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My 20 will be empty soon, and I would like to try out some cichlids.
I was thinking maybe yellow labs and apistogrammas?
Does anyone have a "Dream stocking" for a 20G?
Dan

55G -5x Bosemani, 3x Emerald Cory,3x Red Rainbow, 3x Turquoise Rainbow. 20G-Empty. 10G -4x Danio 3x Cory Fry 1 Gold Mystery Snail. 10G- 1x CAE, 2x Tetra 1x ADF

certainly not yellow labs AND apistogrammas - very different water requirements...

a pair of apistos would look great - deck out yr aquarium with lots of plants, rocks and driftwood, and watch their gorgeous breeding behaviour. try cacatuoides or agassizi to start, but there are heaps of great species out there. a small school of tetras (embers, neons, black neons etc - stay small) will work as dither fish. see pics of my apistos and their tanks here:

http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y113/jase101/

I was going to suggest Apistogramma sp, but jase beat me to it..
Yellow labs are african cichlids requiring a high pH level and fairly hard water, wereas the amazing apistos preffer soft, acidic water (although it has been known for cacatouides to spawn in neutral water, with nothing else in the tank..).
A. borelli is also a good starter fish.
Get a pair, you wont be disapointed.
I'd reccomend some nice heavy planting and a shoal of cardinal cichlid, get some kepang leaves in there, should look lovely..

key hole cichlids , rams, dwarf acaras , african shell dwellers, could all work in a 20g or you could have one femail of the medium sized cichlids a femail firemouth or convict ect as long as they didnt get bigger than 5 inches, you could have one of the smaller africans like a yellow lab but it would be a pretty boring tank as there wont be enoff room to add anything else.
lots of things you could try just dont get anything bigger than 5 inches adult and if you do a pair they will probably make life hell for any other fish in such a small tank as most cichlids will kill to look after there babys.

One very colorful kribensis, a small school of cardinal tetras, and some unique, small pleco or similar for the clean-up crew.

http://www.finsout.com/fish/index.html

link shows a few options on the other end of the spectrum. Your tap water would really shorten the list of possabilities. shellies and julies would go very nicely in a 20g if you have higher ph. might not be as colorfull as previously mentioned africans like apistos and kribs. Breeding behaviors are completly different. Kribs and apistos are deffinetly great to watch and by no means saying the others are better. Just saying different and are another option. shellies and julies live within a colony. this by itself is a huge difference. being able to keep generations together is fun to watch.

as far as dream tank i am currently working on a multi colony and a juli colony. ive also went with kribs and apistos. like i said neither is better only different so answer to the question...ill will take one of each
stupid MTS...allways influencing my decisions.