Stocking a 20 Gallon Long

[BallAquatics]

I've got about a dozen of these guys in a 20 long.....

They are active enough to keep it interesting, but not so much that they drive you to distraction. A planted 20 long makes a great species tank for many of the danios..... these by the way are Danio kerri. First collected back in 1929 in south-western Thailand by Mr. A. F. G. Kerr and named in his honor. Not often found in the hobby, but well worth the efforts when you do find them. There will be a bag of these in the silent auction this Saturday at the CAFE 2014 Convention! http://www.columbusfishclub.org/CAFE_Convention.php If you're in the central Ohio area this weekend be sure to stop by.

Dennis

 

[kumar420]

In my 20G long I have a shoal of 11 harlequin rasboras, a little group of five sterbai cories, 6 zebra nerite snails and 5 amano shrimp, with plans for a single male GBR. I went with the rasboras partially because of the colours (complemented my pink and green plants and contrasted nicely with the bright green ones) and partially because I could get more of them than most species of tetra. In my opinion a group of cories is a must in a community tank, they are great to watch and fairly easy to care for. Kids love them too.

I like my shrimp however I do have a few peeves- they leave molted shells everywhere and try and hog any food pellets or algae wafers I drop (although the cories have none of it and barge them out of the way), and the biggest one always bullies the smaller one when they get in his space. But i guess thats nature at work, has to be a pecking order. They are awesome cleaners though, never have a problem with uneaten food and they eat slightly more hair algae than the snails (its a close call though).

basically it depends on what you want in your tank- species only, themed or biotope, community, planted or not.

Plants make maintenance easier by helping with the water filtration removing ammonia and nitrates, as well as providing cover for the fish and also look good when provided with adequate lighting. As an apprentice in the hobby I always go for low light plants (2 watts per gallon is reccomended, but I currently only have 1.5WPG and my plants are growing nicely- I am planning an upgrade though). Examples of these species are anubias nana, java fern (needs to be tied onto a rock/driftwood as it is a water column feeder), smaller sword plants, red ludwigia (great looking easy to care for plant) and so on. Check out your local fish store and see what they have and do some research.

As far as fish go, research smaller shoaling fish, dwarf cichlids and gouramis, small bottom feeding catfish, small plecostomus sucker catfish/otocinclus. Come back and we can advise on what will be compatible and what will not. I find liveaquaria.ca useful for general fish information.