Chase J

Okay i have a new tank plan. I think im gonna trade in my pleco cuz he will outgrow the tank is this okay for a 20 gal.? : 4 cherry barbs, 2 cories, 2 swordtails, 2 platys, and two dwarf gouramis? NOT AGRESSIONWISE SPACE WISE!!

Nick G

If you are only going to have 2 swordtails and Platys they all need to be female really. If you have males 1 will bully the other. If you have a male and a female the male will chase the female to death. If you have male Swords and female Platys or the other way round they will try and interbreed.Spacewise it'll be fine

Chase J

Okay What If I have one male swordtail and all rest females (female swords and two female platys)

Nick G

Should be okay, but better to have one male sword and two females. That would still be fine spacewise

Chase J

well if they would interbreed then shouldnt it be fine or will the male harrass the female sword more than the platies?

Nick G

Yeah he'll go after the female sword. They generally only interbreed if there are only 1 sex of each species in a tank. e.g-1 male sword, 0 females, 0 male Platys, 2 females. But all fish are different so it might be okay.

Chase J

would all females be better?

Nick G

Yeah, or get all platys or swords

Chase J

okay would that plan PLUS an octiniclus catfish be okay

Nick G

Yeah it should be fine. Just do regular water changers and maintenence

Chase J

so that will be completely...COMPLETELY fine space wise or will my ammo levels spike. all im asking is if that is too much fish for a 20 gallon

Nick G

No, it'll be fine as long as you keep up with water changes and don't overfeed. I have 2 20gal tanks. One has 2 Angels, 6 Platies and 4 Corys. The other has 2 Kribs, 6 Neons, 5 Danio's and a BN Pleco. And they're both fine

Minnow

Actually, I think that is too many fish. I added up the inches and got 33, which is over a foot more than you have room for. I know the inches per gallon thing is more of a guideline, but it's a good one, and that's too big of a difference to make up for with water changes, in my opinion. I would go with:

4 cherry barbs (8 inches total)
3 corys (7.5 inches total)
1 swordtail (5 inches total)
1 dwarf gourami (3 inches total)

That makes 23.5 inches total, which is a little overstocked, but manageable with frequent water changes and good maintenance.

Chase J

so will 25 % water changes weekly be fine?

Minnow

That should be fine. It depends on your parameters, really. If you have high nitrates, you should do more frequent, larger changes until you get them under control again.