Tropical Fish Forums

[freshigal]

Moving house is always a good opportunity to redo a fish tank, right? For the past four years my 20 gallon long tank has had a Fluorite Red substrate. Now I'm going to sand so I can keep cories again. I love the little habrosus cories and would like to keep a good-sized shoal of them. The question is, what is a recommended number?

Current Stock:

Pair of Bolivian rams
Six neon tetras
One tough as nails three-lined pencil fish
Six Amano shrimp

Projected Stock:

The proposed shoal of cories
A couple of Otos (once the tank is re-established)
Upping the stock of tetras

Thoughts? Suggestions?

[diademhill]

I wouldn't put C habrosus with Bolivian rams.

A next size up cory like C panda would do better with them but TBH I would not add any more fish in a 20g.

[freshigal]

Thanks for the reply, diademhill. Is it that the rams will be too aggressive with a smaller Cory? I can definitely see that as an issue when they are breeding and they have spawned twice in the past few months.

I'm a little surprised that you wouldn't add more fish to the stocking. Is it a concern for too much overall bioload in a 20 gallon, or is it that each swimming level is fully stocked? If I were to forgo the cories, leaving the rams the bottom level, what about bringing up the number of tetras?

[diademhill]

Territory & the chance of a defending ram parent getting a small cory stuck.
The tank is a bit small given the water quality needs of the fish you have -the bolivians comprise up half the tank stock so you are left with a ten gallon for the rest - seven tetras - so you could add to the neons or the pencilfish.

[freshigal]

Hey, just wanted to thank you for the advice. The move went smoothly and everyone is settling in well. I'll keep monitoring the water quality and then look to add more to my neon school in a few weeks.