Fish For A 20gal?

[ally86ozzy]

my brother is gonna buy himself a 20gal, and wants some interesting fish 2 put in it when its done cycling. any ideas? 4 ex., fish that will get along w/ each other in the same tank? thnx! -heart , ally86ozzy

 

[ally86ozzy]

hello???

 

[dnn3]

he could have swordtails,mollies,platys,you know,smaller fish but the problem with that is they're livebearers and in my experience they have a lot of fry so that's something he(and you)would have deal with.dwarf gouramis are another one but they can be tricky to take care of.there are also some smaller loaches you can have in a 20 gal,and believe me,loaches are a blast to watch.look in the fish index for some ideas as well.whenever i see a fish at the lfs that interests me i always come home and look it up before i buy it.hope i've been helpful.

 

[ally86ozzy]

he wuz thinkin some tetras or a german blue ram. how bout that??

 

[Ficious]

tetras and a pair of blue rams would be excellent, especialy with a natural-light light bulb and plants. i would also recommend dwarf puffers because they are very personable and recognize their feeder. i always try to find fish that are "exotic" or "rare", also unless i have a community tank i try to stay away from fish that seem to be "dumb" such as tetras, barbs, etc.

 

[Biulu]

Neons and rams both need slightly acidic water, plus rams need a more mature tank. Check out the pH of your water first I would say.

If you want hardy fish (how old is your brother?), you could think about a few cories for the bottom, a trio of honey gouramis (1 male, 2 females) and a small shoaling fish. Alternatively instead of cories and honey gouramis, a pair of kribensis cichlids (breed easily) and a shoaling fish.

 

[dnn3]

i agree on the rams,they do need a mature tank but in a tank that small you do not want a pair of kribs.i have read on here many times that kribs are very aggresive when breeding.

 

[Biulu]

Kribs are fine in a 20 gallon tank as long as you don't have any other bottomdwellers. For that reason I suggest not to put cories in with the kribs.

I am having a pair of kribs in that size tank and they are doing very well with the other fish, as long as they don't come too close to the nest (ie too low into the tank). I am keeping them with red eye tetras, a dwarf gourami and 2 yellow panchax.

 

[Corleone]

Depends on what he wants. If he wants something a bit aggressive or just entertaining, a group of tiger barbs might do it - the tank might be on the small side for them, but a species tank might work. They'll tend to fight amongst themselves quite a bit. They're tough as nails, and will take a bit of "abuse" while he learns about maintenance and so forth.

If he wants variety the easy out would be platys, swordtails, or guppies. You could fill an immense tank with them and not have two fish alike.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

If he likes aggressive fish, he can go with a male/female pair of convicts, firemouths, or maybe even 5 star generals.

 

[ally86ozzy]

Neons and rams both need slightly acidic water, plus rams need a more mature tank. Check out the pH of your water first I would say.

If you want hardy fish (how old is your brother?), you could think about a few cories for the bottom, a trio of honey gouramis (1 male, 2 females) and a small shoaling fish. Alternatively instead of cories and honey gouramis, a pair of kribensis cichlids (breed easily) and a shoaling fish.

hes 16. hes kept neon tetras b4, he had them in a group of 5 i think until all died but one, but he had those when he wuz little. the survivor lived for 4 years i believe. i saw honey gouramis at our LFS they were adorable, so i might talk him into getting some of those, but he wants weird fish 4 some odd reason , any more suggestion? -heart , ally86ozzy

 

[Biulu]

If he likes weird fish, then the puffers might be a good idea as suggested. You can also try to post in the oddball section to see what they come up with for that size tank.

 

[Corleone]

Puffers can be a bit hard to care from by what I've read, and a lot of the commonly sold ones are brackish. The oddball forum does have a sticky about anti-tankbusters, which has a lot of weird fish suitable for 20 gallon and smaller tanks. I think African Butterflyfish are in the list. One of my favorite fish, even though I haven't kept one (yet). Look vaguely like a freshwater lionfish, IMO.

 

[ally86ozzy]

he wants fish that would look interesting... so puffers might B on the list. i also told him about Kribs, and he said hed look up on it.

 

[tenohfive]

Puffers can be a bit hard to care from by what I've read, and a lot of the commonly sold ones are brackish. The oddball forum does have a sticky about anti-tankbusters, which has a lot of weird fish suitable for 20 gallon and smaller tanks. I think African Butterflyfish are in the list. One of my favorite fish, even though I haven't kept one (yet). Look vaguely like a freshwater lionfish, IMO.

I'm 90% certain that dwarf puffers are aggressive and are known to be fin nippers. I'll try and confirm/deny that in a minute.

And German Blue Rams are fantastic, but given he's 16 they might not be too suitable - to get the best out of mine I need to do water changes every 2-3 days, and I know when I was 16 I had better things to be doing than what feels at times like endless water changes.

Edit...I've done some further reading:

http/www.fishforums.net/content/Oddballs...rs-Should-Know/

Knew there was a reason why I've not got them in my tank, much as I'd like to have them in there.