Need Help Stocking A 20G

[skylinegtts]

Hey
im new to this forum and was wondering if people could give me some ideas on stocking a 20 gallon tank.
so far i have got a female fighter in it and a male and female bristlenase cat.
THANKS

 

[OrionGirl]

I'd add a school of one of the peaceful tetras--silver tips, blues, and bleeding hearts are my current favorites. Another option would be some of the smaller rainbows--praecox or celebes would work nicely.

You'll want to avoid gouramies and long finned fish--even the female betta can be nasty and attack similar looking fish.

The bristlenose pair might breed--they can be very prolific.

 

[TKOS]

A nice school of silver tip tetras would look great. They seem to be really great at maintaining the school over a period of time. My parents still tightly school a year later.

Otherwise a schhol of cherry barbs might be nice as well.

 

[ROLLIN]

A real nice looking tetra IMO in a group is the black neon.

 

[ChilDawg]

Harlequin rasboras!

 

[skylinegtts]

i took my female fighter out and i put in some of my small platies from my other tank
and i recently just bought 6 head and tail light tetras and a male dwarf gourami.
would i be able 2 add anymore fish?

 

[ChilDawg]

How many platies, and how small are they?

If they're too small, they might be gourami food...

It sounds as though there might be enough room for some Cories, but I need a little more information on plantings as well as on the numbers of Platies...

Or, you could make a larger school of H&TLTs, if there's enough room for them.

 

[skylinegtts]

i have 5 platies and they are about 1 inch long
and i dont have many plants in there onli some eldoea or something i dont knoe the name and a medium size java fern which is reproducing like crazy, ( lol i didnt even pay for it, i was buying some javamoss and it got stuck in with it and the guy didnt see so i ended up getting the java fern and java moss for the price of one ) i also have a piece of driftwood in the tank and im looking to get more plants soon

 

[ChilDawg]

I'd go for some more plants, but you'd be all right in adding some more Head- and Tail-light Tetras...I'd do that to make for a bigger school, and the gourami might scare 'em in line every now and again!

 

[ChilDawg]

The platies sound like they are of size to avoid the gourami, so the whole tank would be in harmony with a few more tetras...I'd encourage it as Characoids are sometimes regarded as fin-nippers, so the more in a specific school, the merrier, and the safer the gourami's pectoral feelers would be.