new community tank - schooling fish

[James_in_MN]

Greetings AA forums!

I've just recently been bitten by the aquarium bug and set up the following tank:

20 gallon high
Aqueon QuietFlow 20 filter
Aqueon 100 watt aquarium heater
25lbs blue gravel
several large, medium, and small fake plants
a few other decorations, Greek ruins

The last tank I had was several years ago, and I did absolutely everything wrong with it. All the fish in all at once, too many fish, some fish too large (ex: bala shark, pleco), tiger barbs nipping the angelfish, angelfish eating the neon tetras, etc. Just poorly done overall.

So this time, I've cycled my tank, and will be slowly adding the different fish that I'd like to keep in it, starting with zebra danios (since they're the hardiest fish that I'll be putting in the tank).

There seems to be varying thoughts on how many fish you can add to an aquarium. I've often seen the "1 inch per gallon" rule, but I can't imagine that a 10 inch oscar would be the equivalent to 10 neon tetras.

One site that was very helpful was AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor. It looks like a pretty good planning tool that can be used to spec out your aquarium ahead of time, although it doesn't seem to point out if one fish doesn't get along well with another, so you'll have to do that homework separately.

What I'm looking to add to the tank is:
3 otocinclus vestitus (dwarf sucker cats)
3 corydoras cats
6-8 black neon tetras
6-8 glowlight tetras
6 zebra danios

I was also considering adding harlequin rasboras, but I'd be pushing 30+ fish in a 20 gallon tank. Aqadvisor doesn't seem to think that would overstock the tank (which is a bit odd), but points out that the filtration wouldn't be anywhere near enough to handle that many.

What's everyone's experience with a community tank of all small schooling fish? Would the fish I've outlined above work out as I think it would?

Also, I'm curious about blue dwarf gouramis. I was going to add one (seems that two would fight each other), but I'm reading mixed reviews of whether they'll leave smaller tetras or rasboras alone. I'm also thinking they may be a bit too docile for the faster swimming fish I will have, like the zebra danios.

 

[tyspot1000]

Welcome to AA

I would leave out the zebra danio school and get a single dwarf gourami or a single dwarf cichlid.

If you what I said above, then make the school of neons and glowltes to 6. And with that plan, your best bet would be to add the cories.

P.s your filter is rated for a 10 hallons.

Tyler

 

[herp_mommy]

Welcome to AA!

IMO, I would get the otos, and a school of either 12 black tetras, or 12 harlequin rasboras. Both of these fish are very hardy from my experience, and I think schooling fish look better in higher numbers. I'd also leave out the danios, glowlights, and cories. I've heard cories prefer shoals of 4+. With "high" tanks, you have less of a surface area then the same gallon tank that has a larger footprint, and therefore should have less fish due to the decrease in oxygen exchange.

 

[jenatron]

Welcome to AA!

First off: if what Tyler said is true about your filter, then you'll definitely need a better one. Typically you should half what your filter is rated for and that's more accurate. In that case you'd need a filter rated for 40g. But that's just a suggestion.

On to the inch of fish per gallon rule: This is a good guideline. There's so much more to it than that. It's not that it's a bad rule, because it is only a guideline. But you also need to consider how much of a bioload each fish has and how active they are. Obviously you'll need to know which fish are compatible with others and if they need to school.

On to stocking: First, cory's school, typically suggested 5+. Also, you'd really need to be getting DWARF corys, as many say they're pretty active. But I would just stick to Otos. Maybe some shrimp if you really wanted something on the bottom?
Then with the schooling fish: IMO, danios are too active for a 20 high. I'd stick to the tetras or rasboras. I think one medium-size (10-12) school would be best rather than 2 small schools, since the footprint on a 20 high is smaller than a normal 20g.

 

[James_in_MN]

Now I see why AqAdvisor rates filters at 65% of their manufacturer suggested filtration. The Aqueon Quietflow 20 claims to filter tanks up to 30 gallons, and I think they view it as just 65% of that (19.5).

Makes sense about the corys too, thanks. I do remember that those can be pretty active, and there will be less space for them to scavage in a 20 high. I definitely like the ghost shrimp idea as a replacement.

I tried a different spec in AqAdvisor, which seems to work much better, even with the current filter.

4 otocinclus vestitus
2 ghost shrimp
10 black neon tetras
10 glowlight tetras
1 dwarf gourami

It suggests that my filtration capacity is right around 100% for those fish and has my stocking level under 100%. I may replace the filter though, since now would be better than later. After all, you can't have too much filtration.