New 20 Gal. Stocking Q

[jbarr]

I just got a new tank.

20 Gal.

I really love to have a planted tank, but some low-maintenance beginner plants. I've always wanted a planted tank, but all that C02 and ferts are intimidating.

Any reccomendations on easy plants? or necessary items.
BTW I loove love the Amano look; glosso, and mossy plants like that.

I'm also pondering what types of fish I'd want to stock it with. Would 2 schools (tetras?) fit in a 20 gal? I'm also a sucker for catfish/bottomfeeders.

Throw your ideas out, plants, fish, w/e!

 

[hoppershaun]

Your best off asking the planted tanks section on the forum about what plants to get. As for the fish, it would depend on how many fish you want in each school. You could get a school of say 5 cories, and then a school of 7 small tetras, think they would be ok in the 20 gallon. Or you could go for a big school of a single species which would look good, and add a small bottomfeeder. I would recommend getting a dwarf gourami though, these are my favourite fish. Just one male though, as they can fight if you get more than one. Hope this helps.

 

[WaterPond]

PLANTS/AQUASCAPING: Ferts are easy, i just dose with nutrafin plant gro every week and i think the results are pretty good with that. Glosso, i think, needs co2, so i woulden't recommend that. I would go with a bitg chunk of driftwood in the midde of the tank. Some black flourite for gravel, and a black background. For plants i would go for java moss, java fern, jungle val, anubias nana(or any other anubias plant) some different crypts. I don't know about any more easy-care plants. Jungle val can be a little hard at first, so i have heard. Another good plant would be water sprite. There are alot of possibilities.

FISH: hoopershauns stocking idea sounds good. It is a good idea to have a "centerpeice" fish that will stand out(usually because of size) So i dwarf gourami would give you that. Neons tetras give you a nice splash of colour, and ,look good in planted tanks. And i would go for four otocinclus catfish, they are great! and very active, but get rid of algea pretty well. http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_oto.php

I hope this helps, have fun with the tank

 

[jbarr]

Any other ideas? I like the look of neon tetras. I think ill get a school of those, can any other lone fish fit?

 

[Tostada]

I think dwarf sag looks really good in smaller tanks, and it doesn't need a ridiculous amount of light or CO2. It's kind of tall and grassy. As far as mossy things, doesn't java moss and those weird little moss balls do fine without CO2?

With a school of tetras, you'll probably want some plants that are reasonably tall. Most small schooling fish really like some tall plants to play in. Of course, a truly tall plant like anacharis would be too tall for a 20 gallon unless you like to trim constantly or like dangly things everywhere.

If you want a 2nd school ... Some rasboras would probably school a little higher in the tank, but I don't know if anything that's truly a schooling fish would fit well in a 20 gal with a reasonably large school of tetras. You'll probably need to keep the schools pretty small if you do find something that works. If you like neon tetras, you'd probably be better off just getting a big school of them, then getting some bottom fish and maybe a few larger non-schooling fish.

The weird thing I've found about schooling fish is that eventually they will get comfortable and stop schooling if you don't have any semi-aggressive fish in there. So, you don't want anything that's going to eat them, but you might want a couple fish that'll chase them around now and then.

So I guess I'm mostly agreeing with hoppershaun here. If you got a dwarf gourami, it'd probably keep your tetras in school. I don't see where there'd be a problem having a pretty big school of tetras and 5 cories, since they're not really competing for space. Ottos can also fit in just about any tank, and they're really cute for sucker fish. You have to wait until you're sure your tank is stable for them, though, because they're pretty touchy, and you should wait for a little algae to develop before you get ottos. Cories will just root around the plants and gravel, and ottos will suck on the walls.

Of course, there are other centerpiece fish besides gouramis. I never liked gouramis until I saw a gold one with almost cheetah-like spots that I really liked. Since you aren't talking about any long-finned fish, you could get a betta, or a few swords/moons/platies, or who knows what else instead of the gourami.

If you want two schools, one thing that might work well is to have a small school of a bigger kind of tetra (like Lemons or Phantoms) then a larger school of neons. But say you have 5 Phantoms and 8 Neons ... on paper that's not overstocked at all, but you'd probably have to have a really good balance of plants and everything. I'd say just add the neons first and a few bottom fish and see how it's going after a few weeks.