Overstocked?

[OceanMouse]

I'm just now starting my first aquarium, it's a 20Gallon Long. Besides the pictures, I have six plants coming to spread throughout, and a piece of spider driftwood I was going to put dead center at the back of the tank. I was using this calculator to figure out how many fish I could add, and they still be comfortable, but it seems like a lot. I was just at 100% stocked with...

One Bolivian Ram
One Bamboo Shrimp
Six Clown Killifish
Six Guppies
Four African Dwarf Frogs
Two Mystery Snails

Would that be OK? Or would there be a way to stock the Killifish, Guppies, and Frogs together, at least?

[KBOzzie59]

Am trying to remember what we have in our 20 long, here goes...

• 6 Candycane Tetras
• 10'ish Mutt  Guppies
• 1 Dwarf Frog
• 5 Rummy Nose Tetras
• 4 Kuhli Loaches
• 1 Teacup Platty
• 2 Adult Super Red Plecos + about 4 Juviniles
• 6 Pepper  Corys
• And 50+ Cherry Shrimp
• A bunch of plants
• I feel like I'm forgetting someone

Normally only needs topped off unless we feed heavy to get the pepper corys to spawn.   Then water change as needed.

Picture of this tank in my "Very Random Journal" in my signature

 

 

Edited April 5, 2022 by KBOzzie59

[H.K.Luterman]

What's going on with the mustache duct tape? Did the tank break or is it just for decoration?

[OceanMouse]

On 4/5/2022 at 10:08 AM, H.K.Luterman said:

What's going on with the mustache duct tape? Did the tank break or is it just for decoration?

Decoration. A relative passed away, it was her tank from high school, so I just leave it on. The tanks structurally sound

On 4/5/2022 at 9:36 AM, KBOzzie59 said:

Am trying to remember what we have in our 20 long, here goes...

• 6 Candycane Tetras
• 10'ish Mutt  Guppies
• 1 Dwarf Frog
• 5 Rummy Nose Tetras
• 4 Kuhli Loaches
• 1 Teacup Platty
• 2 Adult Super Red Plecos + about 4 Juviniles
• 6 Pepper  Corys
• And 50+ Cherry Shrimp
• A bunch of plants
• I feel like I'm forgetting someone

Normally only needs topped off unless we feed heavy to get the pepper corys to spawn.   Then water change as needed.

Picture of this tank in my "Very Random Journal" in my signature

 

 

Wow, ok... Then would I be OK adding Kahli Loach? Nothing besides the Bolivian Ram is a bottom dweller. Or using Cherry Shrimp instead of Bamboo? 

[KBOzzie59]

I think the bamboo will be fine, they feed out of the water column with their catchers mitts. Yep loach will be fine.

[OceanMouse]

On 4/5/2022 at 2:39 PM, KBOzzie59 said:

I think the bamboo will be fine, they feed out of the water column with their catchers mitts. Yep loach will be fine.

I just got to see the video of your 20 gallon tank, and just wow. It looks great. Sorry to be asking so much, but how will I know when my tank is getting overcrowded? I assume at the very least the guppies will raise the population. Or if fish will school together like yours are versus being aggressive or stressed?

On 4/5/2022 at 3:04 PM, OceanMouse said:

I just got to see the video of your 20 gallon tank, and just wow. It looks great. Sorry to be asking so much, but how will I know when my tank is getting overcrowded? I assume at the very least the guppies will raise the population. Or if fish will school together like yours are versus being aggressive or stressed?

Like if I could still add a couple Molly's or Lyretail Killifish with what I've already named, that's my wife's dream aquarium 

[KBOzzie59]

On 4/5/2022 at 1:04 PM, OceanMouse said:

how will I know when my tank is getting overcrowded?

When you are doing more water changes than you care to.

On 4/5/2022 at 1:04 PM, OceanMouse said:

I assume at the very least the guppies will raise the population

You can always do all males. 

I've had bad luck with molly's as they were pretty aggressive.   Went to teacup and variatus platy's and no problems.

 

Ahh I just remember who I forgot!  +1 Beta

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

@OceanMouseyou are leaving yourself with not a lot of room for error. That mystery snail gets caught in a decoration and dies, you don't catch it quick and bam everyone is dead. I am speaking from experience. Bamboo shrimp need a ton of flow - you feed them by dropping food that's powdered into the flow so that they can eat. They need a HOB or powerhead to send food their way. 

If I was newer in the hobby I would stick to one centerpiece fish - Bolivian Ram. 1 upper water fish - clown killis are great. 1 mid water fish - rummynose. And then maybe a group of 6 or so kuhlis or corys. I would not do african dwarf frogs with fish. They will eat clown killis, anything big enough to fit in their mouth they will eat. It would be a waste to put a liverbearer in there unless you want to have the frogs eat all the babies. I have them and lost some baby Gardneri killis to them. Also they are not great at finding food so you would have to majorly overfeed with all that stock to get them enough food. Also plant heavily - easy plants like water sprite, anubias, java fern, swords, pothos or lucky bamboo that will gobble up all the nitrates your livestock will produce. 

