New 20g And The Fish I Want, These Ok?

[AshleySpatula]

I havent had a tank in years and lately i have had three bettas and like them so much that i wanted more. so i bought a 20g tank kit.
now i want to go semi-aggressive community and these are the fish i would like to get to fill a tank that will have lots of plants, rock, driftwood.
i currently only have one male betta and a smaller red claw crab. would all these guys be ok together and would it be too much fish? if i have to knock some off the list which ones should i cut?

fish PLANNING on buying:
2 pink kissing gouramis
leopard leaf fish
3 tiger barbs
licorice gourami
dwarf puffer
badis
gold algea eater
pictus catfish

keep in mind do have a male betta in there, but if need be i can move him back to his bubble.
thanks for any advice!

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

- Pink Kissing Gouramis get LARGE...like 12 inches.
- Tiger barbs should be kept in larger groups...like 6-8. That helps reduce the chance of them harrassing other fish, and each other to death...may still nip at the bettas fins.
- Dwarf puffers are very aggressive, and are much better kept to their own species tank.
- Male bettas are often targeted for nipping by other fish b/c of those long flowing fins... and depending on the personality of the betta, he may or may not be a nipper himself. If you really want a Betta in a community tank...best to put him with peaceful fish like rasboras and cories (and make sure the Betta isn't a nipper)
- Also, generally considered a bad idea to mix species of Anabantoids (Bettas, and Gouramis)...they can be territorial towards each other.

Don't know much about the other fish off the top of my head...maybe someone else can give you advice on those.

 

[DarkEntity]

In short no!


Pictus cats are carnivores and get too large for that tank as they are active swimmers.
Badis are a fairly territorial fish so arent really suitable for community tanks.
Dwarf Puffers definate no no, small but very nipy fish would shred anything it could get..and would probably get eaten by the other fish at some point.
Tiger Barbs are a great shoaling fish and avid fin nippers of slower moving fish.
Leaf fish are carnivores who will eat other fish and again would probably eat the Puffers.

all in all, a really bad selection of fish.

 

[Musho3210]

oh and the algae eater grows big and can get agressive if its a CAE


I agree, bad fish choice, but good job for asking.

 

[MHunt]

I wouldn't stock any of those fish in there on their own long term, never mind all together. In a 20 gal you should only be thinking about smallish species, perhaps a group of 8 tiger barbs with some cory's and a couple of other feature fish. Or go for a couple of shoals of small tetras or barbs, and a couple of dwarf or honey gourami's. I do like the licourice gourami's but not with your original group, there's more than a couple of fish that would eat them.

I know it's your first post and you want your new tank, but just have a think first and do some research on the fish you want, don't just pick them because they look nice.

Edit - Ok, there's a couple of fish ok in isolation, but they'd get eaten by the leaf fish a pictus cats!

 

[mommyof2bettas]

Nope. The bettas and gouramis don't work, the dwarf puffers need a species tank (agressive), the leaf fish is predatory and will eat smaller fish. Not sure about the other fish...

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

The Kissing Gourami and Pictus both have the potential to reach a foot in length. The Barbs will destroy the betta, or anything with long fins.

 

[Musho3210]

it matters what type of pictus that gets to a foot.

 

[AshleySpatula]

wow i figured since all fish labeled 'tropical community' could basically live together then ones labeled 'semi-agressive' could live together too. i will do some more research and see what i come up with. like i said if i need to i will move my betta back to his bubble. thats not a problem. does the red claw crab pose any problems for any of these particular fish?

 

[Musho3210]

do you go to petsmart?

 

[AshleySpatula]

i do occasionally go to pet smart but i go to all of the pet stores in my area to see what they have. should i not go to petsmart?

 

[Musho3210]

well i want to say dont go to petsmart but i cant force you to do anything, but i can say i would advise you not to listen to what petsmart fish labels say. Sometimes they are not "semi-agressive" and i doubt red belly pacus can be put in 30 gallon tanks. They dont have very good info there.....

 

[AshleySpatula]

ok so i now know that my original cast was horrible. here is the new possible line up and hopefully this selection will get better reviews?
i am going to move the betta because i like the idea of gouramis.

2 powder blue dwarf gouramis
5 indian glass fish
4 zebra danios (maybes)
1 sabertooth tetra
6 green fire tetras
1 licorice gourami (maybe)
1 or 2 cory cats

is that too many? would all these work together with my crab too?








p.s. look up the sabertooth tetra, that one was a joke but man those are cool...

 

[MHunt]

ok so i now know that my original cast was horrible. here is the new possible line up and hopefully this selection will get better reviews?
i am going to move the betta because i like the idea of gouramis.

2 powder blue dwarf gouramis
5 indian glass fish
4 zebra danios (maybes)
1 sabertooth tetra
6 green fire tetras
1 licorice gourami (maybe)
1 or 2 cory cats

is that too many? would all these work together with my crab too?

p.s. look up the sabertooth tetra, that one was a joke but man those are cool...

Ok, generally ok, i but perhaps too many fish for a 20 gal! Look at the max adult length of each fish and add them up. You should look initially for a total stocking level of about 1 inch per (US) gallon, 20" worth of fish in your tank. That can increase over time as the tank becomes mature. If you're not sure about the danio's i would leave them out for now, also the cory's prefer to be in larger groups, so personally i would choose more of them instead of one of the other groups of fish for now. Without the maybe's and the cory's you have about 21" worth of fish listed. You could start with that, and perhaps add the cory's in a couple of months time.

Either way I would stock slowly, start with one of the larger groups once the tank is cycled, then add the other groups every week or so to give them chance to settle in.

 

[DarkEntity]

far better but try to think about how the live in the wild, tetras etc generally are a shoaling fish and will be far more relaxed in a group of 5 or more, the same could be said for Danios.