Asian Themed 20 Gallon

[bettas_in_DE]

hello all!

I have a 20 gallon long aquarium that is heavily planted that I want to make into an Asian themed aquarium.

I really need help coming up with unique ideas for fish though!

I like bettas, sparkling gourami, honey gourami and Dario Dario but I know which would be best suited for the tank and what tank mates could be with them OR what other fish stocking ideas there are.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! There are just 3 fish in there now that will be moved to a different tank, so there’s no one to take in consideration when stocking!

Thank you!

 

[Byron]

If by Asian themed you are being geographic but not strictly biotopic, there are a number of suitable fish. ["Geographic" I use to mean the fish and plant species come from the same geographic area, such as SE Asia, or India, etc, and the hard scape (substrate, wood/rock/leaves, etc) are representative but not necessarily collected from that region. Strict biotope means the fish, plants, invertebrates are found together in a specific watercourse, but the hardscape can still be representative.]

Given that it is a small tank, the habitat would more likely be a quiet stream, pond or swamp than a larger river, as this is where you would find the smaller fish species. Lots of wood, a sand substrate (mud doesn't work, lol), dried leaves on the sand, would be authentic. You could use crypts for substrate-rooted plants, or just have lots of wood and branches, Java Moss, Java Fern, Water Sprite floating. You want dim rather than bright lighting, so I am suggesting low-light plants (floating Water Sprite is OK as it is under the light and shades the lower tank). The photo below was my 33g several years ago set up something like I am describing.

I would not bother with Betta, unless you are going for one of the wild species and not the common Siamese Fighter. Or a female sorority. Otherwise, a male Betta would be the only fish as they are not community fish. There are other anabantids, like the pygmy sparkling gourami mentioned, or the licorice gourami, eye spot gourami, Chocolate Gourami, or the Honey mentioned. All of these are relative peaceful with other non-gourami species, though males of all gourami are territorial to varying degrees. I have combined some oof these but I would not do it in this small a tank, so a single gourami species, but all of these are best in a smallish group. The "dwarf" rasbora species in the genus Boraras are lovely fish in a group of 9-12, or the Scarlet Badis (Dario Dario) mentioned [have you had this species? It can sometimes be difficult if not impossible to wean onto non-live foods]. Or Trigonostigma hengeli, in my view the best of the Rasbora species similar to the Harequin, in a group of 8-10.

Finding substrate level fish is next to impossible, but there are a few quite small loach species that are not all that commonly seen (not here anyway).

 

[bettas_in_DE]

Is the wood in your tank photo sand blasted grape vine?

And I have kept bettas in community tanks for years without issue. I really think it depends on the bettas. But I have so many Bettas already so it may be nice having a tank without betta fish! I had a sorority once, but a disease broke out in the tank and all but one girl died. I would honestly be afraid to do that again, even though I still love the idea if it could work successfully without stressing this fish out!

I have one sparkling gourami, as it was the last one at the LFS and they haven't gotten any in yet. But I really would love to do more of them! They are such fun little fish! And I haven't kept Dario Dario, but have read about their lack of eating non-live foods. I have a betta that is super suborn and after I fed her mosquito larvae she won't eat anything else! So I have to figure out some way to either get her to eat pellets again or get some sort of live food going for her.

I have crypts already and really need to get some more. I also have java fern, a few types of Buce and
Hygrophila Salicifolia Blue (which I know is Asian as well). I don't really know many other Asian plants. Actually most of the ones that I have are from Africa (various Anubias and Ammannia gracilis) though tbh I am not sure if I really care about where the plants are from so much as the fish. I've had fish for 16 years and usually always just had guppies and betta fish and the occasional tetra, and after 16 years I feel it is time to branch out to new things and Asia just seems like a great place to start!

 

[NickAu]

Finding substrate level fish is next to impossible, but there are a few quite small loach species that are not all that commonly seen (not here anyway).

Kuhli Loaches are cool, and given enough places to hide are not shy as people think. And with Kuhli Loaches the more the merrier,


Now I know some people may not agree but in a 20 long Heavily planted with sand you could have up to 15 Kuhlis, and say 7 Betta female sized fish for example.

 

[bettas_in_DE]

Kuhli Loaches are cool, and given enough places to hide are not shy as people think. And with Kuhli Loaches the more the merrier,


Now I know some people may not agree but in a 20 long Heavily planted with sand you could have up to 15 Kuhlis, and say 7 Betta female sized fish for example.

