Stocking Advice

[Kaysa]

Originally, I was planning on keeping a species only tank of fancy guppies, but the more I think about it, the more I think I’d like to have a community tank.
 
I have very minimal knowledge about what species can live together peacefully, and that’s where I need your advice. I’m still set on having guppies (a minimum of five), so whatever species you can recommend to go along with guppies would be great!
 
My tank is a 20 US gallon, hexagon tank with gravel substrate. There are no live plants, I have an aerator, and my tank is heated to 76 degrees F.
 
If at all possible, I’d love to have one species of shrimp in my tank. I’ve heard that Ghost, Cherry, and Amano Shrimp are all suitable to a community tank, but I wanted your opinions first before I made any final decisions. And if I can have any of the three mentioned, which of the three would you most recommend?
 
As for the rest of the stocking, I’m open to just about any specie of fish that will comfortably fit in my tank without creating any overstocking issues when everyone’s fully grown. 

 

[ncguppy830]

well theres many types of fish if your in to guppies still tetras, danios , rasboras , other livebearers and honey and dwarf gouramis are all compatible. and as for the shrimp you would only worry about gouramis eating some of them

 

[Zante]

In 20 gallons I would go for just guppies. They are VERY prolific and they will fill it very quickly.

As for shrimps, I have no experience with ghost shrimps, but both amanos and red cherries will be fine in there.

 

[the_lock_man]

With a 20gallon tank, you can't have loads of different species in the community, but I reckon this would work
 
5 of these

 
6 of these

Celestial Pearl Danio
 
and 6 of these

Panda corydoras
 
You could also increase the quantity of CPDs by substituting the panda cory for the Salt & Pepper Cory

 

[Lillefishy]

It's a hex tank so I wouldn't go for pandas as the footprint wouldn't be long enough, habrosus would work though.
Hex's are more difficult to stock as they're tall tanks so fish that need swimming room such as danios aren't suitable

 

[the_lock_man]

It's a hex tank so I wouldn't go for pandas as the footprint wouldn't be long enough, habrosus would work though.
Hex's are more difficult to stock as they're tall tanks so fish that need swimming room such as danios aren't suitable

 
Serves me right for scan-reading, then. Yes, drop the Pandas, and if you can find the C. Habrosus then go for them. Just to clarify Lille's point about danios, most danios, such as zebra, pearl, etc., live in fast moving mountain streams, they need cooler water and a lot of swimming room. However, there are a few species that have been reclassified from rasbora to danio, and these live in warmer, calmer water, the Celestial Pearl Danio is one of these species (it used to be known as Galaxy Rasbora). These will be fine in this tank.

 

[Sophie]

But don't add Corydoras if the gravel is very large/sharp. They would be far better off on sand.

 

[Kaysa]

Thanks for the advice, everyone! I was thinking the shape of my tank would eliminate some possibilities, and I really wasn't expecting a community tank of more than 2-3 species.
I love the Celestial Pearl Danios, I definitely would love to have them in my tank! The next time I go to my LFS I will check and see if they have that particular danio. I won't be able to add any corydoras, I had thought about them once before, but I think my gravel is too rough. It's just regular gravel from a local pet store, and it certainly isn't smooth.
Thanks again everyone! I will let you know what I come up with, once I've decided on what and how many I want to stock. =)