20 Gal Fish Stock

[Crossfire]

Yes, I realize I've posted like, 4 of these , but believe me I'm getting annoyed too. So I used to have a 5 gallon tank with 2 glofish and 1 oto and when I came back from vacation, although regular water changes and feeding had occured, my one evil glofish decided to murder the other one and then eat the oto So I've decided I don't want anymore glofish for my new 20 which is currently being set up. So it leaves up a possibility for new fish. Though I would like the gap they made to be filled, I don't want to push it and it doesn't neceserally have to work. There just ideas for now. So while I wait for the little assassin to die off, here's what I have planned:

6-10 Neon Tetras
3 Sparkling Gourami
2 Cockatoo Cichlids or 2 Ram Cichlids (depends on availability on both)
3-4 Otos
and maybe some dwarf neon rainbowfish


Comments, contstructive criticism, and ideas are welcomed.

 

[laura120381]

hi there,

i don't think your tank is large enough to hold your list. i reckon you would be overstocked.

L

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Drop the rams and apistos and your fine. Or swap out the gouramis for the apistos

Thw dwarf rainbows would require a slightly longer tank

 

[Crossfire]

I realize I won't have any room for the DNRs, but if I stock according to the surface area of my tank, I have 306.25 in2 and my tank is capable of supporting 26 inches of slender-bodied fish...with my current stock (minus the DNR and one sparkling gourami) I'm only using up 22.4 inches with 4.6 inches unused. And if I keep good water quality, shoudn't it be ok?

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Can you list the stock

 

[XeroTolerance]

The inch per gallon rule is not very accurate. I would drop the 2 Cockatoo Cichlids and the 2 Ram Cichlids. Instead I would get some more otos in their place.

 

[Crossfire]

Its not exactly a "1 inch per gallon rule" and by current stock i meant the stock i listed above...my 20 gal is empty

 

[KkAaNnEe]

Im only talking from experience. You can use any rule you want but im just gonna advise on what I think would be appropriate.

If it were me i would go for

2 cockatoos/ 3 sparkling gouramis
8-10 neons/cardinals
3-4 otos
6 pygmy cories

 

[MBOU]

Lots of fussing but.... its going to depend on the shape of the tank, cichlids take up a lot of floor space....

BUT

Assuming the tank has:

-At least 2ft in length
-Lots of hiding places, be it plants, wood, rock, plastic plants or ornaments.
-Good filtration

I think the original list would be fine minus the NDRs

-1 x pair of cichlid
-6-10 x small tetras like neons
-3 x Sparkling Gourami
-3-4 x Otocinclus.

I dont see this listing being a problem assuming your cichlids have lots of hidey holes at the bottom because you have the shoaling tetras mid level, the sparkling gouramis in and out of decor, the cichlids patrolling the bottom and the otos doing whatever otos do.... out of the way.

The fish are barely going to come into contact with each other, if the OP said they wanted 4 different species of mid dwelling fish i'd say no, i think the calculator for fish per tank is avery basic tool and not particularly reliable because it cant take into account shape of the tank or the different swimming areas used by each species.

Thats like saying "i have a 600L tank, can i keep an oscar in it?" Most people and the calculator too would say yes... but what if i then said it was only a picture frame tank and barely 6" front to back... same as if this was a 90L hexagon tank thats tall but short, id not say put cichlids in there...

As i was saying (sorry i do rabbit on!) dont be so fast to say yes or no to species without knowing more details?

 

[KkAaNnEe]

I also tend to stock on Location, thats why I can sometimes disregard some fish, if I feel they dont 'fit' in. Just my personal taste. Looking back though, I should probably have stated this.

So in conclusion, the stocking is fine, but I would go with the Apistogrammas, not the Rams, due to size differences

 

[Crossfire]

Thanks for the help! What I get for my fish also depends on availability....some of these fish i havent found in any of my LFS but i'm still looking