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im just about finished setting up a new 20g long tank with a penguin 150 and i was thinking of getting 5 zebra danios and 3 ghost shrimp to help cycle it. is this good enough? should i start with more than 5 danios?

also, what other fish would be good to add after the tank is cycled? i was thinking some corys would be good.

Welcome to FP kloned

The 5 danios and ghost shrimp should be a good beginning...the only way to really know is to try it and see how the water parameters go...if you see them rising, then you know it's enough, if they don't rise then you might add one or two more...but then again i know of another member who's tank didn't ever have the spikes in the water parameters, and cycled relatively easy, but that is very, very, very rare, and surprised us

I must agree with the thought of getting some corries for the bottom of the tank when the tank is finished cyclingthey have quickly become one of my all time favorites in this crazy hobby, and if you haven't ever seen corries acting like little puppies at feeding time, then you really have missed some fun...one piece of advice get them an airstone, one of those that lays on the floor of the tank, they will love you for it...also I would try to choose some of the corries that are 2-3 inches in length, but really any are great...the most important thing to setting up this tank is to make sure that you get something that you will enjoy When the time comes to get the corries, try posting down in the Bottom Feeder forum, there are a lot of us who are insane with our guys, and can give lots of good advice, on what to and not to do

Happy Fishing, heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

hi i cycled my 30g tank with a 2" common plec and a 2" catfish which i am still yet to identify my tank has been up and running for 4 weeks now and i have just added my baby oscar he is doing fine and the levels in my water are stable.

After a lot of reading befor getting into this amazing hobby i found that most hardy fish can with stand this unstable time in your tank i agree with the post above ^ you need to get something you are going to enjoy.

my friend suggested i should get two molies to cycle my tank because then when i put the oscar in i could have fun watching him chase them %!/

Research the fish you are going to put in and check what kind of conditions they can handle

best way to find this info on the net is just to type the name of the fish into Google and she what it brings up

or ask at your LFS they SHOULD be able to advise but from my experiance some of them havent got a clue

good luck and welcome to what i would say is the best fish infomation site on the net

i have identified the catfish its a lepard catfish

Last edited by ILoVeOsCaRs at 02-Jun-2005 14:23

i hope u like the danios even after cycling the tank...coz..there r people who used danios to cycle but afterwards...just tossed it away coz its "not beautiful" enuf and felt that they prefer other kind of fish to occupy the tank.

Danios are hardy fish & they are good to cycle a tank. Just make sure that the tank is cycled, before adding a school of Corydoras.


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[font color="#800080"]5 danios should be good to cycle with. Just keep in mind to stock slowly once you are done with the cycle to allow your bacteria colonies to catch up.

Loaches or corys will be good for the bottom once cycled. I really like zebra danios because of how active they are. You might want to look at some of the smaller barbs, or white cloud mountain minnos will also go well with the danios.

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is 5 zebra danios 8 neon tetras and 3 corys overkill for a 20g tank?