# Points system



## Snaillife (Mar 23, 2019)

How does everyone feel about the points system?
I visited a beautiful aquatic shop today that housed and sold everything from cold water through to marine.
On chatting with the staff about how many fish per tank ( I have 5) I was surprised to be told that they don't follow the points system. It's about tank maintenance. 
I did query this with a couple of questions and they absolutely believe in tank size and suitability. I saw a gorgeous discus fish (the staff already knew I had 125L tank but said discuss are better in their own tank and wouldn't sell to me anyway because I have aggressive Angel. They are clearly very caring about where their fish go.
But now I question the points system


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## Snaillife (Mar 23, 2019)

Snaillife said:


> How does everyone feel about the points system?
> I visited a beautiful aquatic shop today that housed and sold everything from cold water through to marine.
> On chatting with the staff about how many fish per tank ( I have 5) I was surprised to be told that they don't follow the points system. It's about tank maintenance.
> I did query this with a couple of questions and they absolutely believe in tank size and suitability. I saw a gorgeous discus fish (the staff already knew I had 125L tank but said discuss are better in their own tank and wouldn't sell to me anyway because I have aggressive Angel. They are clearly very caring about where their fish go.
> But now I question the points system


I also found out that Siamese fighters are not necessarily tropical fish. Tepid water dependant on a warm room is sufficient. I put my hand on a tropical tank and then again non the Siamese tank and there was a definite difference in temp.


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## bunnygeek (Jul 24, 2018)

I would never use a size of fish versus tank volume on its own, I presume this is what any points system is based on? Stocking should be based on many many things, including fish temperament, adult size, the speed at which they swim, whereabouts they occupy the water column, their diet, their bioload, etc etc etc.

And Bettas (Siamese Fighters) definitely are tropical fish. I killed the last one I had after my power went off in the middle of winter and I didn't wrap his tank up in a blanket. Your hand is not a good judge of water temperature, only a thermometer would be a good judge of difference. If they're too cold they are sluggish and can't digest their food.


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## kittih (Jan 19, 2014)

Pets at home staff when asked about the point system told me that their points calculation was based on the size if the fish they sold rather than their eventual adult size therefore is pretty much meaningless. 

Whilst length of fish has some correlation to bioload it is far more complicated than that. A goldfish and a khuli loach for example could be the same length bit the hugely different body volume if the goldfish compared to the long thin profile of the loach means that the former has a much much larger bioload and much higher load on the filter.

Also whether the aquarium is planted, the temperature of the water and therefore the metabolic rate of the fish, the water volume and the type of filter all affect how many fish can be kept.

I generally use the think fish web page calculator as a rough guide and then reduce numbers by about 30 percent.


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