What should I put in a tank at the college?

[Vyache]

When I started this semester at college I noticed a neglected fish tank in the halway of the physical science building. It was a twenty gallon about 3/4 full of water and had a kissing gourami and a chocolate pleco in it. the casual observer would probably never notice however, since these fish hid all the time. I asked around and found out who owned the tank, one of the profesors. He admitted that he knew very little about fish and gladly agreed to me volunteering to care for the tank. I did water tests and found that Nitrate was over 150 ppm. I did a 50 percent water change and nitrate was still off the scale high over 10 ppm. I eventually stabalized the tank and added two gold gouramis, and a blue gourami and swiched out the chocolate pleco, who in my opinion had grown too big for the tank, for a baby common pleco. (I moved the chocolate to my dads 240 gallon tank.) I also put in a fiddler crab and several baby ramshorn snails. I added a heater and a background and did some much needed cleanup of the hood so that the light actually shined into the tank, rather than being obsured by sludge. The tank looks four hundred times better than it did but I still don't think its very good.

Since this tank is in a prominent position in the building halway, I want to put something more interesting in there. However it has to be hardy enough to go weekends without feeding since noone is around. I can move all the fish in there out into my other tanks with no problem. What do you think? What kind of fish would do well in a twenty gallon tank, atract attension, and need little maintanence?

 

[denden]

how about some koi lol

 

[luvfishies]

That's a lot of gouramis for a 20g! Are you looking for some colourful middle-water fish? I personally would remove the kissing gourami from the picture, and think about some cherry barbs, harlequin rasboras, corycats, some of the larger tetras like lemons, etc.

 

[lizwinz]

if it was me i'd add a school of small fish or a few female bettas

a nice school neons or cardnals would look nice and balance the tank out

or some kind of danio they are active and hardy, longfinned blue ones are pretty

little fish like these might not be considered interesting by some but i think they'd make the tank more interesting and active

female bettas would be nice cuz theyd come up to the glass when you are near it and will follow your finger and alot of people like that even if theyre not that interested in fish, and bettas are pretty hardy

well good luck with the tank at school and let us know what you decide

--liz

 

[Vyache]

College tank update

I didn't want to make the first post over long so I didn't tell the entire history of the tank. I did forget to mention that I also added a timer for the light since no one responsable is around when it needs to be turned on in the morning and off at night. I arive at the college at about 8:45 on Monday, Teusday, Wednessday, and Friday and feed the fish once in the morning and once before I leave at about 2:30. Once in a while I come in on Thursdays to feed the fish and do a partial water change. There was a bout of ich that killed the baby pleco and the kissing gourami.
Right now the tank has two gold gouramis, a blue gourami, about ten baby ramshorn snails, a fiddler crab (just molted), and about ten feeder guppies (in case something gets hungry over the weeked, and for dither fish)
I think that I'm going to remove the feeder guppies and replace them with some rosie reds (feeder tuffies). I just read somebodies post about them and thought that they were pretty interesting.
I'm thinking about taking everything out of the tank and starting over with something more striking. I want to put someting in there that most people haven't seen before. Tetras and gouramis just seem too common. People will walk by and think "Some fish, huh thats nice." I want them to think "Now thats cool!" and maybe even call their freind over to check it out.
I was thinking about a bichir. Since they are predatory I could just leave feeder fish in there all the time and it could eat when its hungry. I haven't done any research on them yet, so I don't know. I should be able to get a small one and move it when it gets too big for 20 gallons. I'm just not sure how fast it will grow.

What do you think?

 

[lizwinz]

well if you ask me its kinda hard to put interesting, hardy and 20 gallon tank in the same sentence but my knowledge is limited so maybe i'm not being that creative

but whatever you do its sure to be way better than the sludgy, nasty tank you had to start with

birchirs (if thats what u meant) are pretty big, the ones ive heard of ornate,armoured,marbled,senegal and cuvier's range between 12" and 17" so it doesn't sound to good for a 20gal...its a cool idea but youd need a bigger tank...but if you dont mind going thru the trouble of moving and replacing them...

maybe if you lose what you have now in the 20gal and do a small mbuna tank...there colorful and interesting and actually from what ive heard you want to overstock them a bit to minimize aggression so maybe you could get like 6 to 8 of the 4"-5" species...i think that would be cool looking and attract attention

or maybe a puffer w/shrimp and snails

i think most fish are fine without food for 2-3 days, some people skip 1 or 2 days as part of a regular feeding schedule...i go away lot on the weekends and just feed them well before i leave and when i get back and they seem fine, very hungry but fine

