20G Community Tank?

[sandbunny]

Hi all,
I ordered a betta from Thailand who will come later this month 

  At first I wanted to put him in a 5g by himself, but I stumbled upon a dollar per gallon sale at Petco and would love to get a 20 gallon.  I know community betta tanks really depend on the fish, so I would definitely be prepared to put my betta in a different tank if there are any problems.
 
With that said, can someone suggest some stocking?  I have an aquaclear 30 (with diverter) that I'd like to use.  Right now I was thinking:
 
- CT betta
- 12 neon tetras
- 6-10 harlequin rasboras
- 6 panda corys
- maybe a bristlenosed pleco?  are they okay with bettas?
 

 

[Blondielovesfish]

That's quite a bit over stocked!
Use the general rule of one inch of adult fish per gallon. Use that as your starting point and go from there!

 

[sandbunny]

Really?  I put that into aq advisor and it said I was only 87% stocked.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Okay well, the adult sizes (approx.) of the fish are:
Betta: 3 inches
Neon: 1.5 inches (18 inches in total)
Harlequin Rasbora: 1.75 inches (10.5/17.5 inches in total)
Panda cory: 2 inches max (12 inches in total)
Bristlenose: 5 inches

So that equals a total of 48.5/55.5 inches. So according to the one inch per gallon rule you are way overstocked unless you want to get a 55 gallon tank lol!!!
So I would personally just have maybe 6 neons with a betta and bristlenose! It's up to you but it is overstocked!

 

[JellOh]

Actually, the inch per gallon rule isn't really set in stone, and doesn't really work. If you were to go solely by that rule you could keep up to 10 1" goldfish in a 10 gallon tank. Yeah, that's not a good idea. I would rely more on aqadvisor than I would on the 1 inch per gallon rule.

 

[Blondielovesfish]

Yes I know that and I did say the general rule as well as to only use it as a starting point!
Sorry if I did not make that clear enough but I did try!

 

[Wildbetta]

Your stocking is a bit much for a 20G in my opinion.  I would lose one of the schooling species and choose either the cories or the bristlenose -- not both.  Monitor your betta once in a community setting -- some do not do well at all.  Either they get very stressed or they get really aggressive.  There are some that have no problems but you won't know until you get them all together.  Just have a backup plan for the betta -- like the 5 gallon by himself.    If it were me, I would personally not have either type of schooling species(just cause I don't care for either one of those types of fish-nothing personal) but with your stocking choices -- I would have a decent school of neons(I think they tend to be less nippy than the harleys) -maybe 10 of them and a school of panda cories(cause I just love them) -- maybe 8 of them.  

 

[sandbunny]

Your stocking is a bit much for a 20G in my opinion.  I would lose one of the schooling species and choose either the cories or the bristlenose -- not both.  Monitor your betta once in a community setting -- some do not do well at all.  Either they get very stressed or they get really aggressive.  There are some that have no problems but you won't know until you get them all together.  Just have a backup plan for the betta -- like the 5 gallon by himself.    If it were me, I would personally not have either type of schooling species(just cause I don't care for either one of those types of fish-nothing personal) but with your stocking choices -- I would have a decent school of neons(I think they tend to be less nippy than the harleys) -maybe 10 of them and a school of panda cories(cause I just love them) -- maybe 8 of them.  

Okay thank you!  I will try this with the neons, and I do have a backup plan if the community tank doesn't work out for the betta!