How many fish?

[yohann976]

I'm just wondering what everyone thinks about the number of fish I'll be able to put into my tank. I am only going to have cardinal tetras. My tank is a 20 gallon long and is heavily planted. I have a Fluval 304 cannister filter ( a bit overkill) that suits a tank up to a 70 gallon tank. I plan on doing 50% water changes every week.

 

[Sum22]

16-20

 

[yohann976]

That would be great if I could get between 16-20. That's about the amount I would like to see in that tank. Originally, I was thinking that I would only be able to get about 12 max.

 

[rich311k]

I think 20 would do fine.

 

[haykay]

ya 15-20 should be fine and great!

 

[Sum22]

Cardinals and neons rarely make it over 1.5" in length, and that would be a BIG one. Since they stay small, you can keep a few more of those than you would expect to keep with other types of fish.

 

[yohann976]

Now, I'm really excited! I've already cycled my tank, I'm just wondering how many I should add at a time. I was thinking 5. I've never had a small tank before, so I'm not sure how much bioload it can take immediately. I had a 90 gallon tank where I added 5 juvenile discus and they did just fine.

 

[bs6749]

That tank could handle 30+ cards IMO. Adding plants is a great help in keeping the nitates low. If it were me I'd add them all at once that way you know they are all from the same source, thus eliminating the need to do additional QTing in the future.