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ok i asked the wrong questions on the other topics so here goes lol.i have a 20g long ways tank.i have 11 neon tetras,3 blk neons,1 siver mollie,1 fancy guppie,1 pelco algae eater the blk ones.Now i also have a 10g tank with 1 swordtail in it.now is that to many fish for the 20g if so should i move some to the 10g tank and what do you experts suggest is a good 20g and 10g community tank. this is my 2nd year as a fish keeper.

First question to ask here is this: what species of Pleco do you have?

An answer to this question is VITAL because some Plecos grow to be enormous. You need to find out the answer to this yourself, and quickly, so that if it transpires that your species is going to grow big, you can exchange it for one that stays small.

Another of the annoyances provided by the fish trade is that they breed Common Plecos and sell them to people with wholly inappropriate setups. Instead of doing the sensible thing, which would be to cultivate Otocinclus in conditions where they're healthy when they hit the shops, so that they don't keel over from the stress of transportation and acclimatisation because the poor things are starving to death, and sell healthy Otocinclus to people with modest sized aquaria, some outlets sell Common Plecos at small sizes, then sit back and wash their hands of the resulting tankbusting issues when the Common Plecos start to pile on body mass at a rate of knots. Trouble is, when you have outlets run by people in suits who know next to nothing about fish, and are more concerned with the balance on their Excel spreadsheets than the issues involved in handling live organisms, this is the sort of corner cuttting that takes place. A decent outfit (and fortunately, I have two very good ones near me) will take time to pull a newcomer aside, advise them to stock an aquarium with appropriate fish species whose adult size won't be a problem further down the line, and teach the newcomer about the multiplicity of issues involved in keeping fishes alive for long periods of time. The reason that the good outfits do this is simple - happy customers are repeat customers that continue to provide business over years. My LFS has undergone a change in management after the old proprietor retired, but the new owner not only tries to hand out decent advice, but because he knows I have 30 years' fishkeeping under my belt, he asks me for advice when something unusual appears in the wholesale lists, and asks whether it would be a good or a bad idea to trade it. That's the sign of someone who wants to do the job properly!

You didn't get your setups from a certain place beginning with "W" by any chance?

Looks like I'll have to cajole Adam into resurrecting the Articles section so that I can point you in the right direction with respect to a host of issues.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

you could move the neons to the 10 gallon. You say that you have a black pleco. This guy is probably just the normal common plec. Trade him for a few Otocinclus or even a Clown pleco(Pekolita sp.) at a privately owned fish store.
Calilasseia- Interesting article.You always write really in depth articles. You should write a fish book.

A 10g just isn't a community tank. You can't hardly stock it with more than 1 species of fish or a proper school of anything. The black neons in a full school would be too big and the swordtail will likely be a bit cramped. It would be much better off in a 15g or bigger. Working with what you have I would move the guppy to the 10g, return the black neons if the store will take them or move the 3 to the 10g and don't increase the school, and return the pleco unless you can id it as a small species. A common can outgrow a 4' tank so they do not belong anywhere near a 20g tank. If you want 2 properly stocked community tanks get a 2nd 20g and setup a black neon school in that with the guppy and swordtail. The molly is going to probably get a good size for a 20g and so when everything is full grown not even counting the pleco it will likely be overstocked or pushing it.