Aysu
Member
Hi all,
I’m very new to the aquarium scene, and while I am greatly enjoying it so far, I have a lot of questions that seem to have conflicting answers depending on where I look and who I talk to. I’ve been trying to do research online, but I’ve already made some boneheaded mistakes, though thankfully no catastrophic ones. My lesson has been learned about boiling driftwood before adding it to a tank.
I have a twenty gallon tank freshwater tank that I believe (fingers crossed) is now properly cycled. It isn’t much to look at, yet, but I’m pretty proud of it. It's about 4 weeks old with live java moss spreading across my driftwood tree, and a java fern happily growing (I just pulled a new fern off the original and weighted it to the substrate!). I'll probably transplant some dwarf hair grass from my mom's tank once hers spreads a little more. I've been doing tests every 2-3 days, and the chemicals all seem in balance even after stocking a few hardy fish, with the ammonia and nitrite holding at 0 mg/L, and the nitrate roughly at 5-10mg/L. I do weekly water changes of about 20%. I haven’t vacuumed the gravel yet because I read that it's important to let the bacteria get established in it, but I plan to do that once a month or so.
Currently, I have 3 zebra danios and 2 corydora catfish. I didn't realize that both zebras and cories should be in a school of at least 5 or 6, but the zebras seem happy swimming around the tank, darting in and out of the driftwood and fern, and across the tank and back. They aren’t keeping each other from eating, they aren’t harassing each other or the cories, and I have seen no signs of aggression, stress, or biting; the only odd thing is that they only school if I’ve been sticking my arm in the water to adjust the plants. I read that it's common for zebras to not school if there are no predators in the tank, which makes sense, but some confirmation would be appreciated.
The 2 cories are newer additions, only a few days in the tank, but they don’t seem to be distressed either. They just follow each other around the tank, chill under the driftwood, and dig in the substrate for food. I’d like to get a couple more anyway, because they are really neat to watch school (or is it shoal?), but I'd also like to add a third kind of fish.
So now comes the oft-asked question: how many fish can I add/have? I’d like to add a school of neon tetras because I love their colors. However, I also want to make sure my fish are happy and healthy. The general rule of thumb is, of course, one inch of fish to each gallon, but I’ve seen a lot of people saying it's perfectly fine to have more, if proper water changes are done regularly. My original plan was 3 zebra danios, 2 Cory catfish, and 6-7 neon tetras.
The employees at the local fish store I’ve been buying my equipment and fish from (not petco, no worries), said I could easily stock 12-20 neons in my tank, and assure me that neons, zebras, and cories do well together, and that my stocking idea should be fine for my tank. They have a large number of beautiful and healthy tanks in the store, both planted and not, and seem knowledgeable about aquariums, with more concern towards the health of a tank, rather than closing a sale. However, after doing more research on my own, I’m worried about the small school sizes.
Ideally, I’d like to have all three kinds of fish in proper school sizes (5 danios, 3 corydora, 6 tetra) but I worry that that would be too many fish for a 20 gal aquarium. Can I stock that many fish in my tank? Do I even have the right numbers for the fish? Am I overthinking the school sizes and stocking since the fish are happy with the smaller number? What would be a good number of each of these fish?
I've attached an image of my tank from yesterday. There's a bit of a bacteria bloom from adding the two cories, but water parameters are still good today.
Thank you for your help!
I’m very new to the aquarium scene, and while I am greatly enjoying it so far, I have a lot of questions that seem to have conflicting answers depending on where I look and who I talk to. I’ve been trying to do research online, but I’ve already made some boneheaded mistakes, though thankfully no catastrophic ones. My lesson has been learned about boiling driftwood before adding it to a tank.
I have a twenty gallon tank freshwater tank that I believe (fingers crossed) is now properly cycled. It isn’t much to look at, yet, but I’m pretty proud of it. It's about 4 weeks old with live java moss spreading across my driftwood tree, and a java fern happily growing (I just pulled a new fern off the original and weighted it to the substrate!). I'll probably transplant some dwarf hair grass from my mom's tank once hers spreads a little more. I've been doing tests every 2-3 days, and the chemicals all seem in balance even after stocking a few hardy fish, with the ammonia and nitrite holding at 0 mg/L, and the nitrate roughly at 5-10mg/L. I do weekly water changes of about 20%. I haven’t vacuumed the gravel yet because I read that it's important to let the bacteria get established in it, but I plan to do that once a month or so.
Currently, I have 3 zebra danios and 2 corydora catfish. I didn't realize that both zebras and cories should be in a school of at least 5 or 6, but the zebras seem happy swimming around the tank, darting in and out of the driftwood and fern, and across the tank and back. They aren’t keeping each other from eating, they aren’t harassing each other or the cories, and I have seen no signs of aggression, stress, or biting; the only odd thing is that they only school if I’ve been sticking my arm in the water to adjust the plants. I read that it's common for zebras to not school if there are no predators in the tank, which makes sense, but some confirmation would be appreciated.
The 2 cories are newer additions, only a few days in the tank, but they don’t seem to be distressed either. They just follow each other around the tank, chill under the driftwood, and dig in the substrate for food. I’d like to get a couple more anyway, because they are really neat to watch school (or is it shoal?), but I'd also like to add a third kind of fish.
So now comes the oft-asked question: how many fish can I add/have? I’d like to add a school of neon tetras because I love their colors. However, I also want to make sure my fish are happy and healthy. The general rule of thumb is, of course, one inch of fish to each gallon, but I’ve seen a lot of people saying it's perfectly fine to have more, if proper water changes are done regularly. My original plan was 3 zebra danios, 2 Cory catfish, and 6-7 neon tetras.
The employees at the local fish store I’ve been buying my equipment and fish from (not petco, no worries), said I could easily stock 12-20 neons in my tank, and assure me that neons, zebras, and cories do well together, and that my stocking idea should be fine for my tank. They have a large number of beautiful and healthy tanks in the store, both planted and not, and seem knowledgeable about aquariums, with more concern towards the health of a tank, rather than closing a sale. However, after doing more research on my own, I’m worried about the small school sizes.
Ideally, I’d like to have all three kinds of fish in proper school sizes (5 danios, 3 corydora, 6 tetra) but I worry that that would be too many fish for a 20 gal aquarium. Can I stock that many fish in my tank? Do I even have the right numbers for the fish? Am I overthinking the school sizes and stocking since the fish are happy with the smaller number? What would be a good number of each of these fish?
I've attached an image of my tank from yesterday. There's a bit of a bacteria bloom from adding the two cories, but water parameters are still good today.
Thank you for your help!
