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	Old 20 gallon for a newbie fishkeeper
illustrae Fish Addict Posts: 820 Kudos: 876 Registered: 04-May-2005	My brother has happened upon an antinque 20 gallon tank (the kind with the metal seam bindings and slate bottom) and he and my mom want to set it up in the living room. It's 24x13x16 (approximately). I have found that this is really a difficult size tank to stock (as evident in many of the recent posts about stocking 20 gallon tanks). They are of course more interested in having lots of colorful fish rather than a few fish with intriguing behavior. I'm trying to lean away from the typical community tank of tetras, corys, and a betta, but I'm quickly running out of ideas that I can sell them. Would a pair or trio of Kribs and some rasboras or barbs work? I actually don't know a lot about kribs at all (including where I can get them) but they struck me as a small cichlid that would be relatively easy to keep without special water requirements like rift lake cichlids (which my parents have said they don't want to deal with). Would a pictus cat have enough room in a 20 gal? Is there another reasonably hardy soft-water cichlid that would work in this tank? Firemouths? Severums? Are those planted-tank friendly? Other thoughts? Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...
Posted 14-Jul-2006 19:57
Theresa_M Moderator Queen of Zoom Posts: 3649 Kudos: 4280 Votes: 790 Registered: 04-Jan-2004	Firemouths and sevs would be too large for a 20g. Kribs are a good choice but you might end up with a pair which would most likely cause problems for the other fish in the tank. Sevs also love to eat plants. Other cichlids you could try include apistos, keyholes, rainbows, or either type of rams. I had a 20 long that was set up with an Asian theme: small school of harlequins, pair of cherry barbs, sparkling gouramis, honey gourami, and kuhlii loaches. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Posted 14-Jul-2006 20:25
fishyhelper288 Fish Guru Posts: 2161 Kudos: 1951 Votes: 137 Registered: 29-Feb-2004	in my 20 gallons, i keep guppies in one tank, and a pair of apistos, they ahve bred once, but the eggs were eaten by the mother..anyway I read that neons make for good dithers for while breeding, and they are pretty, and astive if there is a bit of green
Posted 14-Jul-2006 20:37
bettachris Ultimate Fish Guru Posts: 3875 Kudos: 4173 Votes: 452 Registered: 13-Jun-2004	a common sliver pitcus is often to large for a 20 gallon. probably best in a 55 gallon. firemouths should be in about 29+ and severums grow way to large, i have had some that were old adults about 10 inches long. i would try: 20 gallon: and a nice sand bottom 1 male, 1 female albino krib(for color) 5 albino tiger barbs, 6 panda cory, and some dwarf chain loaches. i would use jungle val and anabuis nana.
Posted 14-Jul-2006 21:16


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