20 Tall Stocking - already have danios in it

[Doc7]

[cross posted from the article discussion forum which i realized was pretty dead after submitting it]

Hello - (first post!) - I have a 20 Tall with 3 zebra danios in it right now (fishy cycle underway). It is my first tank. I still have no nitrite levels (3+ weeks in, keeping ammonia ppm low with frequent gravel vac and water changes) so I have a while.

You have no 20-talls listed with zebra danios so I'm looking for a bit of advice. Would a dwarf gourami, 7 danios (pretty much have to go on with them at this point), and 6 pygmy cories be ok? I heard I might have trouble finding the pygmies in a store... I have an AquaClear 30 HOB running.

Here is a pic of my tank...I need to feel the substrate to see how sharp it is regarding the cories...are there changes I need to make to the plastic plants / decor for happy fish?

Thank you...

 

[Doc7]

Also; my danios bred apparently, as I discovered during a water change approximately 3 days ago. I saved anything that looked like a solid object from that change and have gone from 2 fry to 10 in a small bowl. they aren't "free swimming" yet by my definition of the word...when do they need to start being fed?

 

[cicrush13]

Once the fry are free swimming they will need to be fed. Use baby brine shrimp. You can get some frozen at petsmart or you can hatch your own. It's not hard but it does take a day for eggs to hatch.

As far as the stocking is concerned. I would not mix a dwarf gourami and zebra danios. Even though both are listed as community fish, danios are very very active fish. The gourami is not as hyper. The cories would be fine in that tank. I would look at apistogramma species or a bolivian ram instead of the gourami since he ould get stressed from the danios.

 

[Doc7]

Thinking about doubling up the plants in that tank...

I am so hooked ... I already kind of want to start a second tank, with a sandy bottom, live plants, etc, and use this one for a betta...

 

[Doc7]

on 2nd thought i am pretty positive i'm going to swap out the substrate in this tank for sand

 

[RodInCALIFORNIA]

your tank looks great as it is

 

[shewolfgeo]

you can also use micro worms to feed the fry.

 

[kelly82]

when my danios bred i fed them finely crushed flake, rubbed a flake between my fingers until it was almost like dust. i kept the teeny babies in a plastic tub in the main tank, then i moved them into their own 3g tank. i still have the 'babies' in my big tank now, all grown up, i love breeding my own fish :grinyes:

 

[Doc7]

The reason I want to switch to sand is to make it more pygymy cory friendly...

but I am worried about detritus (poo, etc) showing up easily on a sandy bottom.

How big of an issue is it? Also if I wanted to convert to planted some day would sand be OK? Converting from gravel to sand will be a pain, but sand to gravel sounds even worse lol.

 

[AnythingShiny]

Yeah, I've gone from sand to gravel and it is no fun. I have heard of people keeping very successful planted tanks in sand. I believe Platytudes does it, but I'm not sure. It shouldn't be too dificult to convert-- just get a bucket for the fish, suck almost all the water out, and scoop out the gravel. With sand bottoms, you just have to run the gravel vac over the sand, so it's pretty simple to do water changes. You do have to do them more often, though. I think a sands bottom would look awesome with pygmy cories and plants, but I have kept false juliis on that same gravel for six months and they are all happy and have long barbells. They're even showing breeding behavior. I've never kept pygmy cories, but it seems like they spend more time off the substrate, so if you really want sand, go for it, but if you don't, you shouldn't have a problem.