I've finally narrowed down the ideal inhabitants for the 20-gal tank.
I played around with AqAdvisor to help figure out the exact stats. The tank has 40 gallons worth of filtration on it, which is why the fish load could be so high.
Otos!
Today we picked up the 4 otos... our local mom 'n' pop aquarium store kept trying to order them for a month, but today said that orders for some reason were not shipping to both the east and west coasts, so they didn't have an estimate on when they'd get more. So, since I had seen some otos at petsmart 2 days before, we went to pick them up there. They are literally the only fish that is 100% safe with newborn shrimp.
One of them looks yellow compared to the others, and is missing a wee bit o' tail fin. They all look pretty skinny... which is supposedly common because they only eat algae and aufwuchs and get starved of it while they are in transport and then living at the fish store. I have them in the 10-gal tank right now, as an informal quarantine. This has the added benefit of letting them glut on 10 gallons worth o' aufwuchs before even starting to work on the 20-gal... I have been letting both tanks mature with algae and diatoms for 6 weeks specifically to rapidly get some good nutrition into some new otos. The otos are less than an inch long, but will get to about 1.3 inches when mature.
Rasboras are next.
Tomorrow, the dozen rasboras come, in addition to 3 free shrimp that are replacements from the same company that sent me the sakura fire reds (3 plus the 4 extras died due to an unfortunate burst bag in transport a week ago). They are technically a batch of chili and strawberry rasboras, heavy on the chili. They shoal together perfectly, and my tank pH isn't low enough for breeding, so I'm not concerned that the species are mixed.
I am darn excited! Once the otos can come out of quarantine, the 20-gallon tank will be complete.
I played around with AqAdvisor to help figure out the exact stats. The tank has 40 gallons worth of filtration on it, which is why the fish load could be so high.
- Chili rasboras: 17 (have 5, 12 are coming tomorrow, each one takes up 0.6 gallons)
- Otocinclus vittatus: 4 (if any rasboras don't make it, I'll replace with another oto or two, because 4 is the minimum for a shoal but 6 is better. Each one takes 1.2 gallons at adulthood, and the general "rule" is 1 per 5 gallons to be able to live off of tank algae)
- Ramshorn snails: 5 (each one takes up 0.12 gallons, and any extras will be put into the turtle tank)
- Sakura fire red cherry shrimp: ~30... can breed up to 77 total (extras will go to other tanks, and according to AqAdvisor, with my filtration I can have up to 1 shrimp per cup!)
Otos!
Today we picked up the 4 otos... our local mom 'n' pop aquarium store kept trying to order them for a month, but today said that orders for some reason were not shipping to both the east and west coasts, so they didn't have an estimate on when they'd get more. So, since I had seen some otos at petsmart 2 days before, we went to pick them up there. They are literally the only fish that is 100% safe with newborn shrimp.
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| Delicious algae-covered bridge. |
One of them looks yellow compared to the others, and is missing a wee bit o' tail fin. They all look pretty skinny... which is supposedly common because they only eat algae and aufwuchs and get starved of it while they are in transport and then living at the fish store. I have them in the 10-gal tank right now, as an informal quarantine. This has the added benefit of letting them glut on 10 gallons worth o' aufwuchs before even starting to work on the 20-gal... I have been letting both tanks mature with algae and diatoms for 6 weeks specifically to rapidly get some good nutrition into some new otos. The otos are less than an inch long, but will get to about 1.3 inches when mature.
Rasboras are next.
Tomorrow, the dozen rasboras come, in addition to 3 free shrimp that are replacements from the same company that sent me the sakura fire reds (3 plus the 4 extras died due to an unfortunate burst bag in transport a week ago). They are technically a batch of chili and strawberry rasboras, heavy on the chili. They shoal together perfectly, and my tank pH isn't low enough for breeding, so I'm not concerned that the species are mixed.
I am darn excited! Once the otos can come out of quarantine, the 20-gallon tank will be complete.
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