# How many fishes in 20g tank?



## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

How many fishes I can have in a 20g planted aquarium?....my Platies are making a lots of babies.

3 Neon tetras
1 swordtail 
2 Serpae Tetras
2 Platies making babies
1 clown loach
1 ghost shrimp
3 red crystal shrimp


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## Darksome (Feb 15, 2009)

The clown loach will eventually outgrow your tank...you can usually _overstock_ a planted tank with smaller species, like endlers and tetras but i don't think platies would be suitable...mainly because they are so prolific and they get much bigger. Other than that I think your tank is fine, maybe increase the serpae and neon schools by a couple more fish...you can give away the platies once they grow up and maybe trade them or sell them to make more room and decrease the bio load.


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## TAB (Feb 7, 2009)

There is also a chance that the plattys and the sword tail will breed( most sword tails seen in the hobby are actually hybrids of swords and plattys)


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## totziens (Jun 28, 2008)

I would prefer to keep 3-4 species in a 20 gallon tank instead of having 1-3 of each species, making the tank looks like "Noah's Tank" (try to relate to Noah's Ark then you'll understand what I mean). I personally think any tank will look unnatural just by having 1-2 of many species and I don't think that's the best condition for fishes that prefer to be in a group of 6 and above - in your case I can see neon tetras and serpae tetras. Also note that serpae tetras could be nippy being kept in a small group - you can't keep themselves busy among their own species (they love to chase one another). Clown loach will grow too big for this tank eventually (it also prefers to be in a group of its own species). I hope you have a backup plan.


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## newbie314 (Mar 2, 2007)

I have:
6 glo-light Tetra
6 silver tip Tetras
60+ Red Cherry Shrimp
1 dwarf crayfish
Pond snails..

Everything in my tank is dwarf. Nothing over 1.5". Gives the tank more variety.


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

Thanks for the replies!!...I actually started with the 9 Neons and 3 Serpaes. The Serpaes are my olders fishes they came from my previous 10g tank they are about 1 year and 9 months old. Oh well I guess I'm gonna have to get those platies out without making a mess


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## dwalstad (Apr 14, 2006)

QuantumX said:


> Oh well I guess I'm gonna have to get those platies out without making a mess


It's good to have a carnivore in the tank to eat excess baby fish. A male Betta can help with population control.


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

Hey thanks Diana for the advise, that is a good idea.


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## nkambae (Nov 6, 2007)

Hi QuantumX,

I think you got some good advice here and would second the motion submitted by Darksome and echo the assertion that the clown loach *will* outgrow your 20 gallon. They can easily attain 8-12 inches. I would also add the idea that they do best in groups. If you are looking for snail control, there are several smaller botia species which would suffice nicely. Check out this site if you want to learn some more about Clown loaches:

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/clown-loach-chromobotia-macracanthus

Good luck with your 20 gallon.

stu


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## totziens (Jun 28, 2008)

If you ever use betta for population control, you may want to observe the behaviour of the bettas for several months. Otherwise, your population control may exceed your expectation if it kills everything. The behaviour of betta is very unpredictable. It may be friendly for the first few days/weeks/months but start harassing other fishes out of a sudden. Every betta behaves differently. The bettas I had kept including female ones were all "killers" but many people people managed to mix betta with other species without any issue. I call betta the psycho fish due to the crazy behaviour.


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## QuantumX (Sep 27, 2007)

Ok thanks!! for the advices.


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## pminister (Jan 15, 2009)

I have the following:

12 x glowlight tetra
4 x black/blue mix platty
3 x serpae tetra
2 x swordtails
1 x red platy with black tail
1 x chinese algae eater.


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## Alex123 (Jul 3, 2008)

QuantumX, you have a light load right now. You need at least 55 gallon if not larger for the clown loach. I would say 75 gallon would be a good start if you want to keep more than 1 or 2 and you should if you want them. They live several decades so it's a commitment also. I love pest snails don't get rid of them, they keep the tank clean and you can feed the fish by crushing the shells of pond snails. I know what you mean about babies. I bought one black mollie and before I know it there were over a dozen. I got rid of all the females. Then I had explosion of guppies, so I got rid of all the females. Now I have an explosion of gold barbs. I got all of them at one time(1 month period) too going the Noah Ark method . I had one platy and after a month in my tank there was a baby! Thank goodness it was a female. It's like any fish I put in there, they have babies. Looking back, on my 20 gallon, I would have like to have smaller fishes in there so the tank looked bigger like the tetras. I have hard water and from past experiences, the neon teras seems to not last very long and had ick too. Anyone had good experience with tetras in hard water? Now, that I have planted tank, it might be a different story. I would love to see 15+ size tetras swimming in my 20g planted tank.


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