20 Gallon Stocking Advice Please (Finally!)

[librarygirl]

Hi everone,

Finally, after three months of fishless cycling, my tank is just about cycled. I have double-zeros for the first time!! Going to keep testing for another week or so before I start stocking, but I need advice on what to put in there.

Here are my thoughts:

A large shoal of Celestial Pearl Danio (8-10)
3-5 Cobra Guppies (1 Male, the rest Female)
3 Cory (not sure what kind; any thoughts? I had wanted Ottos originally but heard people are having trouble keeping them alive and I wont have enough algae for them for a while yet)
2 Horned Nerite Snails

Any thoughts about the above stock? I really want CPDs if possible. But I know they can be timid and are small. I'm hoping the larger school will help them feel secure. I'd also add them first and wait few weeks before adding anything else. Will they be OK with the Cobra Guppies or no?

Also, any advice on feeding would be great. I'd love to give them a variety. I'm thinking: NLS Community Pellets (2-3x week), fast one day, thawed frozen peas one day, freeze dried tubifex one day.....anything else? Frozen food? Veggies?

Thanks everyone!! I'm sooo excited!!!

 

[librarygirl]

Anyone Please??

 

[fluttermoth]

Well, cories really need to be in groups of 6+, so six of one of the pygmy cories would be better than 3 of the larger. CPD will be fine with guppies. Your feeding regime sounds great; the more variety you can give your fish, the better, but I'd say frozen bloodworm or tubifex is better than dried, IMO, and adding some veggies once a week would be good

 

[karawr]

Yay congrats!!! It's great feeling isn't it?? Mine took a really, really long time to cycle, too.

I also advise to bump up the cories to 6+. Do something small like pygmy or habrosus.

Frozen is better than freezedried, as said above... bloodworms, brine shrimp... what you have sounds good.

Have fun!!

 

[Hunterprey]

Yeah I would suggest to go for smaller cories and frozen food as well, and sand for substrate. Good Luck!

 

[librarygirl]

Thanks everyone! I do have sand for substrate.

I'm re-thinking the Cobra Guppies though; the males are beautiful with the body patterns and finnage but the females aren't as pretty at all. And if I only get one male and the rest females it's going to be a bit bland. So any advice on other fish aside from the guppies that will go well with CPDs and Corys? I admit I'm a bit picky; I like bright colors and patterns. I considered Platy but they look boring to me, same with various types of Tetra. Unless I get all male cobras, but not sure how they'd get along. Any thoughts?

Thank you! I'm super excited!!

 

[Blubble37]

corydoras hastatus!

 

[librarygirl]

corydoras hastatus!

Thanks! I looked them up and they are pretty cute. So, so far I'll have 10 CPDs, 5-6 Pygmy Cory, 2 Nerite snails and........not sure? I'm leaning away from the Cobra guppies as the females are dull looking compared to the males. Here are some other options I'm interested in if they'll work with the other stock:

Leopard Danio OR
Longfin Danio (not sure if these are the same as the leopards, finding different info)

And that's it so far. Would either of those work or can anyone suggest something else? Sorry to be a pain; all the searching I'm doing is just confusing me more and I can't seem to decide on something I really like.

Thank you.

 

[Blubble37]

i wouldnt keep the guppies myself as they are livebearers and therefore are constantly pregnant.

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm not sure of the dimensions of your tank, but danios are very active and really need a three foot+ tank to be able to swim at full speed. You could always just have male guppies.

 

[Blubble37]

You could always just have male guppies.

Wouldnt they fight or something as the ones in my teachers fishtank fought over everything untill the loser died of starvation as the wqinner kept chasing it away from the food.

 

[librarygirl]

i wouldnt keep the guppies myself as they are livebearers and therefore are constantly pregnant.

Thanks Blubble! Yeah I'm leaning away from them for the reasons I've stated above. I'm not adverse to having fry but if I'm overrun with them I'm not sure what i'd do, so I've changed my mind on the guppies. Thanks!

I'm not sure of the dimensions of your tank, but danios are very active and really need a three foot+ tank to be able to swim at full speed. You could always just have male guppies.

Thanks! This is why this hobby is so confusing lol. Every site I've been to so far has said a minimum of 10 gals for the longfin danio is fine; celestials are much smaller and 5 gals is recommended for them so I'm assuming a 20 gal is OK. Still unsure of the other danio though; they can get bigger so not sure why the 10 gal recommendation.

I'd worry about all male guppies; I'm not sure if they'd fight and I'd rather not chance it unless someone has experience with them and they are OK.

So then I'm pretty much back to square one. I guess I could just stock the CPDs first and then the corys and snails and then take more time to think about what else to add (or who knows I might be perfectly happy with that stock once it's in there). I like Ember Tetras too, which are small like the CPDs but not very colorful, though.

Ack, IDK. I'll probably start off with the above and then figure the rest out later (although I'm still open to suggestions! lol).

Thanks!

 

[Blubble37]

i'm gonna have to end up feeding my platy fry to my koi - Horace. Cruel i know but i cant keep them.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Rather than corydoras for the tank floor, how about some Rosy Loach that are found with Celestial Pearl Danios in the wild of Myanmar?

To continue the Myanmar theme, how about some Burmese Horned Snails (seen them regularly on Kesgrave Tropical's Ebay store)?

What pH; kH; gH is your planned water for the tank?

 

[fluttermoth]

Every site I've been to so far has said a minimum of 10 gals for the longfin danio is fine; celestials are much smaller and 5 gals is recommended for them so I'm assuming a 20 gal is OK. Still unsure of the other danio though; they can get bigger so not sure why the 10 gal recommendation.

What you have to remember is that different fish, although they might be the same size, have different activity levels. CPD are quite sedentary, prefering to hover about in their favourite spots; whereas danios prefer dashing up and down.

I guess I could just stock the CPDs first and then the corys and snails and then take more time to think about what else to add (or who knows I might be perfectly happy with that stock once it's in there).

That's very sensible idea! I always find it better to leave yourself a bit of room to play with; you can always add more fish later.

I like Ember Tetras too, which are small like the CPDs but not very colorful, though.

They never look much in the shop but, like a lot of those kinds of fish, once you get them settled into a nicely planted tank, they really are beautiful little fish; like little drops of copper I heard them described as once