ideas for stocking 20 gal community tank

[ematthews]

Hi everyone. I have a fairly new tank that I started up about a month ago. I had some trouble at first with some red eye tetras I got from Walmart. Im still not sure if it was my tank or the fish, because my zebra Danios did fine. Right now I have three black phantom tetras, a pepper cory cat (I think), five zebra Danios, and an otocinclus. Everything has been going perfectly for the past 2 weeks or so (my waters a little hard, but that's because of the tap water), and i'm looking to get some new fish. I think i'm going to give my zebra Danios to my dad because they were kind of just cheap starter fish, and I don't particularly love how they look. So now that my tank seems established, I am thinking that I want to get maybe another Cory, a few more black phantoms, some other schooling fish such as neon tetras, and 1 or 2 "centerpiece fish" (red tailed shark, gouramis, rams, apistogrammas, etc.). Any ideas?

 

[Sillyfishies]

Hi everyone. I have a fairly new tank that I started up about a month ago. I had some trouble at first with some red eye tetras I got from Walmart. Im still not sure if it was my tank or the fish, because my zebra Danios did fine. Right now I have three black phantom tetras, a pepper cory cat (I think), five zebra Danios, and an otocinclus. Everything has been going perfectly for the past 2 weeks or so (my waters a little hard, but that's because of the tap water), and i'm looking to get some new fish. I think i'm going to give my zebra Danios to my dad because they were kind of just cheap starter fish, and I don't particularly love how they look. So now that my tank seems established, I am thinking that I want to get maybe another Cory, a few more black phantoms, some other schooling fish such as neon tetras, and 1 or 2 "centerpiece fish" (red tailed shark, gouramis, rams, apistogrammas, etc.). Any ideas?

First off, is this a high or long 20 gallon? My zebra danios survived my whole cycle (took 4 months) and I only did a total of 4 water changes. The tetras are quite a bit more delicate.

Next, definitely bump your Cory's up to 5. They're social fish. Next the phantoms should be at 6. Then, I would reccomend getting the oto some buddies. After that, you could choose between
1 Ram (Bolivian, German blue, electric blue. I listed those from Bolivians being super hardy to electrics being very fragile).
1 gourami

Or

1 apistogramma (agasizzi is what I like best.)
1 gourami

As your center piece fish.

Andrew

 

[tlindsey]

Was aquarium cycled, and are you testing your water parameter's?

 

[ematthews]

Was aquarium cycled, and are you testing your water parameter's?

I have tested my water at petco and according to the guy there, my Ph and hardness was a little high, but everything else was fine. I am not super familiar with cycling and I do not own a test kit so I am not regularly testing the water. Currently I am doing ~30% water change every 2 weeks. I have an under gravel filter running all the time. Basically I guess my strategy right now is to do what im doing, and if I see anything wrong in my tank ill do another water change and a water test.

PS: a little off topic but I am planning on switching to a hob filter soon. How often should I siphon the gravel? And were I to get live plants, do they get rid of any need to siphon gravel?

 

[ematthews]

First off, is this a high or long 20 gallon? My zebra danios survived my whole cycle (took 4 months) and I only did a total of 4 water changes. The tetras are quite a bit more delicate.

Next, definitely bump your Cory's up to 5. They're social fish. Next the phantoms should be at 6. Then, I would reccomend getting the oto some buddies. After that, you could choose between
1 Ram (Bolivian, German blue, electric blue. I listed those from Bolivians being super hardy to electrics being very fragile).
1 gourami

Or

1 apistogramma (agasizzi is what I like best.)
1 gourami

As your center piece fish.

Andrew

Thanks for the tips!

 

[librarygirl]

I have tested my water at petco and according to the guy there, my Ph and hardness was a little high, but everything else was fine. I am not super familiar with cycling and I do not own a test kit so I am not regularly testing the water. Currently I am doing ~30% water change every 2 weeks. I have an under gravel filter running all the time. Basically I guess my strategy right now is to do what im doing, and if I see anything wrong in my tank ill do another water change and a water test.

