What I'm planning to put in my tank. Opinions?

[genEus]

It's a 20 gal long (30x12x12) with sand substrate, a couple pieces of slate, a large piece of driftwood in the middle (coming in the mail) and plants all around the back and to sides, to create a semi-circular scape.

My plan is

malaysian trumpet snails (to turn the sand)
6-8 neon tetras
2-3 gouramis
2-3 loaches (not clowns, since they get too big) to control the snail population )

I want to have have a lot of smaller shoaling bright colored fish and only a couple large slow-moving ones, that's the reason for the list. I really wanted a couple angels but in a shallow tank I can't really have them.

Any advice or other suggestions?

Thanks!!

 

[I<3fish]

Hmm looks good, but I would go with more tetras. And u no gouramis get aggressive?

 

[haynchinook334]

sounds good to me. you could also go with rams.

 

[djarmstrong]

Sounds ok to me but a would say about 10 or more Neon , and what i would put in is 3 Banded Gourami .

 

[livebearerfreak]

along with 2 rams should be good.

 

[sploke]

I'd up the tetras to a dozen or so. What type of gourami? If you're going with dwarves, I'd stick to one as multiples get aggressive, and a 20gal isn't large enough for a pair of full grown 3-spots IMO. A pair of rams or apistos would work instead of the gouramis. For the loaches, try dwarf chain loaches, they stay small, and are Botias, so should eat the snails.

 

[its_an_obsession]

sploke makes a good point. clown loaches are usually most peoples fix to snail problems which might present a problem for your snail plan. i dont know about the other loaches with snails but im sure someone else will or u can try the loach section.

 

[andyjs]

I've kept MTS with dwarf chain loaches and kuhlis and they've been fine. Kuhlis would be some nice loaches to add (I'd probably have 5 or 6) and from my experience, they don't really mess with snails. When I added clowns to my 75, they have totally wiped out the rams horns, but there are still some MTS around.

 

[genEus]

Well I DO want the loaches to eat the snails! I am afraid that they'll multiply like crazy. I do want to have 5-6 adults but I don't want the babies, that's why I was considering loaches. I'd LOVE to have some clowns but can't they reach 14" in size?? Yikes!

 

[synodontisjack]

how about one of the smaller spiny eels to control the snail problem i introduced a zebra spiny eel to a tank with a snail problem not intending to fix the problem but within a week the snails were gone.