Help Me Stock My Tank!

[pscl227]

Hey, my tank is now 100% cycled and i have 5 male guppies in it getting along like a house on fire, looking for some other inmates to join them in the bachelor pad.

Stats:
-20 Gal
-77 Degrees
-pH 7.4
-Planted with lots of good hiding spots

Definatly going to get some cherry shrimps for my partners enjoyment. But besides that what would my options be? Looking for something that is maybe a fair bit bigger than the guppies and has some personality (if thats possible in my size tank), but any opinion is welcomed!

thanks for your help, Paul

 

[minxfishy]

If you get cherry shrimp, make sure you get adult size, I put smaller ones in with my guppies and they ate the lot

As for tankmates, how about some honey gourami, a trio would be nice.

 

[Davo86]

how about a shoal of Harlequinns and trio of Honey Gouramis

 

[pscl227]

wow, those Honey Gouramis looks lovely! I assume normal Gouramis dont suffer with the same crap immune system that the dwarf varieties do?

EDIT: my LFS has approx 200 adult cherry shrimp (a lot of the females seem to be carrying eggs, a tasty snack for the guppies maybe!) , she is selling them 5 for £3!

 

[Juice]

With enough floating plants, some female guppies would be nice. (for breeding) I have 1 male and 2 female guppies. One of them gave birth about 2 weeks ago and another gave bitrh last night. I can see them babies hiding around the surface (I have some cabomba floating around) Theres about 10 that I can see swimming around. I also have 1 or 2 very young bettas in there (maybe a month old)

They wont have too many babies. My cousin has about 15-20 guppies in his tank (he started off with a m/f pair about 4 months ago) theyre full grown. If you have to many, you can just give them away. Its fun to watch the babies grow up.

A pleco or a cory would be a good idea, to clean up after all those guppies. They are messy. I have a pleco and a cory. They seem to clean up pretty good. My cousins gravel is really dirty when he siphons it. Mines not as bad. He needs a cory!

Shrimp is not a good idea. The guppies like to graze off things, they will probably graze on the shrimps legs then eat the whole thing.

So. More guppies, and some cories. If you really are intrested in light breeding, get some more live bearers. Mollys, swordtails, etc.

Edit: The eggs as a snack. They might realize its coming out of the shrimp and eat the shrimp. Bloodworms is a better snack

 

[pscl227]

I shall have a look at plecos and corys in my books, as far as breeding goes, i am not interested in the slightest at the moment, dont have anyone i could give the young too, and i just dont want to have the hassle of unwanted young.

 

[minxfishy]

If you dont want fry, then stick with male guppies. Dont add some females.

And no the honey gourami dont have the same probs as the dwarf gourami.

If you fancy some cories, my tip, go for albino cories, very active, mad as hatters and a joy to watch zoom all over the tank. About 4/5 in that size tank would be good.

 

[Juice]

LFS will gladly accept the babies.

YOu could probably start off with a common pleco. If you have algae, then good. But if you dont, get some spirulina or algae chips.

Or a cory. Small one, like an albino or a panda. Theyll eat shrimp pellets. Remember they cant live off fish poop. They need real food too.

 

[Loony Fish]

Rainbow sharks are the coolest fish in my oppinion. they might bother the guppies.
get a cool pleco. like a clown or a gold nugget.
i'm not a fan of freshwater shrimps.

 

[Juice]

If you dont want fry, then stick with male guppies. Dont add some females.

And no the honey gourami dont have the same probs as the dwarf gourami.

If you fancy some cories, my tip, go for albino cories, very active, mad as hatters and a joy to watch zoom all over the tank. About 4/5 in that size tank would be good.

Yes the zooming is pretty funny, especially when you watch from the head on angle. I find that my cory does that only when its hungry. I guess hes pacing around looking for food. Maybe you are under feeding your albino cories.

 

[pscl227]

WOW those albino cories look like something off of another planet....awsome They shall definatly be considered!

How would people rate the Zebra Pleco for a novice?

Also anyone have any thaughts or feelings on the galaxy rasboras, my LFS has a few of these little beauties!

 

[minxfishy]

If you dont want fry, then stick with male guppies. Dont add some females.

And no the honey gourami dont have the same probs as the dwarf gourami.

If you fancy some cories, my tip, go for albino cories, very active, mad as hatters and a joy to watch zoom all over the tank. About 4/5 in that size tank would be good.

Yes the zooming is pretty funny, especially when you watch from the head on angle. I find that my cory does that only when its hungry. I guess hes pacing around looking for food. Maybe you are under feeding your albino cories.

No Im not under feeding, they are all happy, healthy and feed twice a day, they get plenty, they are not my first lot either, all the albinos Ive had in the past are the same, they love to swim about, chasing each other around.

Dont know much about galaxy's other than they are small

I think a zebra would be ok, but again, dont know enough about them, they might prefer a mature tank though.

 

[Davo86]

zebras wouldn't be able to compete for food with most other fish and therefore be kept alone, apart from that they would cost you around the £100 mark

galaxy rasboras would a great addition to the tank,

At present you have 10 inches of stocking in a tank which has a suggested stocking of 20inches

3 honey gouramis and a minimum shoal of 6 galaxy rasboras would give you a total of 22 inches, which would be just about doable for your tanksize.

If you have plenty of hiding places you could also then add around 6 shrimp for bottom feeders, these have a very low bio-load and do not really count as part of the total stocking.
if you get a good ratio of males and large females you may well find them breeding which may make up for the odd one that gets eaten, IMO though i cant see them being caught

as for common plecos and rainbow sharks, these are just silly suggestions for a 20G tank, the pleco would get to at least 12 inches and the shark would be chasing the guppys non stop.

 

[pscl227]

Thanks Davo for the insight! are there any other gouramis or larger fish i could consider?

i really would like a small shoal (3) or even a pair or single feature fish(es)!

 

[Davo86]

Thanks Davo for the insight! are there any other gouramis or larger fish i could consider?

i really would like a small shoal (3) or even a pair or single feature fish(es)!

Your main problem will be that all shoaling fish do better in numbers of at least 5 or 6
barbs and danios would be out of the question as they would be very likely to nip the guppys fins when kept in a small number

with the guppys at the top you could go for 3 male platys for the middle

or you could swap the honeys for a pair of blue Rams, although you'd need to wait a few months for the tank to mature slightly.

or maybe a single pearl Gourami, (although i'd say the shrimp would be at risk)