40 Gallon Questions

Hey there,

A quick rundown of my current tanks and future ideas:

20 High stocked w/

2 Dwarf Gourami's (young)
7 Neon Tetra's (2 adults, 5 young)
5 Long-Skirt Tetra's (nearly fully grown)
5 Serpae Tetra's (2 adults 3 young)
1 Bristlenose Pelco (adult 4"-5")

10 Gallon w/ Betta
5.5 Gallon w/ Betta

In my 20gal I'm running a Marineland Penguin-Biowheel 150 and a Single Sponge filter with a very powerful pump. As it stands right now my tanks cycle is great and my numbers are always 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, 0-5 nitrates (lots of live plants and weekly 50% water changes+gravel vacuums help keep this super low).

Needless to say, it's fully stocked. Many would argue I'm pretty overstocked and having multiple schools in a 20 gallon isn't ideal, and I agree. According to the websiteI'm good on filtration but about 113% stocked.

I'm looking to upgrade soon and we do live in a 3rd story apartment building so I don't want anything above 40 gallon as I feel like that would probably be overkill, not only on our floors but just in general for the size/maintenance requirement. I'm wondering if a 40 gallon would be an ideal setup for this amount of fish and what are the differences between a 40 breeder which I hear a lot about, and a normal 40 gallon? I do want a longer tank and I wish I got a 20 long instead, but I got this tank second hand basically free, with fish, filters, and the whole setup (of course I spent tons of money adding to the hobby though ).

Could I do away with a smaller tank? Do they make 30 longs? I'd love to have larger fish in the future but that'll wait until we make our home purchase in the hopefully soon future so we can have a dedicated fish room/basement. I really want Fancy Goldfish but I know they need a 40 gallon just for like 2 of them, but with my current stocking would a 40 be the best bet? Thank you.

Cheers.

 

I'd get a 40 gallon & stock like this:

40:

Skirt tetras (up to 8)
Serpae tetras (up to 8)
Dwarf gourami (1)
Pleco (1)

20:

Neon tetras (up to 12)
Dwarf gourami (1)

 

I'd get a 40 gallon & stock like this:

40:

Skirt tetras (up to 8)
Serpae tetras (up to 8)
Dwarf gourami (1)
Pleco (1)

20:

Neon tetras (up to 12)
Dwarf gourami (1)

Not a bad idea. Do you think the Gourami's will be aggressive as they get older? I just got them not long ago because my friend had to get rid of his tank and the local fish store wouldn't take them. I knew I planned on upgrading soon so I figure it wouldn't be a big deal for now.

 

Not a bad idea. Do you think the Gourami's will be aggressive as they get older? I just got them not long ago because my friend had to get rid of his tank and the local fish store wouldn't take them. I knew I planned on upgrading soon so I figure it wouldn't be a big deal for now.

To each other? Likely.
To the other fish? Probably not.

 

It also depends on the gourami, and they might be okay with each other when there’s a bigger tank (more room to spread out) then again, they might start fighting. It’s good to have a backup tank just in case!

 

I am also in a similar situation where I live on the 3rd floor of an apt building but I want to upgrade to something bigger. I am in NYC, so space is limited and I think I have settled on getting an Aqueon 38 gallon which has much better dimensions to fit in an apt than a 40G Breeder. Problem is no one seems to have 38G in stock so I will need to order it from my LFS.

 

Side note...never heard ofbefore just checked it out and it's pretty cool. Thanks for mentioning it in your post