Stocking a new 20 gallon -advice?

[AquaJoe]

Hey all;

I am giving my wife a 20 gallon tank which has been online now for roughly a year. She wants to stock it with sword-tails, tetras and platies but is not sure how many she can put in the tank without overstocking. I suggested using the inch rule but just don't feel right about it for some reason. The truth is it's been so long since I have stocked a tank that I guess I just need a refresher. Any help would be appreciated.

I tried searching for some general guide lines but I couldn't find anything that I felt answered the question. Sorry if the answer was right under my nose

Best,
Joe

 

[patryuji]

Is it a 20G tall tank or a 20G long tank?

20G long has more surface area so it might more readily handle a bioload up to the "inch per gallon" rough rule of thumb (considering all of those inches are for smaller fish).

Just remember: with swordtails and platies you are bound to end up with many, many offspring if you have males and females...maybe the tetras will eat the babies but maybe you'll end up with a population problem in a few months.

 

[AquaJoe]

It's a 20 gallon long. Good point about the breeding, I didn't even think of that >.<

I guess I'll have to try to sex them at the LFS when we go next week. I suppose that's going to be a whole other thread I'll see what I can find online.

Thanks a lot

Happy holidays!
Joe

 

[JustOneMore20]

I suggest a trio each of the Swordtails and Platies (1m/2f) and 8 smallish tetras. You could get some shrimp for the bottom area as well, or 6 small cories.

 

[patryuji]

I suggest a trio each of the Swordtails and Platies (1m/2f) and 8 smallish tetras. You could get some shrimp for the bottom area as well, or 6 small cories.

Yes, shrimp are great fun! Just make sure to have a planted tank with some Java Moss and some dark areas for the shrimp to forage in...

I have basically turned my 10G tank into a "shrimpery" with cherry, amano, banded and "blueberry" shrimp (yeah, I need to look up the actual names on a couple of them), pond snails, and a small shoal of 4 neon tetras.