If you do go ahead with your stocking plan go slow, don't buy all the stock at once unless you want to water change every day or every other day for a month. Going slow let's the beneficial bacteria catch up to your stocking. 

Have fun, it sounds like it will be a fun adventure no matter which way you go with stocking. 

[OceanMouse]

On 4/5/2022 at 3:21 PM, KBOzzie59 said:

When you are doing more water changes than you care to.

You can always do all males. 

I've had bad luck with molly's as they were pretty aggressive.   Went to teacup and variatus platy's and no problems.

 

Ahh I just remember who I forgot!  +1 Beta

Everything I read said the Beta would be too much of a bully for killifish or other top swimmers. Or are females that much more docile? 

[OceanMouse]

On 4/5/2022 at 3:45 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

@OceanMouse

If I was newer in the hobby I would stick to one centerpiece fish - Bolivian Ram. 1 upper water fish - clown killis are great. 1 mid water fish - rummynose. And then maybe a group of 6 or so kuhlis or corys. I would not do african dwarf frogs with fish. They will eat clown killis, anything big enough to fit in their mouth they will eat. It would be a waste to put a liverbearer in there unless you want to have the frogs eat all the babies. I have them and lost some baby Gardneri killis to them. Also they are not great at finding food so you would have to majorly overfeed with all that stock to get them enough food. Also plant heavily - easy plants like water sprite, anubias, java fern, swords, pothos or lucky bamboo that will gobble up all the nitrates your livestock will produce. 

I had planned to add one species of fish at a time as I went along. I figured it'd spike the Ammonia if I didn't. I have a Java Fern and two Crested Java Ferns right now. I'm supposed to get a Crinum, Java/Christmas Moss, a Red Crypt, a Dwarf Sagittaria, Water Spangles, Hornwort, and Green Cabomba soon. The same time as the fertilizer and root tabs. As a substrate, I have aquarium gravel under a top layer of aquarium sand. Both from Petco and rinsed heavily before added. 

 

Do I need to keep the bare minimum group size for the Clown Killifish and Rummynose, or could I get a few extra? As for the frogs, I'm not planning on breeding on purpose. Really, I'm just hoping for it to all come together in a not horrendous way. My wife was wanting them more. Is there a way to get them, instead of the Rummynose? Would the Clown Killifish be the only ones in danger? I thought they were peaceful, except for fry

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

Great selection of plants! Love Crinums, I have 2 I am planting tonight. The dwarf sag is great in the foreground with crypts. 

You need to make the wife happy, get the frogs, shoot for 3-5. I would scrap the clown killies and get some pygmy or marble hatchets - more robust and awesome for the top 3rd. Keep the rummynoses, Yeah, they are peaceful but in a really derpy way. They stumble on things and try to eat them - they have horrible vision smell really all their senses are shite. 

Betas are a complete crapshoot - they are either totally chill or homicidal or chill then one day go off and kill everything. Sorry been there done that and this is both females and males. 

This will be a fun tank. 

[nabokovfan87]

On 4/5/2022 at 7:17 AM, OceanMouse said:

One Bolivian Ram
One Bamboo Shrimp
Six Clown Killifish
Six Guppies
Four African Dwarf Frogs
Two Mystery Snails

From everything I've heard the only issue might be the bamboo shrimp and/or the frogs. Be careful and make sure to identify the store has the "right frogs" as mentioned in this article below.

https://www.aquariumsource.com/african-dwarf-frog/

I think you're going to end up being slightly better off with 2 frogs OR 2 bamboo shrimp.  From what I have researching into their care the bamboo shrimp want pretty high flow and will seek out the high flow regions of the tank to go and fan for food. The frogs and the ram will probably want a bit slower/normal flow in comparison.  Everything else in the stocking seems fine to me.  I would just be very careful with the frogs because they can get to a decent size.

On 4/5/2022 at 1:45 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:

If I was newer in the hobby I would stick to one centerpiece fish - Bolivian Ram. 1 upper water fish - clown killis are great. 1 mid water fish - rummynose. And then maybe a group of 6 or so kuhlis or corys. I would not do african dwarf frogs with fish.

Agree completely here, and just to add on, the tank itself is very low in terms of height but has a lot of width and depth by comparison. There really isn't "room" for some of the species that want a lot of room to dart around.

[KBOzzie59]

On 4/5/2022 at 1:57 PM, OceanMouse said:

Beta would be too much of a bully

We have Beta's in 3 community tanks the only time he is a bully is when we exercise them with a mirror.