lifechooser

The ammonia levels in my cycling 60l (16 US gallon) tank have plummetted in the last couple of days

The nitrites can't be far behind, it's time to start planning my fish.

I want everything to be small, so I'm thinking;
3 Neon Tetras
2 Cardinal Tetras (the should school with the neons?)
4 White Cloud Minnows
1 Corycat.

I make that 19", which is a little overstocked according to the 1" per gallon rule mentioned on this forum a lot, but I can't see an easy way to avoid this without causing schooling issues. Surely if I change water more frequently, and also, won't smaller fish cause less bio load than larger fish as they are smaller in 3 dimensions, not just length? Tetra seem to advise 1cm/litre, so 60cm or 24" of fish.

With less tetras and minnows, they won't school, and I really need a corycat to add variety and do some cleaning of the sand.

So;
Are my fish compatible?
Are there too many fish, or is tetra's advice ok?
Are there too few of one species? Will they school, will the corycat get lonely?

peacemaker92

3 Neon tetras aren't good enough for a school. I heard cardinal tetras can be aggressive with neons (thats what I heard). I don't know much about minnows and Corycats, sorry. So you can either choose between neon tetras or cardinal tetras.

Here's what I'd put:

6 Neon tetras
1 Corycat
or
5 Cardinal tetras
1 Corycat
or
??

In case you don't know yet, you can't fill your tank straight away with all those fish. You have to do it 2 or 3 at a time. Meaning put 2 or 3 fish a week to allow your filter to slowly manage the new bio-load.

Hope my info is useful!

lifechooser

I'll bear that in mind. Does anyone else have advice on the other fish?

Lucy

peacemaker92's list looks good.
The minnows are are a cooler water fish who like temps between 45-70F and the cories do well in temps of 72-78F.

Sometimes of the same shape and size will school, but I don't have personal experience with that.

Good luck.

HatchetHaven

In a 16gal, there isn't really room for 2 proper schools. I'd pick 6 neons and 3 Panda corys.
Corys don't like being alone - in order to thrive they must have friends.