# 20 Gallon Stocking Advice



## bzada (Jun 24, 2013)

Hey guys,

I know this is a cichlid forum and while I do have a cichlid tank, I also have a 20 gallon (2 ft wide) peaceful community tank. It currently has 8 Harlequin Rasboras and has a decent amount of live plants. Im looking for suggestions to complete the stock (bottom swimmers, top swimmers). It should also be noted that there will be a butterfly pleco in there soon.

Heres a pic of the tank from a month ago, before the rainbow shark killed 2 rasboras and the lone cardinal tetra. The rainbow shark is now in my friends' 55 gallon community setup:


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

Not sure about the top swimmers but maybe add some smaller species of cories for the bottom. I believe they prefer to be in groups so maybe 5 or more?


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## Tomagorn (Apr 5, 2013)

Butterfly plecos like (require?) wood, so you might want to add some driftwood (perhaps with attached java fern or anubias). When full grown, that pleco will be the biggest fish in your tank by far. Also, your substrate may drive the pleco crazy as he tries to change colors to match. ;-) Since you have SA fish, small corys make sense. For top swimmers, you might consider a trio of fancy guppies to complement the colorful rasboras. Good luck.


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## bzada (Jun 24, 2013)

Yeah I will definitely be adding a piece of wood in there for him and when the pleco reaches 4-5" he will be going into my 55 gallon tank. I like the idea of 5 dwarf or panda corys. Not too fond of guppies. 
Would something like this work:
- 8 Harlequin Rasboras
- 3 Ottos
- 5 dwarf corys
- 1 red swordtail 
- butterfly pleco (I could put him in my 55 gallon from the start and put one of my 2 Bristlenose plecos in the 20)


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I's just do the otos, and maybe increase the rasboras.


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## iamabug (Oct 14, 2013)

My 20g has:
Bottom
4 juli cory
2 amano shrimp
Mid
3 red blue tetra
2 golden barb
5 zebra danio(or they top?? They swim all over really)
Top
10 guppy

It works well, fills the whole tank.


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

I was going to say that I would do BN plecos instead of the butterfly as they grow too large. Looks like you were already thinking of doing this anyway and I would do that. I have them in all my tanks and they do a good job cleaning up algae and they don't grow that large.


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