Stocking & Cory Cat q's? 20g long

[Tropical]

Hey guys,

I'm pretty new to aquariams. I've only owned platy (3 years). Now I have a bigger tank, 20g long, and want to make sure the stocking I planned is good. I want:

5 platy (already in there for a month)
8 neon tetra's
1 dwarf gouarmi
4 panda cory cats

My q's are:

1. Is this overstocking? I did that with my 10g (poor cardinals!!) and don't want it to happen again.

2. Cory cats: I've never owned them. I have black gravel, is this ok? What do they eat? Are they sensitive to water conditions (I have a pretty high ph in my area )

Thoughts? Comments? Thanks for the help guys!

 

[Tropical]

I thing the platy are dwarf by the way. They are full grown and only about 1" males, 1.5" females.

 

[Jason7894561230]

You are not over stocked if you want you could put 10 neons in there, but then youll be stocked good. As for the cories they are hard if you get Neon gold which arr $$$$ very. So i am assuming you will be getting, Panda, Bronze, Emerald, Julii, Peppered or Dwarf pygmy cories. They are all hardy and can live in waters at around 7 PH.

 

[HN1]

Sounds like a good stocking plan to me. The one caution I'd have is that panda cories can be a bit sensitive, but once acclimated usually do fine. How high is your pH? Paleatus, aeneus, jullii, etc. tend to be more hardy IME.

 

[BigJim]

Drip acclimate the pandas slowly and you shouldn't have any problems if you can find good stock. Regular pandas are hardier than long-finned pandas. Also, it's a good idea to get about six cories. I started with three pandas and they hid all the time. I added three more and they got bolder and more playful. I've got about ten pandas, both long-finned and regular, in my 20L with a horde of guppies, RCS, and otos.

 

[cwt]

4 cories are fine, a couple more wouldn't hurt. How much filtration do you have?

 

[Tropical]

Hey guys, thanks. My filtration is pretty decent IMO. It is a Aquaon Wisper (haha yeah, right) Power filter 30, 200gph.

I'm thinking of knocking the dwarf gouarmi and replacing it with some guppies, and also getting julii insted of panda's.

Thoughts?

 

[Tropical]

Ph is pretty high, a little over 7. I would hazard a guess at 7.5-7.8 ish, but all I have is a crappy strip test. I'm getting a liquid test asap.

Will the fish at my lfs already be acclimated to a higher ph? Or do they mess with the ph (which I'm too afraid to do) at petstores?

 

[JustOneMore20]

If you skip the Dwarf Gourami, I wouldn't go with Guppies unless you plan to get males. If you did males and females that would be too much breeding in a small tank and you'd be overrun in no time...might already be that way with your Platies. If you decide you don't want the Gourami, beef your Neon school up to 10 or 12. Schooling fish look better the more you have.

As for the Cories, definitely go with 6. You'll see more action the more you have. They will eat anything that falls to the bottom. I'd get a mix of shrimp/bottom feeder pellets. Your gravel should be ok unless its really large. Panda cories especially are sensitive to water conditions so make sure you acclimate them to the tank water well. Leave the lights on when you put them in and leave them off for a few hours atleast while they are getting used to everything. Seems to help them live when you reduce the stress. I would also add the Cories to the tank last...so the tank will be a little more established by the time they go in.