Any good fish combos for new tank?

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HydroPhilic

Small Fish
#1
Aug 1, 2005
10
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Florida
#1
Hey everyone im an experienced fish guy but im starting a new 20 gal tank from scratch and unlike last time (my learning tank) I would like to hear people give there preferred mixes of fish that wont bug each other. For example last tank I had platy's, swordtail, and flame/phantom tetras together just to name a few. Well the tetras had a taste for the swordtail's, um, swordtail, and all I ended up having were a bunch of platy's that were long and slender. So come on everyone let the games begin! :) :) :)
 

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C

chichian

Medium Fish
#3
Jun 17, 2005
80
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Las Vegas, NV, USA
#3
I would maybe do a tank of small cute fish:
3-4 ottos
6-8 pygmy or dwarf cories
6-8 dwarf rasporas or ember tetras
2 sparkling gouramis or 2-3 dwarf platies or 2-3 guppies

I don't know if that would be overstocked or not. But w/some plants and regular maintenance it would probably be cool, and I think that would be cute.
 

A

aspiringangel

Large Fish
#4
May 28, 2003
114
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Food Chain, Ontario
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#4
As far as tetras eating other fish's tails: if you have them in a big enough school you will usually not have a problem.

For your 20g it depends on the 'look' you want. Do you really like a big school of fish or do you like to have a 'centrepiece' fish? For example, I would go for a pair of rams - though they are sometimes more 'delicate' than other fish - and 7 cardinal tetras and some otos. My hubby, on the other hand, would actually prefer a huge-ish school of one kind of fish - again probably cardinals - and probably 15 - 20 of them and no other fish except maybe an oto or three. Chichian has made some decent suggestions , but I would probably stay away from the live bearer category in a 20g only because they seem to know no end to breeding. My hubby has a turtle tank that is about 30g, probably only 10 - 15g of water, and started with 6 feeder guppies. They quickly bred.. and bred.. and bred... and the only thing keeping the population under control is the turtle - and probably the adult guppies as well. Sparkling gourami would work really well though, very pretty.
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

Forum Manager
Moderator
#7
May 16, 2003
8,589
10
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42
Colorado
#7
Whenever I decide what to put in a tank I look at all of the different areas of the tank and try to get a balance. For example...the bottom you could get a group of cories (as many have suggested) and some ottos...or you could get an apple snail and a pleco that stays small (like a bristlenose), although for a tank as small as a 20 I dont know that i'd get a pleco. Then a fish like your livebearers, guppies (maybe something new that you hadn't tried before) that will stay near the top a lot, and then a tetra or a rasbora or a danio that would use up a lot of the middle space of your tank. I would like to get some white skirt tetras...they are very beautiful fish.

I think I'd stay away from mixing a bunch of fish...go to your local stores and see which fish jump out at you that you like...and come back and research them.

I suppose if it was my tank I'd get a school of white skirts (say 5 or so), an otto, an apple snail and a school of harlequin rasboras (5 or so)...and put lots of plants in it...whether they're real or fake because all of those fish look great in a planted tank.
 

FroggyFox

FroggyFox

Forum Manager
Moderator
#9
May 16, 2003
8,589
10
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42
Colorado
#9
A few tiger barbs would be ok in a 20...but I dont think you could get a big enough group of them to tone down the aggression in order to put other fish in the tank. You'd have to make it a barb tank...with a cleanup crew of some kind. Tiger barbs get to be pretty chunky fish...I dont think I'd put more than 5 in there? If you were looking at rosybarbs I think you could get some of those, they're usually less nippy than tigerbarbs.
 

H

HydroPhilic

Small Fish
#11
Aug 1, 2005
10
0
0
Florida
#11
I love gouramis but last time I had Paradise, flame dwarf, neon blue drwarf and kissing gouramis all in the same tank and it seemed like the paradise would keep attacking the two female paradise and they all seemed to be coveting mid depth water in the tank, NOT COOL!
 

balafreak

balafreak

Large Fish
#14
Mar 10, 2006
113
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joliet illinios
#14
why

i know people who have a 20 gallon tank with maybe 10-15 tiger barbs.
so why froggyfox would you only recommend 5 tiger barbs.the people i know with the almost 15 tiger barbs also have rosy barbs and scizzor tails all in the 20 gallon.there all doing just fine.hes had all those fish for maybe 2 years.
 

F

FishGeek

Elite Fish
#15
May 13, 2005
4,294
5
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South Carolina
#15
Just cause someone has it doesnt mean that its ok balafreak. Froggy is right Tiger Barbs tend to get really aggressive with each other so you need to have a good size school of them so that they aggression is spread out between the fish. And they require space which you dont have for this fish in a 20G.
I vote for this:
2 Kribs
7 Cradinals
1 Killiefish
 

Fishckabibble

Fishckabibble

Large Fish
#17
Jan 13, 2006
792
2
0
Colorado
#17
just to let you know hydro, even if you had a tank big enough for a pirahna, you would not be able to keep one, there are illigal in florida, and most other states as well.
if you like the look of the pirahnas then you might want to try a red bellied pacu but you would still need a largeer tank, say a 40-60 gallon for them
 

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