Kid friendly 20 gallon high

I added 3 concolor cories to my 20 gallon high (and I love them!) with 5 red serpae tetras. I want 3 more of the cories when they come in. My tetras were ok when I had 6 but I lost one in a minI cycle when I switched from gravel to sand and they are back to hiding except at feeding times.

I have an opportunity to rehome the tetras. I'm debating whether to do that and get a school of neon tetras sized fish and a dwarf gourami or just get more red serpaes to boost my school. Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions? Alternatives to neon tetras would be appreciated too.

I'm looking for something that will be interesting to my kids so visible, active and hardy are important.

 

I have a two year old and picked fish for the same reason. We ended up with platies as our main fishes. They come in lots of bright easy to see colors, they are very easy to care for, and they like to come up to you when you look at the tank. I call them our puppies they are so eager to meet us (looking for food of course). Also, they do well n a 20 gallon tall (what I have) as they do swim a lot horizontally and not just vertically. They are all very active. Just be careful to get all males or else you will also get to fry (unless you want to teach them about that!).

 

Neons are very sensitive fish. There hard to keep, there very sickly due to over breeding. Have you considered diamond tetras. These guys are hardy active fish. There very beautiful as well

 

I like the idea of platies, too. I was afraid with 5 or 6 cories, I wouldn't have room for 6 platies.

I'm looking up diamond tetras now!

 

Our platies get along very well with their tank mates (including cories). Also cories are bottom/middle swimmers and platies are just all over. They should be fine together.

How old are your children? Are they old enough to help with the fish or just to watch them?

What about zebra danios with a dwarf gourami?

I also have a two year old. Plus a 6 and 8 yr old who are bored with never seeing fish but they like to feed.

 

My default answer for questions like this is always cherry barbs. They're cheap, good looking, peaceful, incredibly hardy, and are just an all around perfect fish both for beginners and kids.

 

pRoy33 I was thinking platies were schooling fish but I guess not. I was all hung up on 6 or more.

 

Serpae tetras tend to be nippy so I'd replace them with different schooling fish like harlequin rasboras, cardinal tetras or 5-6 male platies. I wouldn't add diamond tetras to this tank size as they get too large. With this footprint, you want to stick with smaller sized tetras for schooling fish. You could also add a single DG.

 

That's been my problem with them too, they were terrible to the fish that was struggling

 

Just want to clarify from my post that platies aren't schooling fish. It was just an option in case you didn't want to do a schooling fish like the ones mentioned. Or you could do some male guppies instead? I actually prefer them to platies because they come in so many different patterns and colors.

 

Just want to clarify from my post that platies aren't schooling fish. It was just an option in case you didn't want to do a schooling fish like the ones mentioned. Or you could do some male guppies instead? I actually prefer them to platies because they come in so many different patterns and colors.

A bit less of a bio load as well.

 

I have a 6yr old boy and a 9yr old boy. I got them each their own 10 gal. My youngest picked a cream-cycle male molly and some ghost shrimp and my oldest picked a half moon male betta and some ghost shrimp. Both have worked out great and are very personable fish. Two totally different styled tanks. But for a 20 community a betta would be out. One of my 20 gal tanks has just 3 mollies and they are quite pretty, especially the male black mollies I find beautiful.

 

I have a 6yr old boy and a 9yr old boy. I got them each their own 10 gal. My youngest picked a cream-cycle male molly and some ghost shrimp and my oldest picked a half moon male betta and some ghost shrimp. Both have worked out great and are very personable fish. Two totally different styled tanks. But for a 20 community a betta would be out. One of my 20 gal tanks has just 3 mollies and they are quite pretty, especially the male black mollies I find beautiful.

Mollies would be better suited in a 29 gallon minimum due to their activity and bioload.

 

I have re-homed my red serpae tetras and now have 6 concolor cories.

Once they're settled in, I'm leaning towards cherry barbs. Is there anything I need to know? I'm thinking 2 males and 4 females, will I need to worry about fry or will they take care of that themselves?

I'm also considering a couple nerite snails.

Thanks for all your input!

 

Cherry barbs are not livebearers so I don't think you'd need to worry about being overrun with fry. I believe they're egg layers but even if they do lay eggs, not sure what the chances of hatching are. They also don't need to have the same m/f ratio as livebearers though I heard it's best to have more males than females but someone else that's kept them can weigh in.

 

You might end up with some fry, but cherry barbs as egg scatterers, so most of the eggs will probably be eaten by the barbs and cories. The barbs will eat their fry too, unless they have a lot of plants to hide in.

When I first got my cherries last year, I ended up with 4 fry in the first 6 weeks (all of them survived and are still in my tank), but nothing since then. I didn't do anything special for them, just fed flakes as usual.

Cherry barbs are not livebearers so I don't think you'd need to worry about being overrun with fry. I believe they're egg layers but even if they do lay eggs, not sure what the chances of hatching are. They also don't need to have the same m/f ratio as livebearers though I heard it's best to have more males than females but someone else that's kept them can weigh in.

It's better to have more females, otherwise the males' little sparring matches can possibly turn violent.

 

I can deal with that. Thanks! Seems like everyone that has cherry barbs are really fond of them.

 

Yeah, they're pretty great fish.