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Kribs might be another option for a 20. Mine seem to pay no attention to the WCMM that I have in the top of the tank.
Make sure you give them plenty of hidey spots.

^_^

6-danios
2-guppys
1-alge fishy
1-african chicild or 1-2 dwarf gourami
1-2 bottom feeder (clown loaches or red taled shark)

Hi there,
Ok, I say No to the danios, because this is a tall tank with very little room to move, and danios are active fish that need long tanks. Nothing less than a 4 foot long tank in my opinion is suitable for danios.

No to the african cichlid - these fish are NOT Compatible with community fish. If you want african fish, you will need to rethink your entire plan. Also, most African fish prefer a PH of over 7.6.

Bottom feeders - no to both species youve chosen. Clown loaches grow to be over a foot long, and need 135 gallons of tank space at maturity. Red tailed sharks are a robust territorial fish of 6-7 inches with about a 3 inch girth at maturity. These fish are suited for tanks 55g or larger really. A hex tank is nowhere near roomy enough.

1 Algae fishy - what kind? You must be very careful when choosing an algae eater. The common chinese algae eater which is often listed in fish stores as "algae eater" is a fish that grows to be 11 inches long, and once it reaches the 4-5 inch mark ceases to eat algae and then often becomes aggressive and kills and eats small fish.

Now, there are options of fish similar to these choices for you.
Youve said youd like 2 guppies, thats perfectly fine. Pick 2 very nice male guppies you would like. Dont pick any females. You dont have room in the tank for babies, so males would be best.
Youve said 1-2 dwarf gouramis as well, this is totally suitable.

2 Guppies
2 dwarf gouramis

That fills your top area of your tank completely, as these fish are all top water swimmers.
You like cichlids, so why not choose a nice small, south american dwarf cichlid. I would avoid Kribs as these are african fish that rarely mesh well with other fish. They often become extremely aggressive when breeding and will kill other fish in the tank. Slow fish like guppies and gouramis would be unable to get away from an angry kribensis.
You do however have the choice of any of the following fish in a pair, all are mid-bottom water swimmers:
Bolivian Ram
Blue Ram
Apistogramma of any variety pretty much - cockatoo apistos, borelli apistos, panda apistos are all attractive and stay small.


If you decided to go with a pair of Bolivian rams, which are the larger of the ram varieties, your tank could look like this:
2 Guppies = 2 inches each = 4 inches
2 Dwarf Gouramis = 3 inches each = 6 inches
2 Bolivian Rams = 4 inches each = 8 inches
Thats 18 inches of fish in a 20g tall tank, which is fully stocked with that number of fish.
You might be able to sneak in a mystery snail or a pair of otocinclus if you did weekly 1-2x 30% water changes but i think it would be pushing it.

In a well maintained tank, there is really little need for an algae eater, and as Otos are really the only fish suited for your tank with the other plans you have, id scrap an algae eater off the list entirely.



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WOW!!! ok didnt know that danios weren't good for this tank! SOrry fishy's So what would ya'll put in it for fishy's with color, I'm trying to put as much color in it as i can!!!!! Thanks Ya'll

We've got some powder blue dwarf Gouramis, Talk about color We use All Glass brand tubes and they look like aliens there is so much blue color.

Hope I can link this for you, here is a picture but it does not do this fish justice, they just glow blue. Maybe it's the All Glass tube lights or we got really lucky with the fish.
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_powder.php

Forgot about them, back to updating my sig.

Good luck.


55 gallon FW API Master Liquid Test Kit.
4 Silver Dollars, 2 Angles, 2 Danios, 6 Tetras, 4 dwarf Guramis, 2 powder blue and 2 red and 1 Black knife Started 5-25-07

Well we already have 3 danios in the tank as our local pet store told us to add them to make sure water was good and to help cycle since they are very hardy. Also wanted to ask about German gold and blue rams (papilochramis ramirezi), and If We could add one of each and they would buddy up? another question was The cockatoo apistogramma's said they are carnivore? Would you be able to have other fish with them?
What about:
2- apistogramma's
2-rams gold/blue
2 guppie
3- poor ol danios( feel so bad I had no idea)
My other topic I had a question on was I've looked around on net to order fish as our local stores dont have very many choices. Any ideas?

Me again! Hey I've been looking around on the net at a site called malawmayhem.com whish has pics of peoples cichlid tanks. They are the most beautiful fishes I've ever seen. Any way I could make my tank into one? also how can they mix all them cichlids in a tank with out a bunch of fightin! Thank ya'll are really helping me a lot I LOVE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi there,
for your tank, I wouldnt do african cichlids. The only 2 kinds of african cichlids I know suitable for your tank are kribensis (highly aggressive) or Nanochromis Transvestitus. The Transvestite Dwarf Cichlid is a softwater fish (rare in african fish), grows to about 2 inches in captivity, and likes to live in pairs. If you had a lot of rock work in your tank, you could accomodate 2 pairs of N. Transvestitus, and then some schooling fish as dithers.

You could go with Shelldwellers, another kind of smaller african cichlid (some varieties get quite large), but these fish have specific requirements - usually hard water (ph 8.0 or so), and need sand bottoms with lots of seashells for homes.

You can use the danios for cycling the tank though. What are your current water tests reading for ammonia, nitrItes, and nitrAtes?
I wouldnt add any more fish besides the 3 danios until the tank is cycled.


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