# Can someone help me with a stocking plan??



## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

Hi everyone i need someone to help me plan out a stocking plan for a 20 gallon community tank.
Im a begginner so i need fish that are reletivitely easy to take care of.
I would like color and action. 
some one help me please??


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## Chazwick (Aug 24, 2005)

Hey there! If i was you i'd for some lovely schooling fish! - maybe tetras? They are easy to look after and great to watch! You cannot get less than 6 of each type though... 

these are Neon tetras they are great little fish and cheap/hardy i would recommend.









There's other varieties as well! You could get two schools of different tetras, some neons black and plain neons, or something, and a betta, which looks like this:








though they come in a variety of colours, pink, purple, blue, black, yellow, white, you name it 

and maybe an apple snail (just one for breeding reasons)









Perhaps even 1 or 2 African Dwarf Frogs:









That'd be MY perfect tank


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## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

*Can someone help me witha stocking plan?*

Hi everyone i need someone to help me plan out a stocking plan for a 20 gallon community tank.
Im a begginner so i need fish that are reletivitely easy to take care of.
I would like color and action. 
some one help me please??


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## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

i was think of two ideas
there a tiny bit more advanced but i think i can handle it.
#1

6 neons

6 black phantoms

4 bronze corys

4 otos

1 male dwarf gourmai

#2

6 cherry barbs

6 pearl danios

6 zebra danios

4 otos

2 bronze corys

1 male dwarf gourmai

WHat do you think??


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## Chazwick (Aug 24, 2005)

Both of those would be a little too overstocked.


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## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

Chazwick said:


> Both of those would be a little too overstocked.


so what do you suggest removing from the plan??


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## Chazwick (Aug 24, 2005)

Well... depends which plan you'd rather go for


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## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

# 2 because those fish are much more active


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## Chazwick (Aug 24, 2005)

Yes, well the thing about danios (zebras in mind) is that they're a LITTLE TOO active and end up... putting it lightly, annoying other fish, plus they're fin nippers, so if you go for them, get less fish so they'll be more room, plus some more hidey holes.


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## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

hows this:
4 otos or bronze corys 

6 cherry barbs 

6 lemon tetras 

1 dwarf gourmai 

6 pearl danios


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## Cichlid Man (Jan 19, 2005)

That'll be fine, I won't add all the fish at once though, maybe 3-6 at a time to prevent ammonia spikes.


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## Chazwick (Aug 24, 2005)

Yes, Cichlid is right, just put a few in at a time, once a week say, put a few in.


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## cucci67 (Aug 3, 2005)

Its better to get more of one species of schooling fish tank less and a bigger variety. I would say not to get the pearl danios, and choose between 8 cherry barbs or 8 lemon tetras as your schooling fish.

Here's what I would do with thoses fish.

8 cherry barbs
2 dwarf gouramis
3 otos
4 cories


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## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

ok thanks :fish: :fish: :fish:


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## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

i dthink ill stick with the dainios and the lemons because that fills out the upper lever more. and danios are just plain fun to watch


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## Chazwick (Aug 24, 2005)

They are pretty amusing. 
Good luck with the tank.


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## cucci67 (Aug 3, 2005)

Please only post your topic once, you have it here and in the general section twice.


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## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

fishygurl said:


> hows this:
> 4 otos or bronze corys
> 
> 6 cherry barbs
> ...


Do you think this is over stocking??

(with live plants and areators and introduced gradually)


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## Jonno (May 22, 2005)

okay like cucci you only need to post it once would some of the mods please delete toe other tow exact same posts and dnt spam the forum so much


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

Even cucci's suggestion:

8 cherry barbs
2 dwarf gouramis
3 otos
4 cories

is alot of fish for a 20 gallon tank, especially for a beginner. There's an old rule about how much fish you should put in your tank, the "inch of fish for fallon of tank water". It's not applicable in all situations, and experienced fishkeepers often exceed this without trouble, but it's a good goal for a beginner not to go over it. Your fish add up as follows (if I have remembered the adult sizes of these fish right):

cherry barbs 8 * 1.5" = 12"
gouramis 2 * 2 = 4"
otos 3 * 1.5" = 4.5
cories 4 * 3" = 12"
-------
total = 32.5

Here's a more restrained list:
cherry barbs 6 * 1.5" = 9"
otos 2 * 1.5" = 3"
cories 3 * 3" = 9"
-------
total = 21"

When you're more experienced, and have had the tank running for about 6 months without any fish deaths, then you could slowly bring up the levels to what cucci is recommending.

And Chazwick's suggestion of adding a few fish every week is WAYYYY too frequently. It takes some time to build up the bacteria populations to handle the new fish load. I'd suggest either getting a test kit and doing the proper testing, or at the very least wait 3-4 weeks between adding new batches of fish. I'd add them in this order:

3 cherry barbs
3 more cherry barbs
3 cories
2 otos

Then just let it run for a few months as is, to make sure you've got this fishkeeping stuff under control, then you can think about adding more.


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## Hamm35924 (Jun 13, 2005)

It is possible that it would work, stocking is a hard thing to measure. IMO i would go with the bronze cory cats instead of the otos. They're easier to feed. and 4 would need probably a little bit more algea than a 20 gallon, however i shouldnt really be talking i have 2 in a ten gallon and theyre doing just fine. people say that they die for no obvious apparent reason but i had no trouble with mine, i had more trouble with my neon tetras than ive had with them.


