I would like to get a nice little fish tank for my little brother, a 20 high. The tank is already set up with substrate and BB but now I'd like to stock it. Last time I took my bro to the lfs he loved the pearl gouramis there, so today I went and got a female pearl gourami. about 3-4 inches. Now id like to add 2 schools of small fish. 6 neon and 6 cherry barbs(all male) or 6(White cloud mountain minnow). Im leaning towards the golden varient of WCMM. But can I do both schools of fish along with the pearl. And which fish would be bettter, the WCMM or the cherry barbs? Lookwise and compatability wise?
Small but Meaningful
- Thread starter TheLotus
- Start date
You will only have one school in a tank; they will all swim together if they are roughly the same size. Cherry barbs and WCMM are no tschooling fish anyway, they are shoaling fish, so you won't get schools, just kind of groups of fish. I would look rasboras, or head and tail tetras. Watch Youtube videos of the fish you want before you buy it, so you can see how it behaves. The pearl Gourami is a good idea by the way, she's not rwally aggressive, but scary enough to help convince the little guys to school more.
I personally would do a trio, 3F or 1m 2F, as pearls are mild even as gouramiis go, but I've only ever had them in a 55, so I don't know how they'd behave in a 20. They also won't breed without still water and floating plants. My lfs had a psycho male once that the owner claims killed a bunch of angels and tiger barbs, so ymmv, any fish can go nuts. (Noone will believe that story, but I sort of do, as I watched the guy remove him from the tank, and he was beating on an angel twice his size.)Neons probably would work. You can try getting two schools, but any time I tried it, I wound up with one mixed school, which is interesting, but not two schools. If you really want two schools, I've seen tanks with a school of cories and a school of tetras, so that may work.
It might be. I am of the opinion that you don't know if you are overstocked until you try, and I keep my small tank right now with an aquaponic setup and floating plants, so I didn't even think of it... you are right, you are getting a little overstocked.
tlindsey
is it overstocked?
It might be. I am of the opinion that you don't know if you are overstocked until you try, and I keep my small tank right now with an aquaponic setup and floating plants, so I didn't even think of it... you are right, you are getting a little overstocked.
Would cross out the mountain minnows they thrive better in a unheated aquarium.
https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/20g-stocking.703961/#post-7935569