20 Gallon Tall Coldwater Tank

This tank contains several guppies, long fin danios, two platies, white clouds, gold white clouds and a lot of fry. You'll also notice a school of cardinal tetras. They're doing very well, despite being in a cold water tank with a relatively high pH. The 20 gallon is a temporary home - they're meant for a South American biotope I'm working on.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• aquarium
• aquaria
• fish
• tropical

[jack26707]

I like your tank!  I have a 20 gal. tank with cardinal and rummynose tetras, pepper and bronze corys, and a bushynose pleco. Could I get 3 female guppies?

[pandarsson]

@jack26707 The guppies would do fine with those fish, the question is only how many of each do you have and how much filtration you have going on it. If you don't think it will be too crowded and the bio load can handle it, go for it. In fact, you could get a male and a couple of females if that's the case. The fry would get eaten, but it might be a more interesting combination.

And thank you.

[wilza52]

what temperature is this tank?

[pandarsson]

@wilza52 It remained more or less at room temperature, which was generally in the low 70s.

[pandarsson]

(cont'd)

1. Thin the crowd. Either a larger tank or less fish would work.

2. More breaks in the line of sight. If your system can handle the current bio-load and you don't simply have too many for them to be happy, you can make them feel more at ease either by adding more hiding places or rearranging the ones you have.

Now, it's entirely possible that it's because they're new and still settling, so give them a few more days. If they're still acting off by then, though, try one of my suggestions.

[pandarsson]

@littlelauren971 I doubt it would be the cold water, unless your room temperature is 18° C (65° F). If so, I'd say get a heater for the tank.

Likely, though, I'd say it's a little crowded. Danios, as I implied, are like the speed heads of the fish world - it's hard to get them to slow down. The platies would definitely be affected by overcrowding, though.

There are two possible ways to handle it... (cont'd)

[littlelauren971]

@pandarsson the danios are fine, its the platys, is it because of the coldwater? the tank is only small but the danios love it. im getting live plants soon but at the moment theres plastic plants and some rocks. tank been running over a year and had no illnesses. dont know the pH.

i have 2 theories, either the platys dont really ejoy colwater or its cuz there new and still settling. any ideas?

[pandarsson]

@pandarsson I should add that it likely stayed at the lower end of that spectrum, due to air conditioning keeping the room cool.

[pandarsson]

@littlelauren971 There could be a lot of reasons for what you're seeing. It's particularly odd for a danio to not move around much.

What size is the tank? How have you decorated it? What other fish are in the tank? Do you know the pH of the water? How long has the tank been running?

As for temperature, that tank at that time was running anywhere between 21°C to 26°C (about 70°F to 80°F, if I got my conversion to Celsius wrong). I live in a hot climate anyway, so it stayed rather warm.

[littlelauren971]

@pandarsson what temperature is your tank? i have danio (which are doing great) and 3 new platys who dont move around a lot. i am wondering if it has something to do with temperature? they looked fine in the shop oh and i live in england