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wat the best ciclids for a 20 gallon and 44 gallon

What are the Ph and hardness of your water?

Soft/acidic: there are afew south americans you could check out.

Hard/Alkaline: shelldwellers(African-Tanganyika)

Kim

Firstly, what is the pH and hardness of you tank?

If it is harder and a high pH, it would be a good idea to go with african cichlids...and post this query in an appropriate forum.

But, if it is softer and slightly acidic or neutral, I would go with American cichlids. In a 20 gallon, a pair of dwarf cichlids such as rams would be a good choice. In a 44 gallon, there are many other choices, and you need to narrow it down.

Look through some of the cichlids in the profiles on the site, or go to your LFS and write down some names of cichlids you find interesting.

If you want to go African, here are my recommendations:

20 gallon:

Tanganyikan shell-dwellers, such as neolamprologus multifasciatus. I'm not sure how many exactly, but you could have a good-sized colony in there. sandy substrate, plenty of shells, high ph.

44 gallon:

Two different mbuna species, such as yellow labs (labidochromis caeruleus) and acei (pseudotropheus acei), or pseudotropheus socolofi, pseudotropheus saulosi, or iodetropheus sprengerae (rusty cichlids). 5 fish in each group, 1 male to 4 females, good filtration, sand or crushed coral substrate, piles of rocks, high ph water.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

for the 20 you could get a breeding pair of bolivian rams.

If you have soft, slightly alkaline water Bolvian Rams would be a good choice, indeed.