bottom feeders

RockabillyChick

RockabillyChick

Kilt-lifter
Nov 5, 2005
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Washington state
i will be setting up my 20g long tank next weekend around when i get my 2 female gouramis. the tank is 30" long and 12" wide, 12" tall.

i will have 3 red honey gouramis (2" long max) and 6 glowlight tetras (1.5") and i also want to add 6 blue tetras.

what kind of bottom feeder could i add? if any? i will have two 90gph HOBs on it, one on each end to prevent dead spots. am i already at my limit, or could i add a school of panda cories? is there any other kind of small bottom feeder that doesn't need a school?

i wish i had $60 to buy the gold nugget pleco they had at the store today, lol.
 
The upper area looks a little crowded for my tastes but the bottom is wide open. I doubt you will have issues with the cycle with those 2 big filters as long as all works well. It is only when things happen like the power going out that issues occur. Add soem live plants and that should help in that case (and I always like to have a backup battery operated air pump).

A small group of cories shoudl be fine, make sure to get them some sinking food pellets (my guys like shrimp and algae tabs). Another choice might be a flying fox. They get a bit bigger (4-5 inches) but are not big swimmers and are generally peaceful to anything but fish that look like them. They graze on the bottom and also along the leaves of plants. I really like mine.
 
3 red honey gouramis (2" long max) and 6 glowlight tetras (1.5") and i also want to add 6 blue tetras..

If you put all these fish in your tank you will be overstocked. I would add the Gouramis, Tetras and for the bottom some Cories maybe 2 of them.

I wouldn't recomend any other catfish as most will outgrow your tank pretty fast
 
Cories really should be added in at least 3, which is still too small of a number to keep them truely happy.
 
i'd really prefer to just get a single bottom feeder to clean up a little. what about some shrimp? maybe a few bamboo shrimp? or even ghost shrimp. i know ghost shrimp dont add hardly anything to the bioload, but i think the gouramis would eat them.....

and as for cycling, i'm going to be taking my already cycled filter off my 10 gallon and moving it to the 20, along with a second new filter, then adding a third new filter back on the 10 for my bettas (it will be divided). i think the bacteria on the glass and in the gravel in the 10g will be enough to support two bettas. the 20 should go through a small cycle, but it shouldn't be a big deal.
 
Well, I myself LOVE plecos. I know you wouldn't be able to get most species because they get huge (and look so cool when they do). However, there are some SMALL plecos that don't grow longer than 4", and they are EXCELLENT tank cleaners. Just don't overfeed them. Because they'll poop...a lot.

I'm not sure I would go for shrimp. I've read (and seen in pet stores) about most varieties of shrimp getting aggressive in warmer waters (ie. the temp. you need for your other fish) and attacking and killing other fish. Also your gouramis *might* eat them. BTW: I don't think the tetras you wanted to add would be a good idea. I'm pretty sure you'd be overstocked then. Just my opinion.

Best of luck.

Jade
 
If you plant the tank, the crowding will be a little less of an issue. Still, I would hesitate to have two schools of 6 tetras each with 3 - 2" gouramis.

But, it depends on your setup and your cleaning schedule, how many plants you have, and the temperment of the fish... I know, community fish are supposed to be able to get along, but some do better than others. I have serpaes that I hardly ever see because they are chicken. And my neons are nippy and aggressive. *roll eyes*

There is no hard, fast law that says you can't have just one cory. I know... I'm going to get flamed for that. In an ideal tank, you would have 50 cories and about 500 neons. I have a solitary cory in one of my 25g. There are 3 in the other 25g, and they have some weird hierarchy going on. One fish is majorly bigger than the other two and fairly aggressive. One is very passive and reclusive. Sometimes I think that the smaller one would be better off in the other tank.

But I digress (blah, blah, blah).

Rubberlip plecos get only about 5". I've never had much luck with them. Mine always started out good but then got territorial and would only clean off one rock that it had staked out.
Otos are little algae eaters that don't get more than 1 1/2". Keep in schools of three or more.
Siamese algae eaters/siamese algae sharks get big eventually (like 5.5"), and they seem to prefer mid to upper tank.

Some people get snails.

Probably you're best off with 3 little cories and skipping the blue (neons) tetras. But, it's your tank. :)
 
the tank will eventually be medium planted and i do 50% water change once a week with gravel vaccuming. my 10 gallon has 1 gourami and 6 glowlights and i have no problem at all with water perameters. in the 10 gallon i didn't really want a bottom feeder because theres not a lot of "bottom" its taken up with plants and my driftwood. but in the 20 long, there's quite a bit of roaming room for a bottom dweller.

what if i go with 3 gouramis, 8 glowlights, and like 4 otos?
 
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