20 gallon stocking question

[RawketGurl]

I think I probably have a gazillion threads going on this tank but I have a specific question.

I have a 20gal cycled tank
It currently has 5 black skirt tetras and 2 oto's in it.
I was considering adding a school of a small breed of tetra's.

Would a school of six neon tetra's be compatible and ok for stocking??

If I follow the 1"/ gallon rule?
The black skirts should get to be about 2"?
And the oto's to about 1.5"?
That takes up 13 gallon
from my reading neon tetra's grow to about 1"?
so that would bring me up to 19 gallons taken up.

Is that too much or do neon's get bigger than that? Is there a small schooling fish that grows to no more than an inch that would be compatible with my Black skirts?

Thanks for all your patience with all my questions

[Nic W]

Personaly I think itd be alright... Im not too familiar with black skirts though
let us wate....

[Essabee]

Go ahead but remember to put up the houseful sign.

[Cholly]

Make sure they're actually neons, cardinals look very much the same but get bigger.

[Yipee]

I don't think following the 1gallon rule is important. As long as you do regular w/c and do not overfeed, a few more fishes won't hurt.

[wendyjo]

I think it's important if you are fairly new at fishkeeping. 

[Nic W]

yeah, I'll go with Wendy on this one...
The 1 X 1 rule is a fairly useful tool when you first begin out in this hobby
your less likely to run into one of those major issues all of us have come across in some of our tanks...
once you are more experienced and know your way around the hobby a little more, then you can start to break some rules lol
all in all its all about how experienced and/or comfortable you are with your fishie abilities..

[Essabee]

The rule is an important guidance. You will get into less trouble when you stick to it. Break it, and you will have to concentrate more on your tank, it means more labour, expertise and management. You make a mistake and then you court disaster.

We humans have played foul with the ecology of the Earth and see the mess we have got into. You play foul with the ecology of the tank and Nature will spank you.

[RawketGurl]

Yeah I'm definatly going to follow the rule for now. Don't want to tempt fate.
So I think in a couple weeks I will add the neon tetras, it's still going to be under the guideline.

Thanks for your input.

If anyone thinks this is a horrible idea let me know

The rest of the fish are doing great!

[Yipee]

All right all right, so the 1 gallon rule is the absolute FishKeeping Golden Law.