new tank ideas

[MyraVan]

My biggest tank is a 20 gallon (yes, I know, very small for some of you). It's a planted tank with a soil + gravel substrate and 1.5 WPG lighting (which I may upgrade so I can grow more stuff). It's unheated. In it currently are:
4 danios (2 zebra, 2 gold)
2 rosy barbs
1 hillstream loach

We moved a few weeks ago. A week before we moved I had
6 danios (4 zebra, 2 gold)
3 rosy barbs
2 hillstream loaches

I gave away 2 zebras, planning to put pearl danios in their place. One rosy barb died because I was stupid and fed a spider to her. One hillstream loach died of unknown causes. I would like to replace the female rosy barb, as I feel that you should always have at least 3 of all schooling fish.

I have always liked cory cats, as they look so cute, but I've never owned them. I had a thought about how I could put some in my 20 gallon tank. What do you think of the following list of inhabitants?
4 white cloud mountain minnows
3 rosy barbs
3 peppered cories or bronze cories
1 hillstream loach

Can bronze cories go in unheated tanks? I've read some lists of fish for unheated tanks that says they can't, and some that say they can. Peppered cories for sure can go in unheated tanks. I think I would prefer the bronze because as far as I can tell they are a little bit smaller than the peppered, but if the temp's not right for them I'll go for peppered. The min tank temp is 20C, but it's usually between 22-24C.

Does anyone have any suggestions about a good way to catch zebra danios? When we moved, they were by far the hardest to get out of the tank. They are so fast, netting them is very difficult. Now I beginning to wish we had given them all away, and never put them back into the tank...

Any other comments about my proposed stocking?

[cucci67]

One of the easiest ways to catch a fast fish is to get a bigger net, with a smaller tank it is not always as easy to go this route, but with the bigger net the fish has a longer swim to get around it.

[Cichlid Man]

Also don't chase it around the tank, stelth is key.

[cucci67]

Yes, just slowely chase it to one side, then with one quick motion, get him in the net with the opening against the glass, works for everything, even tiger barbs, they are a pain to catch.

[Lydia]

Yeah I recently had to catch all my zebra danios and stealth is definately the key. About the cories size, in my experience, the peppered are actually smaller than the bronze. I have one of each (I will hopefully get a new tank soon and then keep them in schools) and the peppered has stayed smaller than the bronze. They were the same size when I got them.

[TheOldSalt]

Cories are cute and the peppereds should be fine in your tank. The only possible problem I see is that they are south american while everything else is asian, but that's just because I'm a purist. The water requirements of each are similar enough to ignore.

White Clouds and most barbs get along fine. I have White Clouds & Odessa Barbs in one 20-gallon unheated tank, and they largely ignore each other except when the Odessas spawn, at which time the WC's gobble up the eggs as fast as they're lain. That really annoys me. Otherwise, it's a good combination. If you're not trying to spawn Rosy barbs, your plan is very good.

[MyraVan]

Thanks a bunch for all your comments. I will buy an XL fish net today and try to be stealthy. I'm glad the peppered corys seem to be smaller than the bronze ones. Funny, some sites list them as being bigger, but then Planet Catfish has them being a bit smaller; I should have trusted them, as they certainly should know their catfish!

[Lara]

Ha, I have the opposite problem in my tank, every time I try to get bristlenose fry out the zebra danio's keep jumping in the net My only comment re. your stocking is biased to my views on fishkeeping: I think your fish would prefer to have more friends of their own kind ie. more fish, less variety. I think you get the most character (not to mention health and happiness) out of your fish when you keep them this way. Personally I think at least 5 of any one kind of schooling fish (incl. cories). I'm not a big fan of community tanks that mix schooling fish (featuring varieties that hang in the same water layer) unless the tank is big enough to accomodate a proper school of each variety.
Good luck, have fun setting up

[MyraVan]

Well, I've completed stage 1 of the tank redo: removing the zerbra danios! I got the biggest net I could find, about 8" on the long edge, and tried to be as stealthy as possible. I tried herding them, putting the big net into one side of the tank and using the other to gently persuade the fish to go into it with the smaller net, and that worked with a couple of them. After about 1/2 hour I had got all 4 of them out. This morning I dropped them off with a friend who will give them to a local pet shop when it opens.

Now the tank looks quite empty, with two rosy barbs (and one hillstream loach that usually stays hidden). This evening I will bring home 4-5 white clouds from my way overcrowded office tank, and it will look much less empty.

That one rosy barb male we have is really stunning, an almost neon orange. He's such a beautiful fish that it has ocurred to me to do as Lara suggests, to not get the cories, but to get more rosys instead. Well, I won't have any time to do fish shopping for a few weeks so I'll just leave it for awhile and see what I think later. (I don't have time for fish shopping as the really good fish shops are about 15 miles away, so it takes a fair bit of time to get there. As we moved house about 3 weeks ago, unpacking boxes remains a priority for our weekends.)

[Lara]

Good luck with it all MyraVan

[MyraVan]

OK, here's what I've done. I gave away all the danios and put 7 white cloud mountain minnows in the tank. They were all I had left (I'd giving most away) from when my white clouds spawned in my 2 gallon tank. I bought one more rosy barb, bringing the total to three. So far so good.

I've thought about Old Salt's comment, about the white couds and rosy barbs and hillstream loaches being Asian and cory cats being South American, and I realized that there's another fish that I would like just as much as cory cats, but which were Asian: kuhli loaches. So I bought three kuhli loaches over the weekend. And I really like them.

But now I have a problem. The rosy barbs are such aggressive eaters that any time I put in some botomfeeder food for the little kuhlis, the rosys eat it. I tried several things yesterday to try to get them some food, including putting the food in between some rocks that I thought only kuhlis would want to go, but the rosys barged in even there. Result: very fat rosy barbs, and kuhli loaches not getting much food.

I wonder if the best solution to this problem is to find a new home for the rosy barbs. I really like them, they are beautiful fish, but to be honest they are a bit too large and active to be comfortable in a 20 gallon tank. We will probably get a bigger tank eventually (my hubby was admiring a nice big bowfront in the fish shop where we bought the kuhlis) but not any time soon: we have alot of building work to do on the house, and it wouldn't make sense to set up a new big tank now, when we may need to move it in the future.

Any ideas, suggesttions, comments?

[osteoporoosi]

I would donate the rosys and replace them with smaller schooling fish, such as cherry barb or harlequin rasbora. In my opinion there is also room for couple of more kuhlis also. You could also try cucumber; most barbs don't like it that much, but kuhlis love it!

[MyraVan]

Thanks for the cucumber suggestion, osteo, but the kuhlis didn't go for it, while the rosy barbs did occasionally take chunks out of it! There was one comedy moment when the big male got a seed stuck in his mouth and in the end it looked like one of the females pulled it out...

Anyway, I think the kuhlis will do all right, even with the rosy barbs. I will scatter small bits of bottomfeeder food, and trust to the little kuhlis to dig it out. But in the long run I will try to convince my husband to let me give away the rosys (or get a bigger tank for them). They are his favorite fish, since they are so big and bright, and they do seem to be doing well in that tank, even though they're a little cramped, so it will be hard to convince him to part with them.

[micstarz]

Haha, i leave my net in the water and my danios swim right into it! I have also learnt that
chasing them near the glass and then tapping on the glass gently is great