Stocking questions for my first fully planned out tank

[s0mthinG]

I've been keeping tropical fish for a few months now (almost a year if you count my late rescue betta Snowcone). I currently only have a heavily planted 10 gallon freshwater tank with 6 Ruby Tetras, 3 Otos, a Mystery Snail and some Neocardinia shrimp. This tank is going well and I am just reestablishing my bio filtration after curing some mouth fungus with EM erythromycin.

Now on to the real question, I have a 20 gallon long that I plan to set up after I move in December and am excited to stock it well and for the first time do everything the "right" way with established filter media, fully cycled without fish, ect, ect. I want to stock with my centerpiece being Red Neon Blue Eye Rainbowfish. I've just been thinking about how to effectively fill out the rest of the tank and how many of what to put in.

Here's what I have so far.
12x Red Neon Blue Eye Rainbowfish (Pseudomugil Luminatus)

3x Freshwater Pom Pom crabs

?x Oto / Cory /Khuli Loaches

2x (a pair of some slightly larger blue colored fish that are peaceful enough not to go after the smaller Rainbowfish and less likely to eat fry that may pop in from the rainbows)

?x Some sort of snails (I've only kept pond snails and Mystery Snails but I'm open to and leaning towards other species)



I want the blue fish to offset the school of bright red fish with blue accents I just don't know what would be a good idea. I originally thought gouramis would be good but I've heard about them being a bit difficult to keep and prone to diseases. A friend and fellow fish keeper suggested rams but I would prefer the shape of something like a gourami. Potentially somekind of cichlids maybe?

The plan for filtration is either the Fluval 207 canister filter, or an aqua clear 50 HOB. I'd also have it heavily planted in a low tech setup like my 10 gallon.

Any insight would be fantastic.

Edit: I've also been fascinated I black ghost knife fish but know they grow too large to keep in a 20, I wouldn't be opposed to trading out the pair of medium sized blue fish for something similar to the black ghost knife. Thanks

 

[Wills]

Hi welcome to the forum Loads of information here so thats really great! One bit of info we could do to know is your water hardness. Between the two tanks you have some fish that need quite hard water (the rainbows) and some that need quite soft water (the tetras) so I would like to establish which route is best for you to follow and which tank might need some rectifiying.

One thing I can help with for now would be the red and blue mid sized fish how about Empire Gudgeons https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/hypseleotris-compressa/ they have a really broad range of requirements and if you have good water for the rainbows would look really good alongside them.

Wills

 

[s0mthinG]

Thanks for the reply Wills! My water is pretty much in the middle, normally our water is very hard but we have a salt softener that brings it back down to somewhere in the middle. I don't have any exact numbers for you, unfortunately. My pH does sit a little high but I have a large piece of Mopani in the 10gal with the Ruby tetras and its also got Fluval Stratum further lowering the pH and keeping a good buffer.

 

[ClownLurch]

Thanks for the reply Wills! My water is pretty much in the middle, normally our water is very hard but we have a salt softener that brings it back down to somewhere in the middle. I don't have any exact numbers for you, unfortunately. My pH does sit a little high but I have a large piece of Mopani in the 10gal with the Ruby tetras and its also got Fluval Stratum further lowering the pH and keeping a good buffer.

Apparently a salt based water softener isn’t good for freshwater fish. If it was I’d have one fitted myself.

 

[Spalders]

The black ghost knife fish has a potential to hit 40 to 50cm in length and I think the recommendation is 100 gallon plus?

They are very slow growing fish though.

 

[Essjay]

Apparently a salt based water softener isn’t good for freshwater fish. If it was I’d have one fitted myself.

No fresh water fish have evolved to cope with salt in the water on a long term basis. If you want to keep fish from water softer than your tap water the best way is to use water from your bypass tap and mix it with RO water to reduce the hardness.

 

[ClownLurch]

No fresh water fish have evolved to cope with salt in the water on a long term basis. If you want to keep fish from water softer than your tap water the best way is to use water from your bypass tap and mix it with RO water to reduce the hardness.

I know! I bought a RO thingy when I was gonna go down the Apistogramma Hongsloi-Microdevario Kubotai-Cory road. Still might if I can’t dig up some Long Fin WCMMs.

 

[s0mthinG]

The black ghost knife fish has a potential to hit 40 to 50cm in length and I think the recommendation is 100 gallon plus?

They are very slow growing fish though.

Yeah, that's similar to what I read. I just dont want to be that guy that gets a fish that is going to outgrow its tank. Like all those other people with the goldfish or plecos (that's why I have Otos )