20 Gallon Tank New fish keeper help, help appreciated!

Hello, I've recently cycled my first 20 gallon tank. I originally had only a rubber lip pleco in there, and today I got 1 vampire shrimp and 5 pea puffers. I also added plenty of live plants to make sure there's plenty of cover in the tank. I talked a lot with the employees at my local fish shop, but would love any insight/tips for making sure the tank stays in good shape and everyone is happy. The main things I am concerned about are the filter flow (pea puffers wanting low, Vamp shrimp wanting high?) as well as the puffers potentially picking at the pleco or shrimp. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

Hm... The flow is a tough one because the high flow helps the vampire shrimp eat and the low flow is important for pea puffers (high flow can cause stress in certain fish) is there any way you could do a high flow section of the tank and a low flow section, what I mean is having the filter and air stone (if you have one) in a small, but relative open area, where the shrimp can eat and then have a bunch of plants and hard scape slightly past that in a way that it can break up the flow before it gets to the other section, if that makes any sense at all?

 

Medium flow puffers are aggressive so they well bother other species especially 5 in a 20 gallon

 

Hm... The flow is a tough one because the high flow helps the vampire shrimp eat and the low flow is important for pea puffers (high flow can cause stress in certain fish) is there any way you could do a high flow section of the tank and a low flow section, what I mean is having the filter and air stone (if you have one) in a small, but relative open area, where the shrimp can eat and then have a bunch of plants and hard scape slightly past that in a way that it can break up the flow before it gets to the other section, if that makes any sense at all?

this was the exact approach I took for now. I dont have an air stone yet, but was exploring the idea. Wasnt quite sure if I need one for this setup, would love any input on that! I have a hob filter(maybe get another kind of filter too??) that i moved all the way to the right side, while heavily planting(i may add more) the left side. After the first night the puffers seemed to be able to rest just fine on the left side. I definitely notice they will get caught in the down stream where the filter is occasionally, but they don't seem to get too rattled by it. I plan on adding a hide that the shrimp can also stand on top off, and placing that directly where the filter flows to.

Medium flow puffers are aggressive so they well bother other species especially 5 in a 20 gallon

So far they dont seem to pay any attention to either of them. I'm definitely keeping a close eye though, due to the nature of the puffers, you never know. Im hoping i got a more docile bunch/mostly females although im not sure about sexing yet. Due to the way the tank is setup currently with the filter and plants, im trying to incentivize the puffers to like the left side more and the shrimp/pleco to like the right side more.


Thank you guys very much for your replies!!

 

this was the exact approach I took for now. I dont have an air stone yet, but was exploring the idea. Wasnt quite sure if I need one for this setup, would love any input on that! I have a hob filter(maybe get another kind of filter too??) that i moved all the way to the right side, while heavily planting(i may add more) the left side. After the first night the puffers seemed to be able to rest just fine on the left side. I definitely notice they will get caught in the down stream where the filter is occasionally, but they don't seem to get too rattled by it. I plan on adding a hide that the shrimp can also stand on top off, and placing that directly where the filter flows to.

So far they dont seem to pay any attention to either of them. I'm definitely keeping a close eye though, due to the nature of the puffers, you never know. Im hoping i got a more docile bunch/mostly females although im not sure about sexing yet. Due to the way the tank is setup currently with the filter and plants, im trying to incentivize the puffers to like the left side more and the shrimp/pleco to like the right side more.


Thank you guys very much for your replies!!

If worse comes to worse, get a new tank, if you can't afford that then try a tank divider temporarily, or you know re-home things... Just some options if anything happens.