Please give me your opinion! experienced fish keepers only!?
by Aquaboy on Thursday, June 24th, 2010 | 11 Comments
I now have decided on gouramis in my 20 gallon tank. I have two female(i think) Dwarf gouramis in the tank to cycle it now for about three days. When the tank is completely cycled how many more fish can i put in the aquarium? What kinds of fish, without overstocking?
I have made a list of what I would like to have:
2 Dwarf Gouramis
4 Hatchett fish
6 neon danios ( i think thats their name, I saw them in the fish store, bright red, yellow and green)
1 Crab or some shrimp
that is too much for the tankk
Other is acceptable just exclude the crab and shrimp .
They will feed on your small fish.
So the crab and shrimp must not be added to the community tank.
Hope my advise do help you on choosing the right type of fish for your tank.
Good luck.
i have a 10 gallon tank with about 15 fish, experts say ” 1 inch of fish per every gallon of water ” but my fish are doing fine ,but my fish aren’t as big a gouramis i have a few tetras but not bigger than that i would also suggest that if you get males then you have 3 females per male so that the male has lots to pick from when mating ….. hope you like my suggestion
- have fun fish keeping <3 Taylor
Choosing to cycle your tank with gouramis was a bad move, they are unlikely to survive an ammonia spike. I would take them back and cycle the tank fishlessly.
Http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Guides
Read up on the nitrogen cycle, it takes several weeks for the bacteria to establish.
As for the stocking of your tank. It could work, but no crab, and watch for nipping from the danios (they are genetically modified zebra danios). You would have to watch for danios freaking out the hatchets, personally, i would cut out the hatchets altogether. danios are hugely active little fish, possibly a shoal of tetras like glowlight or cardinal would work better.
Shrimp like amano shrimp would work. Stock slowly.
that tank would be overstocked. Overstocked fish tanks are very difficult to keep and maintain. it is much easier to keep an understocked tank than an overstocked one.
I would be worried about the dwarf gouramis. Gouramis are semi agressive fish, who have a difficult time living with other community fish. If you wish to have a peaceful community tank, stay away from the gouramis.
The Hatchets will stay at the top, and the Gouramis will spend a lot of time there too. With all of them up top, it will make the rest look kinda empty.
One of the biggest things leading to overstocking is that people want the tank to look full and lively – it can be done by making sure that you have something to occupy the upper, middle, and lower strata of the tank.
I think the Gouramis, and a shoal of 6 smaller Tetras, with three Panda Corys for the bottom would work out great.
I wouldn’t go with a crab for a few reasons – but Ghost Shrimp, or even better, Cherry Shrimp can be used too.
* I am not a fan of heavily stocked tanks – It gets to where there is so much going on you can’t see anything….
Besides, the heavier you are stocked the harder it is to keep everything going right and mistakes tend to get amplified. Disease is harder to deal with in a heavy tank too – since not all fish do well with all meds, it can limit you.
[EDIT]
Anyone who tells you “1 inch per gallon” is hardly an expert – quite the opposite actually.
Also – Gouramis (Trichogaster trichopterus) canbe beligerant and territorial. Not good community members and get too large for a 20g anyway. However, as some don’t seem to notice, you are referring to Dwarf Gouramis (Colisa lalia) which is a completely different fish. They are very peaceful toward tankmates.
I would advise against adding a crab as they need a place to get out of the water and may prey on your fish if they’re big enough for them. If you buy a shrimp make sure it is one and not a crayfish, as some places sell them as, don’t buy one with claws. Apart from that your list looks feasible. You could also add a few more community fish like a swordtail, a molly, a platy, tetra. I think four more fish of any of the ones I’ve mentioned would be your limit. Make it just two more just to be safe.
You really shouldn’t cycle your tank with any live fish in it, because they are very likely to die. You said “in the tank to cycle it now for about three days” – do you mean that you have been cycling for 3 days, or you only intend to cycle the tank for 3 days? I hate to disappoint you but it will take longer than this to cycle your tank. If you start out with water and some substrate from an established tank, it will speed up the cycling process but don’t expect it to take less than a week (a full, 7 day week). I’ve found that using established water (as much as you can, but it depends on your resources. Go to your LFS and see if anyone will help you out, mine was awesome when I was starting out), and adding plants is the best way to cycle a tank, with daily readings my 26 gal tank only took 1 week to cycle.
