20 Gallon Stocking (Plant and Fish) - Need Advise/Comments

[Tong]

Starting a 20 gallon long planted tank and have come up with tentative stocking lists. I would like your comments/advice on these plants/fish plus suggestions for any other plants/fish that would be nice and not be too large for the tank. Its a 20 long so I only have about a 9 inch water column for plants. It will be a high light tank.

It will probably be a month before it gets planted. I am building the stand at the moment. After that, I'll build the hood...and then finally stuff will go in but I'm planning ahead.

The Plant List:

Foreground:
Lilaeopsis Brasiliensis (Brazilian Micro Sword)

Middleground:
Hydrocotyle Verticillata (Marsh Pennywort / Whorled Pennywort)
Didiplis Diandra (Water Hedge)
Blyxa japonica
Rotala sp. 'Nanjenshan' (Nanjenshan Rotala)

Background:
Lysimachia Nummularia "Aurea" (Golden Monneywort)
Bacopa Caroliniana (Bocopa)
Rotala wallichii (Whorly Rotala)

The Fish List:

6 Neon Tetras (Transfer from my overstocked 10 gallon)
6 Panda Cories
6 Cherry Barbs

How good are cherry barbs at eating algae?

 

[newfound77951]

My one cherry barb never so much as looked at algae..... I would suggest some otos for algae control. Your fish stocking list looks fine. The plants sound fine too, but some of them have a reputation of being difficult plants to grow, not sure if you've done a planted tank before but if not then you might want to pick some easier species first. I know I've had problems with Didiplis, and I've heard R wallichii can be touchy. Otherwise the variety of leaves and colors should work out nicely. Be sure to plant the tank all at once, and start adding ferts soon, to prevent algae outbreaks.

 

[Tong]

I've done planted tanks with high light before but mostly stuck to easier plants. Thats why I'm kind of looking forward to the difficult ones. Good to know about the cherry barbs. I've read mixed things about them. I'll look for another algae eater to take its place.

 

[mr funktastic]

i would also reccomend ottos and if u can find them i would add a true SAE. they are really good at hair algae aswell as others. as for the fish... u need something that stands out in the mix. u have a nice groups of schooling fish but u need something that will stand out a little more. maybe a pair german blue rams or some apistos... just something to be apart from the croud. as much as i love schooling fish, schooling is all they do. they dont really have a personalitly as where rams can really be unique to the persons tank. plus u get the chance of spawning which makes the tank more interesting and makes u want to look at it and therefor u care about it more. if that makes any sense lol. plant list looks awesome though i cant wait for pics. where do u plan on getting all your plants?

 

[Tong]

Unfortunately I can't do anything about the neon tetras. My wife won't let me take them back seeing as how they are her fish or something like that. And yes, all they do is school, pick on each other and be boring in general.

I live near Madison, WI and we have a very good fish store here called Animart. Its not a chain, its a local store started by a vetenarian. They always stock a lot of harder to find stuff, fish and plants. I've special ordered stuff through them before without any additional expense. I'm hoping I can get all my plants through them because the 30ish dollars in shipping for buying plants online is not appealing to me.

Fish stock is now looking like this:

6 Neon Tetras
6 Pitbull Plecos (I already have ottos and want something new)
2 German Blue Rams or Aspistos
1 Platy (To pick at hair algae or something)

 

[gfink]

Try to find a few amano shrimp too. They are great algae eaters.

 

[JustOneMore20]

Be prepared to trim the Bacopa alot. I have it in my medium light 55g and I have to trim it weekly because it grows so fast. I can't imagine it in a shorter high light tank....lots of work.

I liked the idea of the panda cories. I know pitbull plecos are small, but why have 6? I'd go with a max of 4 and have the cories also...maybe a shoal of 6 of them?

I wish I could get rid of my neons too. I'm a fish keeper though...not a fish haver, so I'll keep them until they die. They are pretty boring though, but really colorful.

 

[janek]

Sorry wrong place post...

 

[Tong]

Thanks for the tip on the bacopa. Maybe I'll skip that. I had bacopa monosomething once and I had to clip that almost every other day. Was kind of hoping Caroliniana would be a little different. Oh well.

I'd love to have panda cories...but they don't eat algae. Okay, I don't plan to have algae...much...but I don't want to have to go out and buy an algae eater when I do get some. I guess I'd get six pitbulls because I've read they are schooling fish. My real thoughts on them is that they are probably like ottos and will do fine with three or so but my ottos act different (more lively, less hiding) now that I have six of them. Well...that or there's more of them to see...anyway.

I'm really going to have to think about my fish stock. Even a 20 gallon long is turning out to be not a lot of room.

 

[JustOneMore20]

Ok I didn't know you were looking for an algae eater....gotcha on the pitbulls too. I don't know much about them...I just now looked on Planet Catfish and they look similar to ottos, so they may act the same way. I've never seen them for sale around here.

Your stocking looks good to me though. The pitbull plecs are small and stay near the bottom...the neons are middle-bottom dwellers...rams are more bottom though. I think I'd do maybe a small gourami or top-middle dwelling fish instead of the rams...only because the bottom looks like its getting crowded.

 

[Tong]

Cool. I don't know much about cichlids. Dwarf Gouramis were my backup for them. Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[newfound77951]

Even 4 plecos might be too much...I have two bristlenoses in my 55 and they squabble a bit over space and "their" piece of driftwood. Since this is only a 20 gallon I would say 2 plecs max, and a SAE would be way too big for this tank. The otos would do a much better job of cleaning the plant leaves.

I would go with the rams, the neons and maybe a pair (maybe 2 males or 2 females if you don't want babies) of platies to spice up the top of the water column. That would be a nice colorful mix of fish to complement the tank.

 

[Tong]

Pitbull plecos stay under 2" each and they are a schooling fish. I believe they are very similar to ottos. By the way, ottos are technically plecos themselves. People don't realize this because they don't look pleco.