Sford13

Ok I bought my tank this past weekend. Have feeder goldfish in there jump starting my cycle now on the advice of person at LFS. 20 gal tank and hope to be able to remove the goldfish and start my stocking soon. I was originally going to go with a bristlenose pleco for algae control. But figure instead I might get a couple of snails. Would this be a good idea? And for a 20 gal tank how many snails would be good. Do think I will put some cory catfish in to help keep the food cleaned up off the bottom so really only looking for algae control. The tank is going to be a community tank. Tetras, glofish, and platies for the most part. Might throw in a male guppy or two.

Gouramiguy17

It depends on what type of snails you get. Bladder, pond, and mystery snails can reproduce like crazy. If I were you I would get some octoliptus catfish. They love algae and don't reproduce like crazy.
Btw pls don't cycle with feeder goldfish, you risk infecting the tank with all sorts of diseases.

coffeebean

i would go with snails. they do a great job and are smaller and less bioload then a pleco. apple / mystery snails require one snail of both sexes to reproduce, so if you have one, they wont reproduce. nerite snails are really good too. small, cute, cant reproduce in fresh water.
otos are a great choice too. they are great little guys. i would suggest 3 of them.
actually, i would suggest 3 otos AND a snail. snails are cool!

have you read about fishless cycling?

Blub

Nerite snails are high on my list of the most awesome algae eaters of all time. They do good with peaceful community fish and are savage to algae. They can lay eggs in FW, but the eggs don't hatch without salt. The eggs can be annoying, though.

It sounds like you are going to put a lot in there! What numbers where you thinking? 5 Glofish, 5 1.5" Tetras, 2-3 platys and 3 Corys is a pretty hefty bio-load for a 20gal tank.

Sford13

I was going to go with 3 Glofish, 5 probably neon or cardinal tetras, 2 or 3 platys, and only 1 Cory. My mom for years had a albino cory in her 20 gal community tank and it did fine.

Blub

Glofish are schoolers - they need at leas 5's. Corys are MUCH happier in a school - some can live for years alone, other's can't. Those that can are happier with a school though. Just saying it's probably a good idea to revise your stocking plan before you buy any fish - you don't want unhappy of overstocked fish!

Also, you might want to have Maylasian trumpet snails for some sort of algae eater. I have a load that keep my sand from compacting and they are kinda cool. They mainly come out at night.

Sford13

How would 5 tetras, 3 corys, 1 snail (no mating issue), and 2 platys do? Would that still be too many for a 20 gal tank. Looking to maximize colors in the tank as much as possible.

Blub

I think that sounds good. Well, really depending on the snail but a small Nerite snail, it would be a great stock list! Apple snails can get large - depending on the species.

Aldric

well I would vote for Nerite snail and a bristlenose. My BN has such a great personality