# Setting up a 20g tall community...anyone want to check out my list?



## Blue Fish (Jun 11, 2012)

Okay, I'm new to community tanks...I've kept bettas for years and we had goldfish when I was a child...but all the rest of the fish options are not something I've experienced before. 
But...my cousin wants me to help her stock and get set up for a community tank for her three kids, ages from a little over a year to seven. 

I plan to set her up with a 30 gallon filter (can't currently remember the name of it...) and a good-sized sponge filter as a backup. The tank is a 20g tall and will probably be all silk plants just to make her life easier. 

According to AqAdvisor and my own research, these fish in these numbers are going to work...
2 mystery snails (the fairly bright colors and how they slide around is fun for little kids to watch)
12 ghost shrimp (because they are feeder shrimp and come by the dozen...and I need someone in there to clean off the bottom of the tank)
5 cherry barbs (I read they were less aggressive than the other barbs, and their color is bright)
5 harlequin rasboras (small and schooling which is nice)
4 panda corys (will these work with the shrimp?)
2 male platys (because of their bright color and I read they are okay to be in singles/no schooling)

I'm avoiding live bearers and anything that's likely to breed because I DON'T want to deal with that with the kids. I need a set number of fish, no more, lol!
Is this overstocked? It seems like kind of a lot of fish...but I'm used to a world of one betta in a 10 gallon tank, lol!  

I'm looking for color, movement, and something going on at pretty much all levels of the tank. 

Any suggestions, information, all is very welcome and appreciated! 
I'm a total newbie at this and I've been researching but the opinions of others with experience is also always valuable.


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

Nothing particularly wrong with the stocking except for it's really tight. Who is going to be taking care of the tank? It could work, but someone would need to really be on top of maintenance.

If you want to make it a bit easier I would one of the following do the following:

1) remove either the cherry barbs or the rasbora. Then add 1-2 more of the other and maybe 1-2 more corys (they are much more entertaining in groups, I can say from experience that there is a big difference between a group of 4 and 5)

2) replace the harlequin rasboras with espei rasboras. They look a lot alike and behaving similar but they are a little smaller with a lighter bioload. I have 11 in a 10gal and they also love to school together.

3) Lose the mystery snails. A lot of waste from them and they aren't necessarily the best fit water chemistry wise (although they would likely adapt fine is acclimated right)


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## Blue Fish (Jun 11, 2012)

First off, thanks for the information!! I'm completely new at this and am at the mercy of the internet and aq advisor.  

Okay, so a better set up would be: 
12 ghost shrimp
6 cherry barbs 
5 panda corys
2 platys
but I do want to keep the snails just because little kids love snails...no idea why, but they get SO excited about them...probably more than the fish.  I'm not dedicated to mysteries if another type would work better.  

We can live without the rasboras, the other fish are big enough and colorful enough to be interesting.  

My cousin will be taking care of the tank, and she's never had fish...I will cycle it and get it started for her, and I'd planned to set her up with a gravel vacuum and instructions to vacuum and take out 1/3 of the tank water every week. With a betta in a cycled tank that would be overkill, but I figured that with this many there would need to be more/larger water changes. I don't want to have the maintenance be too tight, just because I'm not the one doing it.  I wish they'd do a larger tank...but this is what fits...so we're working it out.  

Any other suggestions?  I'm on a steep learning curve and information is appreciated!


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## n25philly (Dec 5, 2013)

Nothing wrong with a 20 tall, I have one and it's got tons of life in it.

I think this will work as long as the maintenance is regular. I'm sure someone else will chime in if there is something I missed. You can leave the mysteries, I think with the rasboras taken out they will do really well as that was the main issue as they like very different ph levels.


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## PieTime (Mar 16, 2014)

You could try Assassin or Malaysian Trumpet snails. They both have cone shaped shells that are nice to look at, although assassins have a bolder pattern. Assassins, however, will eat all other snail species (a pro or con, depending on how you feel about that), and if they run out of those, they require feeding, as they are carnivores. MTS are neat, because they live under that gravel during the day, but when their light is off or nighttime rolls around, you can observe them climbing out of the gravel and scavenging around the tank.


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