20g long livebearer tank

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

TheBettaholic

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jul 17, 2008
Messages
9
Location
MA
I have an empty 20gal long tank that I want to eventually stock with male and female gups. I'm wondering if I can have platys and/or albino cories with them, and if so, how many of each/ each gender?

Theres nothing in the tank right now, and I still need to purchase filter/heater/ornaments... so suggestions are welcome :)

EDIT: Could I also have a small school of tetra also? say maybe 4 or 5.. The main thing in the tank would guppies though :) I'm not too big on the cories, though they would be cool
 
I would bet you could get 4 cories into the tank. Or you could go with 6 tetras. Either one could live well with 6 guppies, imo.

If you go with guppies and platies, I'd think that breeding is going to be a real issue. I think you are going to have enough trouble with an overstocked tank once the guppies start breeding.
 
Thanks Sum22
So I'm thinking 2 male gups, 4 females, and 4 cories. Should cycle the tank first?
 
Yep, read up on fishless cycling. I picked up ammonia from Ace Hardware. It took about 5 weeks for the cycle to finish.
 
Alright, thanks. I won't be getting the setup until later.. =\
But I'll get ammonia when I do
 
I've gone with guppies and platties myself, but I did check with the LFS that they'd take the fry (for trade or free) so that they'd get good homes. I'm also going to add in three swordtails, too. With the differences in size and species, I do expect fry to be eaten as well.

As for combining tetras and guppies, I've been debating that for two months now: on the one hand, neons (say) and guppies are all rather peaceful, and they were all likely in 7.4 PH water in the LFS. On the other hand, neons and the like would likely be happier in something more acidic. If you're using tap water that is 7.4 or something more neutral, I'd combine the two.

My water is well, and I live in an area with a lot of rock. I have 7.8/8.0 water now, and my master plan of combining neons and guppies seems off. I can't imagine neons liking it that much harder than their natural habitat, and anything I could do to bring my water down a little would only destabilize the tank and tick off my livebearers (guppies and platties). Still, the LFS has neons 5 for 5 yet, and I really like them. (I have a thread elsewhere called Guppy Tankmates if anyone wants to weigh in, so I can avoid hijacking this one.)

With tetras of any kind, I would expect more of your guppies to survive to adulthood, and that might be an issue if you can't find them good homes.

Again because of water conditions, I'm contemplating shrimp for my clean up crew in my livebearer tank. That might be an option for you rather than the cories. I expect a lot of fry and a lot of waste from the livebearers I have (I have 3 adult guppies and 3 platties, and 6 days into having guppies, I got fry). Keeping your fish count down is going to be a good thing, too.
 
Neon tetras do not require acidic water. Nearly 100% of them available today are comercially bred and adapt well to acidic to alkaline water. The only reason that you might consider acidic water for neons is if they were wild but you'd be hard pressed to find any of those. More often than not it's the more colorful cardinals that are taken from the wild.

I'd go with trios of guppies. The 6 that you had in mind should be good enough. You could keep 4 cories in the tank and you could probably get away with a small school of 6 neons AND a couple other lievbearers in addition to the guppies. You should be able to add a trio of platys with no problem. Guppies and neons are small and their inpact on the bioload is minimal. Are you planning on breeding these? If so you are going to want a lot of cover in the form of plants (mosses work excellently) so that a maximum number of fry survive. Also, if you add plants you should be able to stock the tank immediately but you will need to do PWC's of about 5 gallons every 2-3 days for a month or so until the tank cycles.
 
My pH is realllly low.. like 6 or below. I've never messed around with it, because I'm afraid that it'll start bouncing around and make my fish stressed.
bs6749, 6 guppies, 4 cories, neons AND platies?
That seems a little overstocked to me... =\ My tank is only 20 gallons.
I checked my lfs, and they have these platies that are soo pretty :D
Can I do the original 6 guppies, 3 platies, and a group of cories? Or should I leave the cories?
 
Yes, 6 guppies, 4 cories, 6 neons, AND 3 platies. If you are going by the "inch per gallon rule" it doesn't really apply here. All of those neons and guppies would have about the same bioload as 3 adult platies is my guess. I have a 29 gallon Endler only breeding setup and I plan to have over 100 of them in there are a time. Their impact is so small it's ridiculous how many you can have in a tank. They are closely related to guppies, which as I've mentioned several times produce little waste. If it were me I'd go with just Endlers and RCS as a cleanup crew with lots of java moss. I've never been a big fan of cories but thought about getting some once or twice to try them.
 
Ok, thanks.
I've heard before that guppies and swordtails will try to breed.. will platies and guppies breed?
 
I'm not sure if guppies will try to interbreed with swordtails/platies or not. I know that they do interbreed with Endlers and produce viable offspring.
 
Back
Top Bottom