--liz

 

[black_bullet]

Well 3 gourmi is way to much for that tank, they do grow to 6inches, and males are rather territorial(well by gourami standards). Birchirs..hahahahahha, grow to nearly 2ft and couldnt even move in there as said before. Personally I think you need to take back the gourami and re-consider this all. Fidler crabs need to be able to get out of the water and prefer slighly brackish water as well as liking to nip fish. I would get something like an angelfish along with some medium sized tetras, couple of corydoras. Angelfish have personality, tetras have color, and corys have character*celebrate

 

[Pooky125]

Loose the gouramis, and get a figure eight puffer.. They grow to pretty good sized (about 4-6) are interested, hardy, freshwater, and, you can keep food for them in the tnak all the time, if it comes to that, since they eat shirmp and snails. Otherwise, what about a colony of shell dwellers, like Neo. Multis or Neo. Similis.. There small, hardy, intersting, and something most people haven't seen before... A pair of angel fish would be nice.. but, is it a 20 long, or a 20 tall? They'd do better in the tall tank then the long... Let us know what you picked HTH

 

[SoulFish]

figure 8s would need brackish, mbunas are too large and active for a 20 gallon some shell dwellers would be ok, i wouldnt put more then 1 angel, angels shouldnt be kept in pairs because they will fight either a bunch or 1, rainbowfish would be a bright active and easy species, cories are always cool, id recoomend 1 angel 2 rainbowfish, 2 kuhli loaches/cories, bushy nosed pleco

my 20 is rather odd and goes against most advice i would give but it works

1 big angel 5-6" long bout 9" high with fins extended
1 altum angel (got beat up when i got it but after 3 weeks it only gets nipped at occasionally by other angel)
2 boesmani rainbowfish
1 congo tetra (im getting more when i upgrade he aint a happy camper alone
2 serpae tetra (got them before i knew they nipped fins but never nipped my angel
2 kuhli loaches
1 large CAE (mean)

its over stocked but nitrates never get over 10 and no ammonia and nitrite and havent had a fish die in over a year

 

[Cackett]

BEER!

 

[bobrob]

duder get a red tailed black shark they only grow to about 6 inches and ppl will luv watching it even if they arent interested in fish and hell chase the other fish around and theyll go man that fish kiks ass

www.marshmallowmen.cjb.net

 

[lizwinz]

so do u know what ur going to do yet??

 

[Gnome]

Originally posted by Vyache
When I started this semester at college I noticed a neglected fish tank in the halway of the physical science building. It was a twenty gallon about 3/4 full of water and had a kissing gourami and a chocolate pleco in it. the casual observer would probably never notice however, since these fish hid all the time. I asked around and found out who owned the tank, one of the profesors. He admitted that he knew very little about fish and gladly agreed to me volunteering to care for the tank. I did water tests and found that Nitrate was over 150 ppm. I did a 50 percent water change and nitrate was still off the scale high over 10 ppm. I eventually stabalized the tank and added two gold gouramis, and a blue gourami and swiched out the chocolate pleco, who in my opinion had grown too big for the tank, for a baby common pleco. (I moved the chocolate to my dads 240 gallon tank.) I also put in a fiddler crab and several baby ramshorn snails. I added a heater and a background and did some much needed cleanup of the hood so that the light actually shined into the tank, rather than being obsured by sludge. The tank looks four hundred times better than it did but I still don't think its very good.

Since this tank is in a prominent position in the building halway, I want to put something more interesting in there. However it has to be hardy enough to go weekends without feeding since noone is around. I can move all the fish in there out into my other tanks with no problem. What do you think? What kind of fish would do well in a twenty gallon tank, atract attension, and need little maintanence?

hmm so much effort for a college 20 gallon tank, did the prof. pay for all the expenses?
anyway my college have 60G or 75G I 'm not sure.
They turn it into quick and easy paludarium. They put gravels about 5" height , some huge rock , acting as the ground for the plant ( 4 or 5rocks probably) w/ height 3/4 of the tank's height, they fill the water only 1/3 full of water, w/ some terrestrial ivy looked like plant on the rock, there is no aquatic plant, a big frog, a gecko or lizard, black ruby barbs, cherry barbs..looks cool to me..I like the way they make the water so shallow, very cool. I always wanted to have tank like that especially the shallow water effects.

and you could put some cardinals in it, I bet the tank will shine and attract everybody