Is this overstocked for a 20 gallon?

[SuckmyPleco]

Right now i have 1 flame dwarf gourami in my 20 gallon and thats it. I'm going to add a bristle nose pleco and then i want alot of other fish so my tank will look active and alive and not real empty like it is right now im gonna list some fish i would want together and how many and you tell me if i would still be able to keep my water safe doing 30% water changes once a week and you can tell me some fish that will look real nice in my tank heres a video of it so you can see how my tank looks and think what kind of tropical fish will look good in it

(I'm going buy a new black background i know this one is real dirty)
Watch in high quality

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I want something like
1 bristle nose pleco
1 flame dwarf gourami
5 tiger barbs
and some platys or mollies or something like that or

1 bristle nose pleco
1 flame dwarf gourami
2 german blue rams
and like 6 cardinal tetras
( I think i'll prefer this one)

well this is all i could think of right now tell me what you guys think will look good and will keep my tank active with my water safe

 

[Cichla dude]

there both great!

 

[SuckmyPleco]

okie dokie thanks im probably going with the second list then...anybody else want to give me some advice? or disagree with yanker and think thats to many fish? let me know i want to be sure of this before i do it

 

[Lupin]

I want something like
1 bristle nose pleco
1 flame dwarf gourami
5 tiger barbs
and some platys or mollies or something like that or

You're asking for a fin trim of your gourami with your tiger barbs. Change them to harlequin rasboras. Platies are better than mollies.

1 bristle nose pleco
1 flame dwarf gourami
2 german blue rams
and like 6 cardinal tetras
( I think i'll prefer this one)

Better.

 

[Eoibio]

I want something like
1 bristle nose pleco
1 flame dwarf gourami
5 tiger barbs
and some platys or mollies or something like that or

Bye bye fishes fins! Bad idea!

1 bristle nose pleco
1 flame dwarf gourami
2 german blue rams
and like 6 cardinal tetras
( I think i'll prefer this one)

Get 2 dwarf gouramis instead of 1..They prefer to be in pairs

well this is all i could think of right now tell me what you guys think will look good and will keep my tank active with my water safe[/quote]

 

[Lupin]

Get 2 dwarf gouramis instead of 1..They prefer to be in pairs

Not a problem if he finds a female first. You don't see female dwarf gouramis nowadays since a majority of the gourami stocks especially from Asian fish farms are males, thanks to the unfortunate trend of hormone feeding to "improve" their colors and change their sexes.

 

[Eoibio]

Its annoying me now that fish farms sell mainly one sex of fish..Rams are pretty hard to get a male - female pair and before soon I bet that male sailfin mollies will be the only ones in the trade

 

[SuckmyPleco]

ok thanks for all the help....this one person on another forrum told me that if i have 2 german blue rams and a bristle nose pleco i'll be fully stocked because thats alot of bottom level swimming fish and i should replace the pleco with otos or something is this true? i like what you guys are telling me more lol i want the bristle nose a blue rams and you guys seem alot more skilled and experienced so im guessing he was wrong...

 

[SuckmyPleco]

yea i had a bad experience with dwarf gouramis lol i had like 3 males in my 20 gallon and that was before i knew they were so territorial i just got them thinking they'll be fine and all three of them ending up being males alot of damange was done but i returned the other 2 to my lfs

 

[Lupin]

ok thanks for all the help....this one person on another forrum told me that if i have 2 german blue rams and a bristle nose pleco i'll be fully stocked because thats alot of bottom level swimming fish and i should replace the pleco with otos or something is this true? i like what you guys are telling me more lol i want the bristle nose a blue rams and you guys seem alot more skilled and experienced so im guessing he was wrong...

This is a stretch based on my perception. Many people claim a 10g can fit only 6 neons yet the plain truth is you can add more than just a mere 6 provided the tank is not ridiculously cramped. Space is one thing but bioload is another to consider. Neons as an example contribute very little to the bioload and therefore are not an issue. Even if the fish in question contributes too much bioload, if the owner is willing to do more maintenance, why not?

Okay, for that other forumer, did he look the surface and middle levels, not just the bottom? Those spaces remained unoccupied based on his suggestion. Plecos do stick on glass walls of different levels but they hardly use up too much space in above levels. Blue rams hardly leave the bottom for the most part so what happened to the surface and middle strata? Were they simply occupied by ghosts or imaginative fish? Add surface and middle dwellers and call it fully stocked.