How does my tank stock sound?

[FrAnK3333]

My tank is a 20 gallon long and has a emperor 400. I do water changes and check water twice a week. My question is if my tank is ok and not to overstocked.
2 Blue rams
3 Clown Loaches (all 1-1.5 inches)
3-4 Cockatoo Cichlids (Getting them this tuesday)
6 Zebra danios
3 otos
Any that reads new world cichlids I ve been looking for these cockatoos for a while now. As for agression between the rams and cockatoos Ill montier it. The clown loaches will be moved by this christmas. How does my tank sound?

 

[skye4jc]

well frank, i have some cichlid friends i have posed your question to, but in the mean time, i will say im not a fan of your filter for one simple reason... dont like the carbon-in-sponge setup...but with the bio-wheel thing, should be ok (the sponge houses your bacteria, but if fish get sick with that setup, you hafta toss the whole cartridge cuz of the carbon, and thus it can stress the fish because you hafta replace it with a non-carbonated one that will have to "mini-cycle" to get the bacteria back into the sponge - actually everytime you replace the cartridge this happens, and it can waste a lot of money and hard earned bacterial culture... i prefer one that has them separate, so you can keep the sponges and rotate them, replacing only every 6-8months instead of every month... cuz carbon only lasts one month max. its a personal opinion... take it or leave it. )

anhow, other than the danios, which may or may not become luch... i think its sounds ok... as long as youre doing your homework, im confident you'll make good fish-parent choices...

but i will let you know what the others say...

 

[Mr Miagi]

Your tank sounds a little over stocked to me.... and then your gonna get your 4 cockatoo chilids. Whilst your fish seem fine now, they do grow larger.

Clown loach get considerably large, and whilst its good to see you have a small group of them, i fear they may soon outgrow your tank and the rest of its inhabitants.

 

[skye4jc]

here's what i got from my sources so far....

"I'm afraid to say the simple answer to that question is yes, you are overstocked. A 20 gallon is really only suitable for a pair of rams by themselves, with maybe a few upper water column dwellers like tetra's or danio's and possibly a small school of corydoras catfish. Adding other cichlids would be a bad move The stress created by adding more competition for territory to a small tank would likely have an adverse affect on the rams. They are hard fish to keep simply as they are and they do stress easily. It would be far better to get another tank for the cockatoos "

sorry, dude...

sounds like a less-than-ideal setup....

 

[FrAnK3333]

Ill have to see how it goes. I was reading your first post do you think I should get a sponge filter? I dont use carbon though, I use Searchem Puguin(Think thats how you spell it.) Im not crazy about carbon, so thats why I made the switch. The clwons shouldnt outgrow the tank though, they only grow an inch a year, giving me plenty of time to get the bigger tank this christmas. As for if agression should occur, Ill have to pick a favorite and have which ever stay with a friend.

 

[sylvia]

Considering you do twice-weekly water changes, your problem will be aggression before it become bio-load. 6 cichlids in a 20 gallon plus other bottom dwellers...

 

[FrAnK3333]

The cockatoos will be a 1m/3f. So if any aggression ocurs it would be between the males.

 

[yvez9]

Don't forget the cockatoos will fight for territory with the rams.

Your tank is just too small for more than 2 rams.

I tried it, and ended up giving two rams away. They're in a good home now though so it's all for the best

 

[FrAnK3333]

Ya but has really anyone had rams with cockatoos? I know probaly the males maybe will fight but the females I doubt. I knida though I have to get the cockatoos, Ive spent so much time finding these guys.

 

[Lexie3787]

Id forget the rams, unless you want to get another seperate tank. Maybe only 2 cockatoos? Cichlids can get extremely terr. Then again, I am a fan of the take risks, bend the rules, see how far the boundaries can actually go. Thats why I mixed cichlids with fruit tetras, and got positive results. Im sure you'll do fine with whatever you chose. Worst comes to worst, seperate them.

 

[sylvia]

Have to say that I am not one of those bend rules, see how much you can go people when it comes to fish... when it's lives you're dealing with, it's better to be on the safe side. But, I still agree that if worst comes to worst, just take them out - so have a tank ready!