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20 gallon long...slowly building up to "overstocked"?


Emrie G
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Hi! So at the end of this month I'll FINALLY be moving into an apartment, which means I get to set up my first 20 gallon tank ever! I picked out a 20 gallon long since I knew that was what I wanted. It'll be a fight to get the thing cycled since I'll have to add fish within a week of setting it up (yay, moving), but I have seasoned filter media to add and plenty of time to monitor the tank, so I'm hopeful things will go well. Starting out, I'll have five platies (two adult females, an adult male, and two near-adult juveniles who I hope are female). I also have a lone bronze cory catfish who will be added in once I get her some friends; right now she's living in a mixed group of cories that were all acquired through weird circumstances. My goal is to eventually have eight bronze cories and around 7-10 platies who will probably get switched in and out every once in a while as I'll be using them for a breeding project. I'm going to try running a 60 gallon sponge filter on this tank just because I have the thing and may as well use it, and I plan to have plenty of live plants. I have an Amazon sword and a strange bulb plant I keep forgetting the identity of that are quickly outgrowing their current homes, and I'll have anubias barteri and java moss as well as other things. I'm wondering if down the line, after adding cories and some more platies, it MIGHT be feasible to add a trio of hillstream loaches since I love the way they look and act. From the reading I've done there seems to be a small temperature range where platies, cories, and hillstreams can live together, and I would add a HOB filter at one end of the tank to give the hillstreams a space with a stronger flow. What do y'all think? Too many fish? Completely incompatible fish? Or is there a good chance it will work out okay? 

 

 

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Congratulations on the new place! It’s great that you’re setting up a 20l. It’s a good size tank for plants and gives you options for lots of different fish.  

So you’re thinking 8-10 platies, 8 Corydoras and 2-3 Hillstream loaches? That looks good to me. You won’t get away with skipping too many water changes, but I wouldn’t consider it overstocked. 

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I’ve not kept hillstream loaches but if @Patrick_G says it’s good it probably is. 
For your bulb try looking up Aponogeton types. Those are very common bulb plants in the hobby. Best of luck and congratulations on your new place and new tank. I hope you share pictures when you get it started. 

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As far as quantity of fish, you'll be fine. Only thing that grabs my eye is that there isn't much overlap in recommended temperature for bronze corydoras and hillstream loaches. You can consider panda corydoras which closer match the recommended water parameters of the hillstream loaches, but you'll probably be fine either way.

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@kahjtheundedicated I literally started thinking about this about an hour before you commented. I definitely think I'm going to go with panda cories for this tank, since it looks like then I won't need a heater with my apartment in the mid-70s all year. Thanks for the advice! 

@Solstice_LacerI'll definitely get a journal thread going once I've got the tank set up! I'm excited to see how hillstream loaches work for me; I've never kept any loaches before though I've wanted to for ages. 

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