1 Small Pleco Or 3 Corries Or ?

[silkiechicken]

I have a 20L tank which currently houses 5 guppies (3F/2M). I plan on getting a few more females to the mix so the ratio can be more balanced. But my question is, what should I get for the bottom levels of the tank?

I was thinking 3 corries since they like to school? or maybe 1 small pleco if I can find one which doesn't get over 6 inches?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Corleone]

No pleco, even the small ones, is suitable for the tank's size, mainly because they're pretty messy fish.

Maybe a couple otos, but if you get more guppies, you're already pushing your stocking levels (they may be high already - what are your water stats?).

 

[JenCliBee]

niether a plec or cory's would be suitable for that size tank i would get a couple more female guppies and that would be about it. even then u may be slighly overstocked.


jen

 

[OldMan47]

I am going to guess that you are talking about a 20 long, not a 20 litre. If its a 20 long, you could get some pygmy cories and it would work out fine. The tank will be a bit crowded with the typical 5 or more standard size cories. If I am wrong and its 20 litres, you already have the answer from others here, you are overstocked.

 

[silkiechicken]

Ah, yes, it is a 20 gallon Long tank. I actually don't know what the current stats on the tank are. I ran out of strips awhile ago and haven't gotten more. Thinking about going for the bottle set testing kit rather than the strips you dip and compare with the label on the bottle for the numbers. Before deciding to put "pretty" fish the 20L, it had housed a pair of gold fish, so I'm sure its full full of beneficial bacteria that has been cultured for like a decade since I haven't let it dry out and even if there were no fish, the tanks have been left "running" so to say. The two gold fish are now in a 30 till I kick them out to the pool again.

I'm wondering if I can even find a pleco at the LFS which isn't the ones that get insanely large, but for some reason are sold for like two bucks to people who are carting out a brand new sparkling clean uncycled 10 gallon tank.

 

[Million]

20 gallons and 20 litres are very different sizes! Are you sure it's gallons this time?

 

[Miss Wiggle]

definatley get a good liquid test kit, it'll be much better.

if it's a 20gal and you've got 5 guppies then you've plenty of room.

for me I'd go for cories over a plec anyday, just much more fun to watch, much cleaner and stay a manageable size. I'd get a group of 5 of them then you've room for another small shoal of fish like tetra's and maybe a couple of slightly larger 'centrepiece fish' like rams.

 

[silkiechicken]

Defiantly 20 gallons! It's a 20 long 12x12x30. A 5 gallon tank is tiny, but so would a 20 if you tried to put in a 2 foot long plec.

So sounds like corries are a win, but what about those oto's that were mentioned? Sounds like the corries stir up the gravel while otos can clean up the algae on walls and plants.

I'll look into the tetras and rams, but I may just keep the tank to guppies. Although, if I had the other fish, I might not have to worry about fry since they'd probably get gobbled up faster than they could grow.

Thanks for the help.

 

[waterdrop]

You're right, otos will work on the algae. Both corries and otos are sensitive to new tanks and are better added after some period of time -- otos even more so than corries

 

[WillyRBeek]

You could probably get a couple of corys and a bristlenose plec if you wanted to, as I believe bristlenose's only get to be about 4inchs long.