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## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

how about:

6 cherry barbs

6 pearl danios

1 dwarf gourmai

2 bronze corys


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

Hmm...I think she can put more fish than that, Myra. But I also have a overstocked 20 gallon, lol. I would go with 4 danios, 4 barbs, 4 tetras, 2 otos, and the gourami. Like Myra said, though, you have to add them very slowly. One thing about it, fishygurl, is with a stocked tank like that you would have to do water changes weekly. You have to decide if you have time to and will do them. If you don't think you will, you need to cut out one school of fish at least. Also you will need to have a strong filter. If you are willing to spend a lot of money on a good filter and spend the time to do waterchanges every week, I think you could do it. Also live plants will help some. I think a tank like that would look really nice. Also if you have a pet store around you that carries them, you could put some ghost shrimp in there to help clean up the substrate. They don't affect the bio-load much at all.

Edit: you posted while I was typing up my post. The only problem with that is cories need to be kept in bigger schools. Maybe 4 cories and cut the other schools down to 5?

Also please do not post the same topic more than once. It's not urgent that you find out how to stock your tank, and you are getting plenty of replies without posting twice.


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## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

but will the schooling fish be ok in groups of 4? ive just heard that they do better in schools of 6 (although i once had a single neon and it lived for 6 years lol)
I was already planning to do water changes once a week
and have live plants and an araetor


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

I think it would be fine to have them in schools of 4. Some other people will probably say they need schools of 6. But IMO 4 is fine.


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## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

ok i guess

so....
what kind of tanks do you have??


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## Chazwick (Aug 24, 2005)

All you really need.. is a heater (unless ur somwhere very hot), a filter... and perhaps an air pump?  oh, and the tank.. which i think you have (?)... Anyway, they will do fine in groups of 4.. just in my experiance, they are more active in 6's.


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

I have a heavily planted 20 gallon with fine natural colored gravel with: 
2 dwarf gouramis
5 zebra danios
1 leapord danio
1 black molly
1 orange female swordtail
2 baby swordtails (females also)
1 bronze cory
1 peppered cory (I had 2 albino cories but I got sick of them laying eggs so I got rid of them and got these 2....I hope to get another tank soon and then make schools of them)
2 otos
2 platies
probably a few ghost shrimp somewhere hiding in the plants
a little baby feeder guppy that came with the shrimp. Yes I am overstocked but I have also kept fish for a long time and I keep up on the maintenance. The tank has been running for 2 years at least. They are all very healthy and the levels are all fine. I also have a overfiltered planted 2.5 gallon with fine blue gravel and 1 baby female swordtail, and 5 baby albino cories.


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

My 20 gallon currently contains:
5 white cloud mountain minnows
2 rosy barbs
1 hillstream loach

It's definiely understocked! I will add one more rosy barb, and then I have to decide if I want to add yet more rosy barbs & white clouds, or to leave those fish numbers as is and add a few peppered cories.

To give this some perspective, if I were figuring out the inches of fish for my proposed stocking level I'd get

white clouds 5 * 1.25" = 7"
cories 3 * 3" = 9"
hillstream loach 1 * 2" = 2"
rosy barbs 3 * 3" = 9"
--------
total = 27"

And this is for a tank that's been up and running for a year now. That's a bit overstocked, but not too bad considering it's a pretty mature tank and has lots of plants. This is why I'm nervous when you talk about putting in a whole shedload of stuff, without having much experience. I say, get some experience first, see if you really can grow the plants, and then overstock if it's all working out right.




It's an unheated, well planted tank, by the way.

You say you are "planning to have live plants", well, that doesn't always work out, unless you put in place the stuff that plants need to grow. How serious do you want to go down the planted tank route? Do you just want a few easy to grow plants, or do you want an aquatic jungle? Or something in between? If you want to have a serious go at growing plants, you'll need something better than plain gravel as a substrate, and much more lighting than comes with a stock tank, so it's best to think about it while you're still in the planning stages, as you are now.


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## fishn00b (Jun 10, 2005)

I always liked the Neon Tetras for color. They seem to light up the tank pretty well. I would put them in a group of 6 or so. If you want more color though, you can always take a look at guppies, but if you throw females in there, they will have lots and lots of babies. Try looking for a few big fish too, like maybe Dwarf Gouramis or so.


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## fishfreaks (Jan 19, 2005)

Wow guys, ease up a bit :-D It's not really spamming. Maybe. Could have had the page mess up, or maybe they realized it was in the wrong place. Sorry about that fishygirl.


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## IloveCichlids (Jul 11, 2005)

I agree with fishfreaks, ease up a bit. Maybe something happened. as far as the question, I personally like cichlids, but that is just me. I am not sure if any will do well in a 20 gal. maybe some mbuna? Sorry if that is not of any help to you. Fantails are pretty cool.


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## osteoporoosi (Jan 27, 2005)

10 male guppys and amano shrimps would do a nice combo.
Or you could try a betta and 10-12 ruby tetras.


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## Lara (Sep 4, 2005)

How about platies? Colourful and active - also good beginner fish. You could put some cory's and a bristlenose pleco in for tank maintenance and bottom dwelling interest too.


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## fishygurl (Oct 3, 2005)

Ok new plan 
hopefully you guys will like this better

6 cherry barbs
6 penguin tetras
1 dwarf gourmai
3 pepper corys
how this sound??


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

That should work!  You could probably add one more peppered cory if you want to. Also sorry about that. I didn't mean to sound rude. It's not that big of a deal that you posted twice.


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## MyraVan (Jan 19, 2005)

You proposed: 6 cherry barbs, 6 penguin tetras, 1 dwarf gourmai, 3 pepper corys

That's not bad! I'd stock it this way:
3 cherry barbs, wait 3 or 4 weeks
3 cherry barbs, wait 3 or 4 weeks
3 pepper corys, wait 3 or 4 weeks
1 dwarf gourami
Now you're fully stocked, by the official rules. So I think it would be a good idea to take some time to let things mature and get nice and stable, maybe 2 or three months. During this time you could fiddle around with getting the plants really going well. And then add
6 penguin tetras all at once
and you're finished!


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