Check Out My Stocking Plans For 20 And 55 Gallon Aquariums

[Canadian Fish]

I have been using this tool to check size and filtration requirements and I came up with these two stocking scenarios for my tanks: (I tried provided links to the tool but am unable, how xenophobic)

20 Gallon: (TopFin 20 and Tetra Whisper EX20 Filters)

3 x Julii Corys
3 x Twin Barred Platies
3 x Male Guppies
5 x Neon Tetras
5 x Black Kuhli Loaches
5 x Bleeding Heart Tetras

55 Gallon: (Aquaclear 70 filter, adding another before adding all these fish)

6 x Red Irian Rainbowfish
6 x Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish
8 x Zebra Danios
8 x Red Platies
1 x Bristlenose Pleco
3 x Zebra Loaches.

Of course it will take months to add all those fish and who knows how often I'll change my mind between now and then.

Finding compatible fish is fun and I imagine once these two tanks are completely stocked we'll get another aquarium. I would love a 125 Gallon for my basement, but realistically I have a better chance of my wife letting me try a 20 gallon salt water setup so I can get a clownfish for my 3 year old (yes, we're walking stereotypes, lol)

Here are pics of my two tanks:

You can't tell from my shoddy photography, but my water is actually really clear.

The videos are a lot clearer.

If anyone has any suggestions regarding my stocking plans, I'm all ears. Thanks!

 

[Ruskull]

My opinion on the 20 gallon stocking plan:

20 Gallon: (TopFin 20 and Tetra Whisper EX20 Filters)

3 x Julii Corys - Increase number to at least 6 because they appreciate the company & your tank size is fine for them.
3 x Twin Barred Platies - Fine if it's 1 male 2 females or all females or all males
3 x Male Guppies - Fine if it's 1 male 2 females or all females or all males
5 x Neon Tetras - Increase number to at least 6 because they appreciate the company & your tank size is fine for them.
5 x Black Kuhli Loaches - Increase number to at least 6 because they appreciate the company & your tank size is fine for them.
5 x Bleeding Heart Tetras - I'd leave these guys out because they can be nippy toward smaller Tetras like the Neons. Should be kept in shoal of 6 or more anyway.

So in conclusion:

6 x Julii Corys
3 x Twin Barred Platies
3 x Male Guppies
6 x Neon Tetras
6 x Black Kuhli Loaches

 

[Canadian Fish]

Cool, thanks for the advice. Out of all the fish, the Bleeding Heart Tetras are the only ones my wife asked for. Maybe I could put some in the 55 gallon tank. Or will they harass the Danios as well?

I love the pic of your tank! Beautiful.

My opinion on the 20 gallon stocking plan:

20 Gallon: (TopFin 20 and Tetra Whisper EX20 Filters)

3 x Julii Corys - Increase number to at least 6 because they appreciate the company & your tank size is fine for them.
3 x Twin Barred Platies - Fine if it's 1 male 2 females or all females or all males
3 x Male Guppies - Fine if it's 1 male 2 females or all females or all males
5 x Neon Tetras - Increase number to at least 6 because they appreciate the company & your tank size is fine for them.
5 x Black Kuhli Loaches - Increase number to at least 6 because they appreciate the company & your tank size is fine for them.
5 x Bleeding Heart Tetras - I'd leave these guys out because they can be nippy toward smaller Tetras like the Neons. Should be kept in shoal of 6 or more anyway.

So in conclusion:

6 x Julii Corys
3 x Twin Barred Platies
3 x Male Guppies
6 x Neon Tetras
6 x Black Kuhli Loaches

 

[onidrase]

Your wife is right to want bleeding heart tetras. I absolutely love those things

I've noticed something you've done with the tank stocking choices is a lot of different fish rather than a lot of fish, I'm just gonna throw this in now

I know it's exciting to have a big tank and get a lot of different species of fish, but in the long run, keep in mind that 6 is a minimum number, and schooling fish do a lot better and look a lot better in a bigger group of their own kind.

I have also found that if you have alot of schooling fish in minimum numbers, the tank will look very cluttered when they're all zooming past and through each others school. They don't school with each other as much as they'll school into each other. (trust me, right now I've got 6 tiger barbs 6 rainbows and 10 bueos aires tetras as I'm in the process of restocking my schooling fish, it looks horrendous if you ask me.) It'd really be better to get 1 or 2 big schools of fish rather than like 5 or 6 small ones.

You could aim for some less social species of fish in place of getting a bunch of schoolers, some good choices being bolivian rams, apistogrammas, perhaps kribensis (though they get very territorial during breeding) some that could work in your 55 would be angelfish, festivums, honduran red points (make sure they're not convict cichlids, though) or even some pearl gouramis.

on a side note, you'll find all loaches to be schooling fish as well, so you'd have to up the numbers of the zebra loaches to 6 also. A lot of websites won't say that in regards to bottom feeders and will suggest something of 2 or 4 or so, but they're not different from the average tetra or barb.