PS: a little off topic but I am planning on switching to a hob filter soon. How often should I siphon the gravel? And were I to get live plants, do they get rid of any need to siphon gravel?

I highly recommend getting your own test kit. Your tank may be cycled but it may not....a month isn't very long. And a water change every two weeks isn't enough IMO; even in a cycled tank I'd recommend 50% weekly. It's a good idea to ditch the UG filter and get a good HOB; an Aquaclear 50 or 70 would do nicely. What substrate do you have? Corys do best in sand or round (not sharp) gravel as their barbels are very sensitive. The substrate needs to be kept clean as well or else they can get infections.

This guide might help some: Guide to Starting a Freshwater Aquarium - Aquarium Advice

 

[ematthews]

I highly recommend getting your own test kit. Your tank may be cycled but it may not....a month isn't very long. And a water change every two weeks isn't enough IMO; even in a cycled tank I'd recommend 50% weekly. It's a good idea to ditch the UG filter and get a good HOB; an Aquaclear 50 or 70 would do nicely. What substrate do you have? Corys do best in sand or round (not sharp) gravel as their barbels are very sensitive. The substrate needs to be kept clean as well or else they can get infections.

This guide might help some: Guide to Starting a Freshwater Aquarium - Aquarium Advice

I have an aquaclear 20 in the mail already...will it work ok? Also, my substrate is small round gravel (pic attatched).

 

[ematthews]

So I just went to my lfs to test my water and these are the stats

Ammonia: ~0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20

The guy there said that since there is both nitrate and ammonia, my tank is fully cycled. Thought I'd ask here to confirm. I'm also still open to fish ideas.

 

[TXaggie]

Just to give you an idea; I run an Aquaclear 70 on my 29 gallon tank, so you may consider bumping up your filter size. Running a larger filter can only help your situation and having a big filter on my tank really helps keep my water clear and pretty inbetween water changes.

As far as fish suggestions; some that are really pretty that I've had good luck with are my longfin whitecloud minnows. The regular variety isn't much to look at but the longfins are cool - also called "meteor minnows" sometimes. They tolerate hard water well. My centerpiece fish in my tank is a single Honey Gourami - and he's been a very easy to keep and brightly colored fish to have. I haven't kept any of the other dwarf gouramis but I chose this species because they are supposed to be hardier than some of the others. He's also tolerated my hard water well for the last year.

I've only been in the aquarium hobby about a year, but these are what I've had success with as a beginner and some of my favorite fish that I've kept.

 

[ematthews]

Just to give you an idea; I run an Aquaclear 70 on my 29 gallon tank, so you may consider bumping up your filter size. Running a larger filter can only help your situation and having a big filter on my tank really helps keep my water clear and pretty inbetween water changes.

As far as fish suggestions; some that are really pretty that I've had good luck with are my longfin whitecloud minnows. The regular variety isn't much to look at but the longfins are cool - also called "meteor minnows" sometimes. They tolerate hard water well. My centerpiece fish in my tank is a single Honey Gourami - and he's been a very easy to keep and brightly colored fish to have. I haven't kept any of the other dwarf gouramis but I chose this species because they are supposed to be hardier than some of the others. He's also tolerated my hard water well for the last year.

I've only been in the aquarium hobby about a year, but these are what I've had success with as a beginner and some of my favorite fish that I've kept.

Thanks I'll have to check out those meteor minnows. If I knew that I should have gotten a bigger filter before I would have, but since its already set up and all, I think it will have to do. I'm going to have some cories to clean up left over food as well. So with weekly water changes, I think I should be okay. But yeah I definitely should have gotten the aquaclear 50...

 

[TXaggie]

Thanks I'll have to check out those meteor minnows.

I tried to get some pics of mine for you, they're a bit blurry but hopefully it'll give you an idea what they look like.

Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community - TXaggie's Album: Fish in my tank

 

[ematthews]

I tried to get some pics of mine for you, they're a bit blurry but hopefully it'll give you an idea what they look like.

Aquarium Advice - Aquarium Forum Community - TXaggie's Album: Fish in my tank

They look good!