Will These Fish Cooperate?

[Crossfire]

I've just come back from the specialty LFS with a brand new LED White/Blue Light 20 gallon starter kit. One of the employees had a degree in Marine Biology and I've learned a lot and have recieved a lot of helpful tips and advice. I'm going to get these fish:

5-6 GloFish
1-4 Cherry Shrimp
4-10 Neon Tetras
2-3 Sparkling Gouramis
1 Bristlenose Pleco
1-2 Otocinclus

I was wondering if the tank would be big enough and the fish friendly enough to add some more fish. I'm really keen on getting maybe 3-4 Tiger Barbs, but would they be aggressive? And I thought about a dwarf ciclid, but I think it would need different water types...Please give me some advice and maybe a recommendation for a large, solitary non-aggressive fish that would compliment my tank and not attack or eat the others.

 

[dalethewhale]

The fish you've chosen will be fine together but I would say up the numbers of otto's, they are a shoaling fish but you should not introduce them for a while as they need lots of algae and are prone to dying in the first month or so (3 out of 4 of mine did)

As for a large fish, anything too large will definately eat cherry shrimp and small fish, neons etc. I would say a small gourami dwarf or honey gourami? A bolivian or german blue ram would get on with the other fish, peaceful and grow to around 3 inches. Bolivians are hardier but less pretty. i would say get one (a pair of any would be better) of these instead of the sparkling gourami

I think tiger barbs would be aggressive but i've never kept them.

 

[Crossfire]

Yes, originally I wanted 1 red flame dwarf gourami, but the marine biologist there said they are very finicky to water conditions and that they are prone to disease. So then I asked if I had a larger gourami, such as Golden, Pearl, Moonlight, Platinum, or Opaline. She said that it depends on the gouramis personality, and that even if they were very peaceful for gourami standards they would go after my Sparkling Gouramis....so yeah

 

[dalethewhale]

Yes, originally I wanted 1 red flame dwarf gourami, but the marine biologist there said they are very finicky to water conditions and that they are prone to disease. So then I asked if I had a larger gourami, such as Golden, Pearl, Moonlight, Platinum, or Opaline. She said that it depends on the gouramis personality, and that even if they were very peaceful for gourami standards they would go after my Sparkling Gouramis....so yeah

Yeah you can't really mix gourami's... The rams could be ok with sparkling gourami but im not sure about the size of your tank for them. There'll be people with more experience than me along to help you though
Also from the research i've done, plus i have 2 dwarf gourami, it's not really water conditions but the fact that they are prone to disease and suffer from "dwarf gourami disease" which is incurable and is really down to luck and where the gourami are bred to whether they have it or not.

 

[Crossfire]

Hmmm, I'm really liking the german blue ram...If i got ghost shrimp instead of cherry would they be too big to eat? And If I fed the ram enough would it still eat the neons?

 

[dalethewhale]

Hmmm, I'm really liking the german blue ram...If i got ghost shrimp instead of cherry would they be too big to eat? And If I fed the ram enough would it still eat the neons?

I think the ram should be ok with the neon's, not sure though but the german blue's do need good water conditions, the bolivians are alot more hardy. I have young german blues in my tank at the moment with young cardinal tetra which are now about the size of neons and they are no problem... rams have pretty small mouths!

 

[Crossfire]

Thank you so much ! I'll take the Bolivian into consideration as well. Now I'm just trying to see if the tiger barbs will work...I just don't want to overcrowd the tank and have them eat each others faces off

 

[dalethewhale]

I don't think they'd work, sorry. They are aggressive and I think they would nip the fins of your other fish
No problem, as I say, there'll be people with more experience yhen me that can help you

I can never get the right emoticons on this phone....

 

[roadmaster]

Hmmm, I'm really liking the german blue ram...If i got ghost shrimp instead of cherry would they be too big to eat? And If I fed the ram enough would it still eat the neons?

The German blue Ram's do poorly at temps much below 80 Degrees F which would be far too warm for the Neon's over the long term who enjoy much cooler temps 74 degrees F to 78 degrees F at upper range.
I think your 20 gal? tank would be well stocked with fishes mentioned in first post.

 

[Crossfire]

Okay, its been weeks, and i've made a lot of new research. I thought that maybe instead of a bristlenose, i could get a lot of otocincluses and perhaps 1 or 2 clown loaches to eat leftover food and rid the excess snails i'll have due to the plants. I also have reserched a non-schooling, large, non-aggressive fish for my aquarium that can live happily in the water conditions my other fish would need. I'm planning on getting one to two cockatoo cichlid, but probably just one because its a 20 gal. But would the cockatoo cichlid eat my neon tetras?

 

[dalethewhale]

dunno about the cuckatoo cichlid but clown loaches grow to like 12" so they're way too big for your tank

 

[Crossfire]

oh well...recomend any bottom-dwellers that eat snails and leftover food?

 

[drobbyb]

A gravel vacuum Honestly the presence of snails isn't a bad thing, in fact they are an excellent indicator of overfeeding. If there are large numbers of them, then you are overfeeding.

Unless of course you are wanting that many snails. Then it would be okay to overfeed your fish.

 

[Crossfire]

A gravel vacuum Honestly the presence of snails isn't a bad thing, in fact they are an excellent indicator of overfeeding. If there are large numbers of them, then you are overfeeding.

Unless of course you are wanting that many snails. Then it would be okay to overfeed your fish.

No, i just want a minimum amount of snails because they'll destroy my plants and because theyre asexual theyll just reproduce like mad