As for the fish you’ve chosen I only have a few comments:
- Watch the two dwarf gouramis. I had a male/female pair in my tank for about 3 months, but when the female wouldn’t breed with the male the male killed her, though they are normally very peaceful fish. Because Hatchet Fish are also surface dwellers and feeders, you may have too many large fish at the top region of your tank. How are they for feeding? Because I know that Dwarf Gouramis are voracious eaters that like to scare away other fish. So you may have trouble there. Both species can have been known for jumping too, so I would also watch this and make sure you cover the tank at all times.
The neon danios would likely be an excellent addition to your tank, and 6 is a good number to see some schooling. (I have 5 harlequin rasboras,) If you can, you should get a few more!
I would stay away from the crab because he could attack your fish and hurt or kill them. I would also avoid keeping shrimp *as pets* because they’re likely to get eaten.
I would also suggest you cut back on the number of Hatchet Fish you get, maybe to two, and get a pair of Bristlenose Catfish (ancistrus sp.(3)), because they will keep your tank clean of algae, are cool looking fish an are really easy to breed. Raising fry is one of my favourite things about fish keeping so far!
You could also keep a pair of Kribensis Cichlids, or a trio of yoyo loaches (Pakistani Loaches or Botia almorhae). If you go with any kind of loach, however, be aware that they will be very efficient at eating any kind of fry, snail, or small invertebrate. And they will eventually outgrow your tank.
Your tank size is somewhat flexible, just remember to add fish very slowly after that initial cycling (I’ve said that the minimum is about a week but the norm is a month – I was lucky enough to have quite a lot of established water and substrate to add to my tank in the cycling process), and that the more fish you have the more diligent you will have to be with cleaning (which should be once a week, and no less than once every two weeks.)
For example this is what I have in my 80L tank (not sure on the gallons, it’s 20-something), which I clean every 5 days:
1 male Dwarf Gourami
5 Harlequin Rasboras
2 Common Bristlenose
1 Albino Bristlenose
3 Yoyo Loaches
2 Kribensis
I’ve upped the cleaning routine to once every 5 days because the 5 Rasboras were a gift from a friend, and I’m waiting to move the 2 Kribensis and Albino Bristlenose to another tank when I have time to set it up and cycled. I also have a fair number of live plants and hiding spaces in this tank, both very important for successful fishkeeping in my opinion.
Aand furthermore it doesn’t take a lot of effort to keep fish healthy and happy : my B/n pair has bred 4 times in as many months, and my Krib pair bred within 1 week of my getting them (but unfortunately the loaches ate all of the fry >:( ). Just make sure you have a reliable source of information that you can reference when you have questions and have fun
Generally they say it’s one inch of fish per gallon. Sounds like your tank is already overstocked, and those Gouramis will grow quite large. The Gouramis may get aggressive in such a small space, and may attack the Hatchets and Danios (Danios especially).
If you don’t want to get a larger tank stick to smaller and fewer fish. If your tank is overcrowded the fish will release nitrates (stress hormones) which will pollute the water and kill the livestock.
You can have all the Fish that you have stated but will have to increase the Filteration, i would recommend a Fluval 305 External Filter loaded with Fluval Clearmax (Keep Nitrates under control), Activated Carbon (Polishes and cleans water)and Ammonia Remover (To remove dangerous levels of Ammonia) or a 405 or the Daddy FX5 Filters might sound excessive but they have a flow control so won’t blow away the fish.
Also note that Neons can be a Pain! and are not long lived, have you thought of a species tank Black Gravel, Black Background and a tank full of illuminous Neons would look Fab! and could be Run on a Fluval 305 External Filter.
Good Luck and keep on adding plenty of Stress Zyme!!!!
it would of been a better idea to cycle the tank with guppies or something like that. I wouldn’t have the crab or shrimp. what you need to know is the full grown sizes (or typically what they would be) and go from there, for tropical fish you have to have 1 gallon of water for every inch of the fish, so a 1 inch fish would need 1 gallon, a 4 inch fish would need 4 gallons.. etc.