# Another tedious stocking question - 20 litre Arctank



## NeilW (14 Jan 2011)

Hey everyone   

Sorry this is another tedious stocking question.  

I'm afraid I'm not too clued up on what stocking you can 'get away with' in a tank as personally I prefer a lightly stocked tank with shrimp and plants. 

However my dad has a 20 litre arctank that is currently housing a small loach (about 5cms and hasn't grown at all in a year a half so I suspect he's fully grown) and two white cloud mountain minnows.  It's been running for a year or so but I'm giving it a rescape to make it easier for him to maintain and at the same time he's after a couple more 'colourful' fish so it doesn't look so empty, but I'm keen to get the stocking right so theres no issues.

*current tank specs;*
20 litres
PH 7.5 - 8 tapwater
unheated (but have the option of a heater if it helps improve options)
gravel and sand substrate with rocks and wood. also will get hold of some anubias or java fern

Ideally I would like some small colourful fish that would be compatible with the parameters of the WCMM.  Despite being a sub-tropical species I've read that some people keep them at 25oC - which is the lower range of the more colourful tropical species.  Would I get away with something like tank-bred neons in the hard water? What sort of number would be good? Any other suggestions that fulfil the criteria of compatible colourful nano species would be great.

Thanks in advance,
Neil


----------



## Ed Seeley (15 Jan 2011)

For a 20l tank you can't have too much stock.  Would a larger shoal of WCMMs not be colourful enough?  I think a whole load of them would look ace and reckon you could easily add 6 more.  The other option for more colour might be some endlers livebearers, guppies or platies (other livebearers would be too big).  I think neons, as they need to live in a shoal might be a push as you wouldn't be able to have many.


----------



## amy4342 (15 Jan 2011)

I've got the same tank - 6 WCM would probably be pushing it to be honest, because if you look at them in a bigger tank they are really active and tend to use all the space.

In my arc, I've got 10 Boraras brigittae, which suit the tank really nicely. I've also got 5 Corydoras Pygmaeus and numerous cherry and crystal red shrimp.

Other suitable fish I would think include other Micro-rasboras, the most common ones being Boraras Maculata (Coffee Bean Rasbora), Microrasbora erythromicron and Danio margaritatus (Galaxy Rasbora). There are several varieties of Pygmy Cory to include some interest on the bottom and loads of species of shrimp that would suit the tank - just be careful there's nothing big enough to eat them or they'll end up as lunch! You could also probably house one male Dario dario (scarlet badis) with two females, but I haven't tried this so more input may be helpful.


----------



## nry (15 Jan 2011)

Boraras maculata are very deep red, I had 7 in my old PFK 27litre nano and they were teeny tiny   I'd probably get some more WCMM myself, for a larger group, but you'd get away with BM's as well I'd think.


----------



## NeilW (17 Jan 2011)

Cheers for some excellent advice as always everyone   

In the end I played it safe and went for an additional four White Cloud Mountain Minnows in addition to the original two, but the new ones are silver flavour whilst the originals were the gold. They look pretty nice in there and hopefully one of the hardier fish that will be dad-proof!  Fascinating how the different variants shoaled straight away despite the different colouring.  

I think Boraras brigittae/maculata or Neons would have been lovely but far too fragile.

Had a big clean up of the tank, fixed the lighting timer to a single 4 hour photoperiod and made a quick effort to 'scape the tank with what was either my left overs or what was available at the LFS. Keen to get hold of more plants and also replace the only sand that I could get hold of - which was some kind of yellow Unipac stuff that looks more like builders sand   The Unipac Maui sand looks more suitable. 

Quite refreshing to do something less delicate and less-shrimpy to what I'm used to. 

Will try and get some images up at some point  

Cheers again,
Neil


----------



## NeilW (17 Jan 2011)

Not quite Takashi Amano but not the green/brown soup that it was (should have done a 'before' and 'after' shot!);












Surprisingly I think with the addition of more plants (more moss?), a black background, a replacement arcpod bulb for the nasty purple and a change from 'builders' sand its got the potential to be a nice simple tank.  With the resources, time and budget available I'm quite chuffed!  Any other plant suggestions of the very low-tech variety would be welcome   

Cheers for looking,
Neil


----------



## nry (17 Jan 2011)

Bororas maculatas are not fragile at all, very hardy fish, very similar in temperament to danio but hey ho, WCMM it is


----------



## NeilW (17 Jan 2011)

nry said:
			
		

> Bororas maculatas are not fragile at all, very hardy fish, very similar in temperament to danio but hey ho, WCMM it is


I had a bad experience with _brigittae_ before where they all died in the space of a week, despite having spot-on parameters.  I put it down to a dodgy LFS or possibly not getting on with EasyCarbo but its put me off getting any more. Maybe one day I'll give them another go


----------



## frothhelmet (20 Jan 2011)

Go for an invert tank  The other thing you could do are endlers, a pair of badis, the Dwarf Pencilfish (Nannostomus marginatus), or a few killies (I like clown killies)


----------



## dw1305 (20 Jan 2011)

Hi all,


> endlers, a pair of badis, the Dwarf Pencilfish (Nannostomus marginatus), or a few killies (I like clown killies)


 +1, these are some of my favourite fish (even the Endlers). 

cheers Darrel


----------

