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Hey all,
I have a pretty well planted 20 Gallon with a gravel substrate. I'm running a whisper hang on back filter and a sponge filter inside. Right now i have 5 African cichlids which i just bought recently. I wasn't thinking when i got them, because they will clearly get way to big for my tank very soon. I've seen people asking about stocking 20 gal's and most have responded with shell dwellers. I'd rather not change my substrate to sand because my water is already well established and im pretty well planted. Any suggestions? Thanks

Well, I don't know much about cichlids, but I can tell you one thing we need to know... what do YOU like? What do you want for this tank? Do you want color? Schooling fish? Individual personalities? Would you prefer a few bigger fish or a lot of smaller fish?

Give us an idea of what you'd like to see in your tank and we can give you ideas.

A few suggestions...

A school of a small tetra (i.e. neons), a school of cory catfish and some centerpiece fish... dwarf gourami, etc.

Small rainbowfish, maybe? Threadfins are sweet. Pair them with cory cats or perhaps ottos (those are a bit more delicate)... I wonder if a ram would be okay in this setup... similar enough to the rainbows to look interesting in the same tank. Like I said, I don't know about cichlids.

My twenty gallon long holds betta girls and cory cats, with a bristlenose plec on algae crew.

There's just SO many combinations and fish that are possible to put into a twenty gallon that we really need some sort of guidelines to work with.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Well, i like cichlids but they kinda arent an option (too big). Is a Brackish Tank possible? I dont know anything about brackish tanks, can you have plants in them? Anyway, id rather have a few cool colorfull fish rather than a school of tetras. Rainbows are interesting can you give me some specific names of rainbows? Any special care? Im really open to anything, please comments a lot everybody, i'd like to see all of my choices.

You could look into some of the south american dwarf cichlids like the bolivian ram or apistos they are entertaining and are under 3" or aproximately 7.6 cm. But really its up to you on what you want to do with the tank find a fish you like and find out if it would work.

"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man" Simpsons

Any other suggestions?

Ever think about a couple pairs of rams? They only get about 3 inches long at the most.

I have a pair in my planted 10 gallon and I love em. Probably my favorite fish I own. They are peaceful enough that you can keep other comunity type fish in with them as long as the other fish are peaceful. I keep a school of 5 long finned danios in with mine and they get along great.

If rams aren't your thing I think a couple kribs would do well in a 20 gallon, although I have no experiance wtih kribs myself.

For shellies you could go with [link=multis]http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/multi.xml" style="COLOR: #CC3366[/link]. They prefer a lot of shells as opposed to substrate so you wouldn't have to switch to sand.

I've had my multi tank running for about a month now and they're still my favorite fish. Small yet they have lots of personality. I'm really looking forward to them breeding /:'

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Where is a good place to get shellies?