#the centerpiece fish of my community tank is a honey gourami

[prince-liest]

I saw that you are an aquarium fan! What's your favourite kind of tank fish? Mine is certainly Neon Innesa but Pterophyllum scalare are also pretty neat!!

TIL you can change the colors of text in asks! Neat!

And oooh - haha, thanks for getting me started on this! >:) I actually do have a group of neons in my larger community tank. I think they're very pretty fish and they hold a nostalgia for me because my mom had a bunch when I was young. I don't have a tank large enough for angelfish unfortunately, and I've also just in general been won over to the pros of having exclusively non-aggressive community fish in the community fish tank, so I'm not sure if I'd ever go for angels.

That said, if she hadn't been a homicidal shrimp murderer, I cannot overstate how nice it was to put my betta fish into a 20 gallon tank. People are often focused on putting bettas in the minimum safe size of tank for them, and it feels like you rarely see the interesting behaviors you get from bettas in larger tanks discussed. She used the whole tank, patrolled and explored constantly, and it was very clear that compared to the neons, who were often just vibing, most of her actions were performed with some sort of deliberate purpose. I felt almost guilty transferring her into her current 6.4 gallon tank, though it's heavily planted and has shrimp for her to pick at.

My generic "I fucking love betta fish" answer aside, my favorite fish tend to end up being loaches! I have java loaches in my community tank, which are hilarious, active noodles, and my favorite loaches are reticulated hillstream loaches.

They're very pretty: aside from the pattern, they look like tiny little manta rays, and they spend a lot of time sticking to the side of the glass and to smooth rocks. I've got three (soon to be four when I take my friend's extra when he moves) and they're very peaceful fish that do well in a large range of temperatures. Watching them flap at each other or sift sand is always really fun.

[hella-free-space]

hey! when i do my tanks i like to have some smaller schooling species and then have like a “main” fish i guess, that’s bigger and doesn’t need a school. i’ve got a 20 long and i’m gonna do cherry barbs and kuhli loaches for sure, but i’m not sure about the main fish. i was thinking lyretail killifish but i’m not sure about ordering online. any other larger fish ideas u have?

i’ve heard that killifish are mean? but i’m not sure if that’s just one or two kinds or if thats all kinds…i dont know a whole lot about killifish :T

but other fish i might recommend would be like…maybe a honey gourami? or a docile betta maybe? this is a really hard question to answer because even tho i have a 20 i’d like to set up eventually…i know my giant female veil tail is gonna be my centerpiece and i planned my future tank stock around her…

if anybody has any ideas please share cuz this is a really good question that i bet a lot of people have!!you can also google “centerpiece fish” or “centerpiece fish for community tank” and there are a few youtube videos that will come up that provide suggestions and then also some forums and stuff that might have ideas for you! take suggestions with a grain of salt and always do your own research though of course

good luck anon!

[prince-liest]

update: THE SHRIMP HAVE BEEN PURCHASED

grainy-ass photo because these are legitimately the smallest amano shrimp I have ever SEEN. I frankly was not entirely sure they even were amano shrimp and not just wild-type/clear neocaridina, but the guy seemed to know what he was doing in looking for the telltale amano spots, and somehow the amanos are cheaper than the neos anyway so no big loss if they’re neocaridina. hopefully the little dudes thrive. I cut back a bunch of the plants so there are some diatoms growing at the moment and shrimp LOVE diatoms

I ALSO got a new fish buddy!

I’ve been waiting foreeeever for my LFS to get honey gouramis back in stock. unforunately they only had males, so this dude will have to be a loner for a little while (I’ll check again for females on thursday), but he’s so small and adorable. I’m excited to have a non-aggressive centerpiece fish in the community tank, especially since her highness the betta fish is adapting fantastically well to my desktop tank

I'M GONNA GO BUY SOME SHRIMP

[hella-free-space]

Hi I got a 20 gallon for Christmas and I’ve been trying to figure out how to appropriately stock it! I really like cory catfish so I’m planning to have a school of them and I also really like the idea of a centerpiece fish, I’m thinking a honey gourami. From what I’ve been researching it seems like I have room for a small group of schooling fish? Would that be overcrowded if I was to get a small group of tetras? Do you have any suggestions for me? Thank you!

hey there @balloonkiwi​ :p that’s an awesome xmas gift!for a 20 gallon max stocking (imo) is 3 species of fish, one for each level of the water column. so you could have some cute lil cories (bottom) and a centerpiece fish, and then a schooling fish (mid/top levels usually) and that would probably look like a fantastic tank! :) i’m not sure if cories and gouramis and tetras are compatible in terms of parameters (even tho i think they are, research is always a good idea so keep it up!). i dont think it would be too crowded with a shoal of cories, a centerpiece fish, and a school of something :p i’m personally in love with rasboras so if those would work in the tank i’d totally recommend seeing if there are any rasboras you might like! but thats just me :p if the tetras are compatible and you find some you really love them go for those instead :)Tips for Stocking A Community Aquarium

I’d recommend picking our 2-3 species of fish and some inverts for a community aquarium of around 20 gallons. When stocking any community aquarium, your top priority should be compatibility! :) You should also consider stocking in terms of space (what area of the tank/water level with the species occupy most? how much space does it need?) and bioload (how much waste does this species produce? how big of a school/shoal do i need? is my filter big enough to handle the waste produced?)

- Ensure that your fish share water parameters like temperature, pH, etc. ranges. Bonus points if they come from the same geographical region! :D- Ensure that their temperaments are compatible. You don’t want to keep agressive fish with peaceful fish! :O - Ensure that they’re compatible size-wise. With schooling/shoaling fish, it’s best to keep a school of fish that are the same size/age. If you keep a school/shoal of mixed sizes/ages, then bullying is likely to happen. Also, if you keep larger fish with smaller fish, the smaller fish may become a tasty snack D: - Ensure that different levels of the water column aren’t overcrowded. Corydoras and kuhlis can both be housed in a 20 gallon aquarium, and both tend to occupy the bottom of the tank. Let’s say you house 12 kuhlis + 12 corydoras. Your tank probably isn’t overstocked in terms of bioload, but you’ll probably have a lot of unoccupied space at the top of the tank (though kuhlis can be active and will swim into higher levels of the water column) and the bottom of the tank will be pretty crowded. After finding some fish that you’re interested in keeping, and seeing which ones are compatible, you can choose which fish you’d like to cohab according the level of the water column fish occupy :D You can get a bottom-dweller (like cories), a mid-level fish (like rasboras), and a top-level fish (like marbled hatchets) :p Sometimes fish will occupy more than one level of the water column as well. Corydoras pygmaeus will actually shoal in the middle of the water column as well as on the bottom of the tank and lots of schooling fish will swim around the mid and top layers of the tank :) If you were to house 2 species that occupy multiple levels of the water column with some overlap, that’s perfectly okay. Many species will venture out of their layer from time to time anyways ^-^ So long as one area of the water column is not where all your fish live (i.e. having 3 shoals of different corydoras species or 3 schools of tetras in a minimum-sized tank), you should be a-okay :pYou should always stock a community aquarium according to the needs of every species of fish you plan to cohab in the aquarium :) If everyone’s healthy and getting along well, you’ll be able to sit back and enjoy your awesome community tank! :D