2 inches long) 2 more silver dollars, about 2 inches in length, and more fish I have forgotten.
Most of you are thinking HOLY HELL!!! NONE i repeat NONE of my fish have died in the past year. I remove nitrates with "bags" and I have dual fluval 405's filtering, as well as a 80 gal emperor bio wheel filter. My fish are healthy as buttons, I have 2 massive bubblers pumping oxygen into such an overstocked tank, and everyone is happy. No diseases whatsoever, cept we lost one oscar to pop-eye and hole in head a year ago, and that breaks just about EVERY rule in freshwater fish.
The moral of the story is, NOBODY knows EVERYTHING about this hobby, those alive 100 years and done nothing but own fish and care for them STILL dont know everything. My fish are all very peaceful, only fish killed are feeders i occasionally drop in, sometimes I feed tiger barbs, which is where the 3 large ones have survived. There is one feeder goldfish in there that is now 4-5 inches long. Everyone is happy.
Yes, nitrates are high, of course, around 30 ppm. We do a 20% water change each week, sometimes bi-weekly. We put water from our RO machine in to the tank with every water change (the discharge of the RO machine, with all the minerals in the water, as cichlids LOVE this "vitamin" water.
I am no expert, but am always about challenging the norm. 10 years ago, in ANY hobby, things were COMPLETELY different... even raising children. "sleep on back, sleep on stomach" for instance. People tell me all day that "cichlids cant live with ANY community or semi-aggressive fish" BS, depnds on the fish, the numbers, the space, etc. Obviously neon tetras couldk never survive in my tank, but rosy barbs, tiger barbs, most catfish even corys (their spiny fin prevents being swallowed, all fish learned the hard way, now they are alive and happy) giant danios, and other semi-aggressive/community freshwater fish can get along.
