Need advice on changing fish...

[zanytomato]

Hi gang,

:feedback:

Okay, after your help in a previous thread, and watching the nippy little buggers, I've spoken with my LFS and they have said that they will take back fish as a donation (and *not* euthanize them). So, I'm going to return my serpaes. They're beautiful, but they certainly do not play well with others!

With that in mind, I would like to add a couple more fish to make the others happy, but I'm not sure what is the best choice here. It's a 20g and not that spacious, obviously (and I can't afford a bigger tank right now -- bummer!). You can see in my sig the current inhabitants. I have a few ideas:

1. Get more panda cories or peppered cories (and consider returning the other)
2. Get more silvertip tetras (the glowlights and the black neons school together)
3. Return the silvertips as well, and get more cories, and more of the other types of tetras so those schools are larger (or a variation on that...)
4. In addition to the above, I'd really like to add some shrimp, but that might be pushing it to overstocked.

I feel bad returning the fish, but at the same time I want these guys to do the best that they can. I'd love any feedback! :idea:

Thanks!


-zt.

[Rowangel]

All your fish listed really require schools of 6+ to feel happy. IMO I would pick my favorite cory, take the other back and make a school of either 6-7 of your choice. Then I would pick out my 2 favorite types of tetras and do the same. Choosing two types of tetra with differing colors or body shapes will be more pleasing...then return the others

In the end your will have a nice school of corys and two fantastic looking schools of tetra. In which you could then most certainly get away with half a dozen shrimp of your choice.

If it were me; 6 peppered cory, 6 blk-phantom tetras, 6 glowlight tetras + Amano Shrimp

[jm1212]

you may also want to consider picking one species of tetra and then getting a pretty big school of them. a larger school (10-12) silvertip tetras would look pretty cool. if you do decide to get 12 silvertip tetras, then stick with panda corydoras, and get 4 or 5 of them.

[Rowangel]

Would love to know what you decided...any update?

[zanytomato]

Thanks everyone for the feedback... still making my decision. My filter just broke, so I ended up dealing with that first.

I'm leaning toward taking it down to two types of tetras, getting some more cories and maybe a few shrimp. I still feel that might be overcrowded though... hmm. Decisions, decisions!

[zanytomato]

Followup!

Okay, here's what I've done so far. I returned the serpaes and picked up two more black phantom tetras. Unfortunately, my peppered cory died yesterday, so I picked up three sterbai cories (very cool looking!). I was told that I didn't have enough hiding spots for my cories, which was probably contributing to my difficulties. So, I've rearranged my tank to make some "caves" that they can comfortably hide from the light... looks much nicer, too, I think

Oh, and I got some Japonica Shrimp.. I'm so excited, these guys are awesome! I'm having a hoot watching them. I had to tear myself away to come update you guys. ;)

I'm going to return my silvertips and my black neons next, I think, and go for a bigger school of glowlights or just get more black phantoms and return the glowlights, too. I'm also going to get 2 more 3-lines at some point soonish (they're a little pricier, though apparently hardier).

So the two possibilities are

6 black phantoms
6 glowlights
5 sterbai cories
5 japonica shrimp

Or:

10 black phantoms
5 sterbai cories
5 japonica shrimp

The first one seems overcrowded for a 20g to me.

Well more to think about. Moving in the right direction, though, thankfully.


-zt.