New 20gallon aquarium advice

[Jillixs44]

Hello!

I've has fish before, but i admit that I probably wasn't a very responsible caretaker for them. I recently decided to start a proper aquarium and am looking for LOADS of advice. When I purchased my tank and set up materials there was a wonderful sales person in Petco. I would never expect to trust someone in a large chain store to actually give appropriate advice, but he clearly had a passion for his own aquarium and gave me lots of useful advice. But of course, when I went back to the store today he wasn't in and as expected the person working in the fish department had minimal and useless advice for me. So here I am.

My set up:
I have a 20 gallon fresh water tank with filter and heater. It's been cycled and has two live plans and two pieces of drift wood.

My questions:
I would like a variety of fish for my tank, but am unsure of what to get. For visual interest, I'd like fish of different colors and sizes. I know (or at least think) im looking for community or schooling fish. I also want some sort of live help with "cleanup" (some sort of crawfish?) and I don't want to overload my tank. Today I purchased four pencil fish.

I would really like a bunch of neon tetras and am looking for possibly two other types of fish that will get along in my tank (and ideally I'd like one of them to be a larger fish that I could just get one or two of for the visual interest).

Can someone help with recommendations of types of fish that will live in harmony and another creature that can help with "cleanup".
Secondly, is it best to introduce the fish all at once?
Thirdly, is there a specific kind of fish food that's should get or not get?
And lastly- advice on tank maintenance. How often should I be testing my water? Doing partial water changes? Changing the filter? Etc

Sorry for the overload of questions all at once. I imagine many of these have been asked and answered repeatedly. as a busy working personnid id selfishly like a sort of one stop forum for help with my specific situation and hope everyone can appreciate that I really am TRYING to be good to my fish haha.

*disclaimer- I live in a very small town and my only access to any fish or aquarium materials is the local petco (aside from things that can be ordered online)

 

[DeeLee2013]

Hey there! Welcome!

So glad to hear you're getting back into the hobby ?

I would wait a week between each introduction of fish. That will give your beneficial bacteria time to catch up to the increasing bioload.

Also, how are you currently testing your water to know that it is properly cycled? I use the API master freshwater liquid kit and it is spot on and very economical. Amazon.com has them on sale for $18 right now, too!

What kind of lighting, filtration and substrate do you have? Any pictures yet? I love seeing how others set up their tanks!!

Hope you get all the help you need and I'll see you on the forum!!


? Diana Lee ?
? the St. Augustine Redhead ?

 

[stooker]

Best of luck with your new tank! Neons are known to have a pretty high die off rate due to weak stock after generations of imbreeding. Even after they seem all settled in they die for no reason. I would recommend some of the other tetras, rasboras or danios.

If you want one "centerpiece" fish that is large and more colorful, a lot of people opt for a gourami, and for a 20g a dwarf gourami would work. There are several color morphs that are very vivid such as the flame (which I have).

I'd stay away from crawfish if you want to have small community fish. I don't have firsthand experience but have heard crawfish might hunt the smaller fish and sometimes successfully. If you want invertebrate, possibly shrimp or snails, but you need to check compatibility with the other fish.

If you want some bottom feeders, cory catfish are awesome! A group of five or six will make the aquarium quite entertaining. Another option would be a group of otocinclus catfish which have the added benefit of eating algae. They are little tougher to keep with stricter water quality needs and they are also prone to initial die off because of the manner in which a lot of them are captured in the wild. And last I heard most otos are still caught in the wild but who knows?

As Deelee mentioned, add several at a time and not all at once. You need to give your aquarium a chance to adjust to new bioload.

Stick with high quality fishfood: Hikari, New Life Spectrum, and in a pinch I have heard Omega is decent. Stay away from tetra and the other common store brands.

As for maintenance, what type of filter are you running and what type(s) of media is in there? Don't be fooled into replacing expensive cartridges and carbon, this is unecessary.

 

[Jillixs44]

Thanks for your replies!

I have fluorescent lights.
As far as the filter goes- forgive me for the poor description. I bought a kit for the tank, filter, and heater. It says "whisper ex filtration system with carbon filters"

I've heard even the dwarf gouramis can be aggressive towards the other, smaller fish?

Otherwise, would this be a reasonable bio load and harmonious fish variety for my tank-
4 pencil fish (which I have)
4-6 of the catfish you mentioned
2 dwarf gouramis
6-8 of another small school fish (such as danios)
And a couple shrimp pending research on what will get along with the small fish

That seems like a lot now that I typed it all out. What do you think?


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[Jillixs44]

Another question- there were only 4 of the pencil fish in stock at the store but I know (or think) that schooling fish are better in greater number? Should I try to get a few more when they become available?


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[stooker]

I don't know anything about pencilfish, but I googled them and they get 2.5" in size. Those are pretty big for a 20 gallon if you are going to have other schools in there. It also seems they prefer blackwater... I'm not sure if you are attached to the pencilfish, but it might be easier to rehome them and start fresh, or figure out another plan around the pencilfish. People recommend only 1 gourami in a smaller tank, but I have had success with my two because of the way my decorations and plants are set up. Gourami have a very wide range of temperaments, so it is really up in the air. Most store-sold gourami are male, and that's where the problem is.

 

[Jillixs44]

Ahh. I had a feeling i was making a mistake with the pencil fish. I will likely put them in a new tank after some time and continue stocking this one as mentioned


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