if you do get cories, make sure you get all the same kind. otherwise you will have unhappy individuals instead of a happy group.
Stocking 20 gal - tetras??
- Thread starter Shawna
- Start date
Local fish stores will often say that common plecos are great scavengers and that every community tank needs one. Beware, they get huge very quickly.
LMOUTHBASS
My hypocrisy goes only so far
A common pleco is completely out of the question for a 20g tank - in fact most plecos aren't really great scavengers at all - most need a little bit of wood in their diets also - if you decide on a pleco get a clown pleco as they stay small - however i really wouldn't get a pleco for scavenging purposes - the shrimp were a good suggestion - but cories are great fun to own - just get a small group 3-5 of them and be sure to feed a sinking wafer of some type - they will also pick up your scraps but scraps alone just are not enough to maintain a healthy life for them
SOunds good. Thanks for all the advice!
One other question - about filtration. I had planned on getting another filter like the ones I already owned (intake tube that hangs in the water and sucks it up, then spills it back in a waterfall - forget what there called) anyway, I was wondering if that could be a potentially bad choice. I had a baby oranda that kept getting sucked onto the intake tube because he was so tiny. I know these guys are pretty tiny - so do you forsee a problem???
One other question - about filtration. I had planned on getting another filter like the ones I already owned (intake tube that hangs in the water and sucks it up, then spills it back in a waterfall - forget what there called) anyway, I was wondering if that could be a potentially bad choice. I had a baby oranda that kept getting sucked onto the intake tube because he was so tiny. I know these guys are pretty tiny - so do you forsee a problem???
A healthy fish should not be sucked up against a filter - providing that you don't have a filter rated for a pool on a 29g tank. If you are concerned (or paranoid), just get a filter sponge and attach it to the part that hangs into the tank. It is small fry and sick fish that usually succumb to a filter. It's called an HOB (Hang on Back) filter, by the way.
Ideally, you would want one bigger school of fish than two smaller ones. However, if you were to get 12 tetras, 6 neons and 6 glowlights, you'd be alright. Sometimes mine school together, sometimes they don't. In a 20g tank, they probably wont' do much schooling anyway once they get settled in. Fish that are not schooling are happy, contented and safe. Constantly schooling fish (except in the wild or in very large tanks) are showing that they dont' feel completely safe on their own.
Ideally, you would want one bigger school of fish than two smaller ones. However, if you were to get 12 tetras, 6 neons and 6 glowlights, you'd be alright. Sometimes mine school together, sometimes they don't. In a 20g tank, they probably wont' do much schooling anyway once they get settled in. Fish that are not schooling are happy, contented and safe. Constantly schooling fish (except in the wild or in very large tanks) are showing that they dont' feel completely safe on their own.
It depends..is the tank going to be ONLY tetras? And what type of tetras are you looking to buy? I have neon tetras which are really cool fish..they should be kept in small schools of @ least 6..and if you only have 6 you could get many other small fish too!
