Can't figure out what to do

[Slash]

Alright, I'm currently cycling a 20 gallon tall fishless. I was thinking about taking my fish from my 10 gallon tank (5 cherry barbs and 3 cories) and putting them into the 20 gal. I want to make the 20 gallon a small community tank and do you think if I add those fish what else I would be able to add? What do you guys think?

 

[thominil]

Some kind of tetra, molly,or endlers is all i can think of.

 

[JohnPaul]

You could add a whole lot (in terms of variety)...

If you like your corys, you could consider getting 2-3 more of those. While 3 is the minimum number for a "school," the more you have, the more active they are.

You might want to consider adding one, slightly larger "centerpiece" fish. A dwarf gourami would serve this purpose nicely. (The most popular colors of dwarf gouramis are the powder blue, and the "sunset" with is mostly a reddish color). A lone betta would also likely work (though bettas are quite individual in their personalities, and some take to a community setting better than others. Femals almost always do fine; males usually are okay too.) I suggested these two options (gourami or betta) because both tend to hover near the water's surface, which is right now an area of your tank where you don't really have anything.

As for your "mid-tank," presuming you didn't want to add more cherry barbs, you could stay within the barb family and add some gold barbs. A small school of any of the smaller tetras (neons, cardinals) would work. Adding a few livebearers (platys, mollies, swordtails) would work as well.

Those are just a few ideas to get you started. Good luck, and please keep us posted.

 

[Alaris]

However don't put livebearers in with a male betta. Anything with a pretty "feather-ish" tail, esp. guppies, will make the male betta think there's another male betta to fight with.

 

[JohnPaul]

However don't put livebearers in with a male betta. Anything with a pretty "feather-ish" tail, esp. guppies, will make the male betta think there's another male betta to fight with.

Good point. I would think (?) platys and mollies would be okay, and likely even swordtails. But male guppies would definitely be a no-no if there was a male betta in the tank.

 

[saffikeagan]

There are small gourami around that aren't dwarf gourami. DG have some sort of virus that kills 2/3 of them. Unless you know your source, I'd stay far away from DGs and find another small Gourami or go with the betta option. I have a male betta in my 14 community, and a female betta in a 6.6 quasi-community (how much of a community can you actually have in a 6.6?) tank and both do fine. The male will chase the white clouds around a few times a day, but he's fine otherwise.

How about getting a few more cherry barbs and cories to accompany your highlight fish? Then you'll have three types of fish, a bottom dweller, a top dweller, and a uniform group that will spread and take up the space of the rest of your tank. Sounds nice to me!

 

[fearlessfisch]

Seconding saffikeagan, please do NOT buy a dwarf gourami. Until fishkeepers take a stand and STOP buying them, the breeders will not take serious steps to eradicate the virus.

More info here and at the links contained within:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f12/dwarf-gourami-104192.html

 

[Slash]

Wow! thanks for the suggestions. I know about the DG virus because I had one die 3 days after I bought it because of the virus. I know that the one pet store I have near me carries sparkling gouramis, I was thinking about making my 10 gallon tank into a species tank for a trio of sparklers. I have also been thinking about not moving my fish and just get new fish... like a school of serpae tetras. I just had the thought of why wreck something that works?

 

[saffikeagan]

If you want to start from fresh completely, you might want to discover the world of biotopes. It's basically recreating the natural habitat of the fish. I stumbled upon this when I happened to have a betta, want a loach, and was looking into compatible community fish. My LFS said that they keep bettas with white clouds because they are natural inhabitants of the same regions. Further research netted me a happy coincidence that I had the makings of a South Asian Blackwater tank. Boy has it been fun to set up

Here's some sites:
http://fish.mongabay.com/biotope.htm
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/blog.php?blogid=61

 

[AndrewH]

Alright, I'm currently cycling a 20 gallon tall fishless. I was thinking about taking my fish from my 10 gallon tank (5 cherry barbs and 3 cories) and putting them into the 20 gal. I want to make the 20 gallon a small community tank and do you think if I add those fish what else I would be able to add? What do you guys think?

Dwarf gourami's are nice if you can buy from a local breeder. But like fearless said about the virus don't buy imported gourami's

 

[Slash]

I have thought about starting a biotope. I was thinking maybe like some black phantom tetras, cories, and maybe hatchet fish. And of course a BN pleco. Do you think this would work or should I just go with a community setup?

 

[saffikeagan]

Sorry, I don't know anything about those fish. I know a lot about the fish I was considering, and even more about the fish I have, and not much else.

What type of tank would that be?

 

[rich311k]

That combination of fish should do fine together.