Will my tank be overstock?

[vero]

Hi,

I'm ready to buy more fish for my tank.

Right now, I have two cory (the lfs called them long fin cory; they are much like the emerald green cory on liveaquaria.com) and 3 male blue cobra guppies.

At the moment, I wish to buy one more cory (probably panda as it is so cute!) and 2 guppies (males as I don't want fry) so they are in good size groups. I'd also like to get an apple snail (they look too cool).

Later, I'd like to add a school of tetras, probably 5 of them. I like the red phantom tetra. I also saw at a lfs a tank with red phantom and a tank with serpea. They look exactly the same... are they?

And much later on, if all goes well, I'd like a center piece fish: I like the honey gourami as it stays small and the german blue ram.

Is that too many fish for my 20gal tank?

Water parameters: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, pH 8.2, temp around 78F. I do a pwc of 25% every week.

Thanks

 

[Zagz]

You should be fine with that setup, depending on what you choose in the long run for a centerpiece fish. Keep up with your pwc's and all should be good.

 

[Guest]

sounds like a good setup, but you should know that even though different types of cories will shoal together, they prefer to be with their own kind, so whatever other kind you get, get at least 3 of each kind.

Also, check out the dwarf gouramis for a centerpiece fish, the males do really good on their own and they are very colorful as well, you can get orange and different shades of blue or red/blue ones.

 

[greenmaji]

there are usually color variations of the same species.. check to see if the cories your wanting have the same scientific name on liveaquaria.com.. if so.. I would treat there schooling together in that case "there own kind".. just a side note..

 

[malkore]

do be careful on the gourami. even dwarfs can be fin nippers and coudl go after your male guppies.

I don't think I'd put german rams in there. I'd leave them out and call that tank fully stocked with all your other listed fish.

 

[Lance M.]

Ya I was gonna say to get a couple more cories of the same type you have right now. Also, if you used live plants, everything would be fine and you could put more fish in there.

 

[vero]

Hi,

Thanks to all for your answers.

I adopted 6 new fish today: another Corydoras aeneus (Bronze Cory) to go along with the two I already have; 3 Corydoras panda; and 2 Green cobra guppies. I hope I'm not adding too many at once. They didn't have any nice apple snail, so I do a Zebra Neriti snail. I hope it's not the kind to reproduce like crazy...

I agree that with these plus the 6 tetras I want to get later, my tank will be nicely stocked.

I started to look at the plants... a planted tank really looks awesome. Unfortunatly, with the substrate I used it wouldn't be possible to plant it.


Thanks
Vero

 

[malkore]

any small grained gravel will work for plants. its the light (or lack thereof) that causes plants to fail for most people.

 

[Lance M.]

You could always have java fern, java moss, or other plants that attach to driftwood or rocks (therefore substrate doesn't matter).