My ideas for new 20 gallon tank...

[ShubunkinLover]

I just got a 20 gallon that i've put a few plants in (plan on putting more) with some natural dark gravel, just a very natural looking tank.

Here is what I have planned for it:

5 Zebra Danio or White Cloud
2-3 Small Shubunkin
1 - Black Moor or Oranda
Ghost Shrimp

I'm still not sure on the Moor/Oranda, any suggestions would be helpful...

I think these would be nice fish together, and I do not think it would be too crowded...i've got a Penguin 125 on it so filtration would be good.

Let me know what you guys think. Thanks in advance.

Edit: After doing some reading it appears that ghost shrimp may get picked on by the Shubunkins? Any other 'oddball' suggestions to stay on the bottom?

 

[BrianNY]

Hi Phil and welcome to AA

Although I've never been a fan of mixing tropicals with goldfish, the white clouds are a better choice than the danios because they are colder water fish. Why not just stay with goldfish aquarium? They make for an interesting species on their own.

 

[ShubunkinLover]

BrianNY- Well, there isn't a breed of small schooling goldfish, is there?

Unless i'm missing something...

 

[AtodaJ]

2-3 small Shubunkin will very soon become 2-3 large Shubunkin.

20 gallons is really not nearly enough to house those particular fish long term. What are your long term plans regarding them? You might get 6 months before you'll need to move them imho.

 

[ShubunkinLover]

Just got back from a 3 hour trip to the LFS...none of what I got is on that list, all tropical.

 

[BrianNY]

What did you get??????????????????/

 

[ShubunkinLover]

2 Blue Gourami's
5 Mickey Mouse Platys
5 Zebra Danios
2 Silver Dollar's

Everyone is doing fine...except the Platy's...they seem lethargic and just kind of sit around in the corners...is this their tempermant?

 

[AtodaJ]

Is the tank cycled? If not, be prepared for some high ammonia/nitrite spikes. Make sure you have a good handle on the Nitrogen Cycle.

Good luck!

 

[cd5]

When I had two Silver Dollars they butcher my plants, I don't even think they ate them

 

[TankGirl]

Silver dollars get very large also, I'm afraid. I think a 55 is about the smallest appropriate size for them.

It sure sounds like we are being negative and shooting you down, Shubunkin, but we really aren't! I wish I had a site like this in my early days of the hobby, that's for sure. Your other fish choices look great, and if you want to breed the platys then get only one male to the 4 females. Otherwise get all females, because you WILL get babies, LOL.

I second the motion to understand the cycle, and strongly encourage you to run a fishless cycle and wait to get the fish until that is done.

 

[ShubunkinLover]

Not shooting me down at all...the only thing you guys have a problem with is the Silver Dollars

I appreciate the opinions lots and lots.

 

[ShubunkinLover]

Everyone is still doing fine...I lost one of the platy's...but the rest of the platy's are now happy.

I lost a bearing on my biowheel, so it isn't spinning properly, but I ordered a set of bearings from Big Al's...

After doing some research to find out what can eat algae and excess food at the bottom (I did overfeed them the first time) I purchased 2 Oto's and 3 Ghost Shrimp, assuming the gourami's don't eat the shrimp...they should be a nice addition I think.

I also bought a Whisper 10 gallon filter, which filters 90gph...that combined with the Penguin 120 will give me about 210gph...so is that 10 complete filters in an hour?

(I mainly purchased the Whisper 10 so I could get more of a bio-process started since the biowheel is basically down...I hope this isn't overfiltering.)


Also today I tried the gravelvac for the first time, I accidentaly siphoned out way to much water...won't do that again.

Thanks for the opinions and thanks again for all of your help. I'm glad my fish are happy so far...the Danios are so entertaining.

 

[ShubunkinLover]

Gourami!

 

[Endgame319]

Good luck with the new fish

 

[TankGirl]

I think additional filtration will only help things along, so that was a good call. Is your biowheel sitting there without spinning? If so, get it floating in the water ASAP to keep the bacteria alive. It'll be fine until the bearings arrive.

 

[ShubunkinLover]

Cool...The additional filtration cleared the last of the cloudy water up real fast, and everyone seems happy!