# 20 Gallon Stocking Ideas



## Sagittarius-Aquarius (Oct 30, 2009)

Okay, so I know what types of fish I'd like, but I'm wondering about huge conflicts in personality or parameters. It is a 20 gallon long.

12 Rummynose Tetras
8 Endler’s Livebearers
6 Ghost Shrimp
6 Julii Corys
1 Dwarf Gourami (Preferably a vivid powder blue)

It will be a planted tank, and I will have smooth substrate and driftwood. 

Also, if anyone has any alternate suggestions of really flashy fish that would go well with this selection, please let me know. I was thinking of Oto cats, but I hear they are very fragile.


----------



## ksimdjembe (Nov 11, 2006)

From what I understand rummynose tetras are for an already cycled and well established tank. They can be rather sensitive to water conditions.

I personally like fewer fish in each tank. though, you may not. If it were me, assuming you are set on these species, I might go with 8 of the rummynose (or a like schooling tetra - maybe ember tetra or a glow light tetra). 
As well, perhaps leave out the gourami. They can be very prone to disease as they are over-bred for the trade.

watch out for ghost shrimp, as there are many white-ish shrimp sold as such and many can get large and try to catch fish for dinner. maybe go with amano shrimp?


----------



## trailblazer295 (Mar 7, 2010)

X2 on leaving out the dwarf, a high percentage of them end up sick from disease they only seem to carry. You can try your luck but be aware there are good odds it will be sick.


----------



## Sagittarius-Aquarius (Oct 30, 2009)

trailblazer295 said:


> X2 on leaving out the dwarf, a high percentage of them end up sick from disease they only seem to carry. You can try your luck but be aware there are good odds it will be sick.


I'm currently treating a dwarf, maybe I'll try for a hardier variety or an entirely different fish altogether. For the timeline of the cycle, this would be a well-cycled tank, not the beginning. I have plenty of filter media to transfer, and would probably go for a couple of female bettas with some hardy fish to begin with.

I've heard females can form a hierarchy, or just won't mix well, so I'll keep an eye out.


----------



## Sagittarius-Aquarius (Oct 30, 2009)

Leaning more towards taking out the shrimp and gourami, and putting in a pair of blue rams.


----------



## AquariAM (Jan 28, 2010)

ksimdjembe said:


> From what I understand rummynose tetras are for an already cycled and well established tank. They can be rather sensitive to water conditions.


All fish are for an already cycled tank. Nobody should be fish in cycling. Especially with everyone here to share bacteria.

My suggestion is to do this

Get a good amount of cycled filter media and a bottle of seachem stability. Set the tank up, give it 24 hours, then

Start with this

10 Amano shrimp
6 Julii Corys
1 pair honey gourami (see below)

Feed very lightly, use stability as per instructions for 'new tank'. Use a test kit. Monitor your ammonia and nitrite. You should have a slight whisper of each for about a day and then levels should zero out and stay that way by the third or fourth day. Gradually up the level you're feeding and after a couple of weeks add a school of something. The choices there are pretty infinite. You could go with, for example, the group of rummynose, or a group of endler guppies.

I don't know if I'd go with two different schooling fish in a 20 gallon. It could be done but it'd be awfully crowded and I think it'd look a little off with that many kinds of fish and that many fish. I'd go with something like 5 female 2 male endlers, or if you can't find female endlers, just female show guppies, and let them propogate to a sustainable population size, and have the gouramis as the center pieces.

Anyways-- Honey Gourami, totally mellow, much less prone to coming in sick. Relatively peaceful, don't bother much. Eat almost anything. They're available in a yellow, red (blood), and normal morph. The normal morph is an orange-ish male with a dark almost black face and a greyish brown female. In the colored varieties the female is colored (yellow or red) you can tell them males by a more pointed dorsal fin. Females have a non pointed dorsal and a more rounded lobe on their anal fin.


----------