Oh wow that's a lot of Kuhli loaches!

 

[NickAu]

Thats what I had in my 15 gallon till I moved them all to a 100 gallon without any problems.

 

[bettas_in_DE]

I like that idea, but after my last experience with a Betta Sorority I am afraid to do that again! I know that the reason that it failed was a disease but I still don’t want to even attempt it so soon! I really do need to read up ion quarantine though. You would think that in all the time I’ve kept fish I would have done this but I’ve never had an experience like I did with the sorority of doom! Still it would be amazing as betta fish are one of my favorites!

 

[seangee]

What about celestial pearl danios or emerald rasbora? Both are small enough to have a good sized group and are fairly timid so would go will with the kuhli loach and appreciate the plants

 

[bettas_in_DE]

What about celestial pearl danios or emerald rasbora? Both are small enough to have a good sized group and are fairly timid so would go will with the kuhli loach and appreciate the plants

I’ve see those at one of my LFS and they were so tiny!

Would that be all you would suggest or would you guys think a center piece fish could be adddx like a honey gourami?

And if I wanted to do Sparkling Gourami how many would you all suggest for the 20 long?

 

[Byron]

Is the wood in your tank photo sand blasted grape vine?

It was not labelled as such in the store, but it may have been; it developed a slimy white fungus which unfortunately killed most of those fish, so the wood (after cleaning and drying out it did the same thing again, or started to) was thrown out. Grape root is notorious for toxic fungus, I now know.

Would that be all you would suggest or would you guys think a center piece fish could be adddx like a honey gourami?

In this small a tank (20g long) a "centrepiece" is not feasible. It is better to go with small sized species and have more of them (groups, or different species in groups where shoaling).

And if I wanted to do Sparkling Gourami how many would you all suggest for the 20 long?

A group of minimum six, but here I would say 7 or 8. This will likely give you a mix of gender, and avoid problems with too dominant a male. The males will interact, making clicking noises you can easily hear, and with lots of floating plants, there will be bubble nests and eggs and fry, some of which will survive.

 

[bettas_in_DE]

Poisonous fungus?? I have some in my 10 gallon right now with fungus on it... Someone somewhere else said they use it with no issues so that’s why I ended up getting it... I should just stick with spider wood.

 

[Byron]

Poisonous fungus?? I have some in my 10 gallon right now with fungus on it... Someone somewhere else said they use it with no issues so that’s why I ended up getting it... I should just stick with spider wood.

There are dozens if not hundreds of species of fungus, and many of them can be present in wood and emerge when submersed. Some are certainly "safe," but some are deadly toxic. Without analysis of the fungus by a professional microbiologist, it is impossible to know if it is toxic or not...except if the fish show signs of poisoning as mine did, leading to fairly rapid death. I knew someone who killed all their cories from this before they realized it.

Back when I had this issue, advice given to me was that grapewood was prone to this toxic fungus, and other forum members had experienced the same issues. I think my piece was in the tank about two or three days when the water got a bit cloudy, which I thought odd but did not associate with this small a piece of wood, and then I saw the fish respirating much more rapidly. I did a major water change which helped, but it started to return, and then I spotted a white slimy fungus on parts of the wood. I removed the wood, problem went away, so clearly it was the wood.

 

[seangee]

I’ve see those at one of my LFS and they were so tiny!

Would that be all you would suggest or would you guys think a center piece fish could be adddx like a honey gourami?

And if I wanted to do Sparkling Gourami how many would you all suggest for the 20 long?

Here is an old pic of the CPDs in my Asian setup (15G). I honestly think having a centre piece would spoil the effect. You could probably go with around 30 in a 20G, or possibly 15 + 15 emerald rasbora. There is some debate about whether these two will cross breed as they are technically the same species - despite having different names. (CPD are also known as galaxy rasbora).

FWIW the shrimp you can see are red rillis - a variant of red cherry shrimp.

 

[bettas_in_DE]

Those fish look much bigger in that photo from the ones I saw at m LFS!
They must have been fry still they were so small!!

And I removed the wood! I also tried my best to syphon out any left over fungus, as it had accumulated quite a bit in the 24 hrs that it had been in the tank! So far all 5 of the fish are still alive!

So if I took all of these types of fish into account, would say this work....


A school of the CPD or some other dwarf rasbora type
6 sparkling gourami

OR

a small group of honey gourami
kuhli loaches

??