Do I have space in my 20 long for another nano species?

[Tory]

Currently have a heavily planted (and always willing to add more plants 😉) 20 gallon long tank with 7 kuhli loaches, 13 cherry shrimp, 1 nerite snail, and 5 endlers (they're new and will obviously reproduce)

I have two separate sponge filters running - a co-op medium sized one hooked up to an Aquatop Ap-50 air pump and one from amazon that has a chamber with media balls hooked up to a Tetra Whisper 20-40.

I'm wondering if I have space to add a school of celestial pearl danios? Or any other nano species? Before this tank I've only ever kept single bettas, so I've fallen completely in love with seeing all the life & different species in my tank lol. There's lots of cover and hiding spaces.

I'm also currently cycling and working on a scape in my empty 10 gallon. My plan for that as of now is for it to be a shrimp tank / nursery tank for once the shrimp & endlers start reproducing. So I do have that as a backup. Also am considering getting a 5 gallon for the shrimp instead so I could use this 10 gallon for something else.

Thoughts, comments, concerns?? Thanks y'all 🙂

[Howfie_03]

Yes, you have tons of room and honestly your tank is probably way over filtered (not that I think that’s necessarily bad but a single sponge filter would have likely been enough biological filtration. 
 

You could totally do a nano schooling fish. 12 cpds would be a fine addition. 
 

The shrimp and endlers will reproduce for sure. In the community tank there will probably be snacking on shrimp and endler fry but if it’s heavily planted you’ll get some that survive. If you want more endlers then remove the fry to the 10 gallon tank to grow out. Personally I think shrimp in the community tank are awesome and I wouldn’t set up another shrimp tank unless your goal is to breed and sell for profit. In that case it makes sense to keep them in the 10 and also use the 10 for fry grow out. Keep the 5G as a hospital/quarantine tank. 
 

those are my suggestions 🙂 good luck! 

[Tory]

51 minutes ago, Howfie_03 said:

Yes, you have tons of room and honestly your tank is probably way over filtered (not that I think that’s necessarily bad but a single sponge filter would have likely been enough biological filtration. 
 

You could totally do a nano schooling fish. 12 cpds would be a fine addition. 
 

The shrimp and endlers will reproduce for sure. In the community tank there will probably be snacking on shrimp and endler fry but if it’s heavily planted you’ll get some that survive. If you want more endlers then remove the fry to the 10 gallon tank to grow out. Personally I think shrimp in the community tank are awesome and I wouldn’t set up another shrimp tank unless your goal is to breed and sell for profit. In that case it makes sense to keep them in the 10 and also use the 10 for fry grow out. Keep the 5G as a hospital/quarantine tank. 
 

those are my suggestions 🙂 good luck! 

Thank you so much, this is helpful! I know I'm over filtering, I'm just kinda in a "better safe than sorry" mindset after losing a betta to fin rot while I was just starting learning about proper fish keeping. Also someone in a facebook group (I know I shouldn't listen to them 😂) told me a couple weeks ago that a 20 gallon wasn't enough for even just my kuhlis which made me super paranoid. AqAdvisor says I have plenty of space, but then I heard Cory say in a video that he doesn't trust AqAdvisor so I was like ahhhhh what do I do! Haha so thank you for the input, much appreciated!!

[Kirsten]

I'll second everything @Howfie_03 says. CPDs would make an excellent addition to that 20g. But be prepared for your endlers to breed like whoa. I'm sitting on at least 50 lil endler babies in my 36g that uh no one's eating...So start thinking about stores or friends to gift them to 😄

A 10g would be great for a grow-out or quarantine tank since most meds work in multiples of 10g. 10g or 5g could work for the endler males if you're like ENOUGH with the babies, please. 5g is also enough for a single pea puffer and a lifetime supply of trumpet snails and ramshorn snails, just sayin.

[Tory]

17 minutes ago, Kirsten said:

I'll second everything @Howfie_03 says. CPDs would make an excellent addition to that 20g. But be prepared for your endlers to breed like whoa. I'm sitting on at least 50 lil endler babies in my 36g that uh no one's eating...So start thinking about stores or friends to gift them to 😄

A 10g would be great for a grow-out or quarantine tank since most meds work in multiples of 10g. 10g or 5g could work for the endler males if you're like ENOUGH with the babies, please. 5g is also enough for a single pea puffer and a lifetime supply of trumpet snails and ramshorn snails, just sayin.

Thank you!! The endlers started doing their mating dance while they were still acclimating in a specimen container and had spent 3 days in the mail in below freezing temps 😳 so I have no doubt they're gonna breed beyond what I can deal with haha that's a good idea to have a backup to separate the males and females! I'd like to eventually add a slightly bigger fish that might help population control, but still figuring that out.

Since it seems that I do have more room in the 20 gallon, I probably will use the 10 as a grow-out / shrimp tank. 

And ugh pea puffers are so adorable I would love to have a puffer but I'm nervous that it would die I'd feel terrible!