How to best stock 19 Gal aquarium
 

Good Evening!

I currently have a 19 Gal aquarium which contains 6 lemon tetras (Hyphessobrycon pulchripinnis) and live plants with some wooden logs and some rock. I have had this set up for about a year now and have decided I would like a little more life in there.

In my previous set-up I had 8 neon tetras, 4 panda cories, 4 pepper cories and 2 swordtails. This time around I wouldn't mind changing it up a little bit. I know I don't have a lot of room to work with - so I would greatly appreciate any help/ideas you can give me. I know 6 tetras are a little low for the numbers, would it be best to just add more lemon tetras or perhaps neons for colour?

Thanks!

- Kris

I wouldn't add a second school in a 19gal, but you could add a few more lemon tetras. You could also keep the lemon tetras at 6 and add a pair of Blue rams and maybe 4 otos. Just some suggestions.

You have enough space to add another small group or two or alternatively there are some interesting fish that can be kept singly that you could add for variety. I think there are better choices than neons, but that is largely personal preference.

What are the dimensions of your tank? 19 gals is a bit unusual.

I wouldn't reccomand keeping Blue Ram, they not the easiest to keep and require higher temps then most tropical fish. I also agree that you have enough space for another school of small fish. Knowing your parameters would help.

Depends on which type, Bolivians are considerably easier then Germans.

Though 19 gallons depending on dimensions is probably to small for the Bolivians.

Thanks for the input everyone!

I would really like to have another group of shoaling/schooling fish if possible just to add variety. Should I stick to the tetra family? What would you recommend?

My parameters are:
Length - 29 inches, Height - 13 inches, Width - 12 inches which would give about 19-20 gallons.
Its a really old tank (about 18-20 years old) don't know if that influences the odd dimensions?

Keep the suggestions coming! :-)

When I said what your parameters were, I wanted to know what your water is like such as: it's hardness, your ph, akalinetly, etc.

I had asked about the tank dimensions, because I thought it might be one of those really tall tanks with a small footprint, but what you have is basically a 20 long, so you have a lot of choices, now like jayy says, need those water parameters

I was responding to Quantum's question about dimensions, I should have said dimensions not parameters, my mistake.

The only water parameters I have are:

pH - around 7.4
nitrate - 5 - 10 ppm
nitrite - 0 ppm
ammonia - 0 ppm

I did a quick search and found the hardness of my city water to be 116 ppm which is about 6.5 dGH (moderately hard)
Couldn't find alkalinity though.

In your water you can do small peaceful barbs like Cherry Barb, or a group of Honey Gourami. You can also do livebears like Platy and Common Molly. Some tetras you can keep are Black Phantom Tetra, Bloodfin Tetra, Flame Tetra, etc. Zebra Danio would also be nice. Catfish such as cories( many out there) make nice bottom dewllers. You can click on the shaded names and findout more about them, aswell as many other fish.