New Fish Tank!

[Ashley901]

I Have a 20 gallon fish tank. It used to hold Goldfish, but they produced a lot of ammonia and the tank was hard to keep up with. I gave my last goldfish to a friend and cleaned the tank entirely. I Love the look of cichlids, is a 20 gallon tank too small to put cichlids in? Does anyone have suggestions about any other type of fish to get into and where I could read up about them?

 

[fluttermoth]

to the forum, Ashley

There are literally hundreds of different kinds of cichlids, of sizes ranging from an inch or two (Tanganyikian shell dwellers) to well over a foot (oscars, Texas); what kind were you thinking of?

Knowing the actual dimensions of your tank (length is important for fish to have enough room to swim up and down in) and whether your local water is hard or soft will help us recommend some suitable species for you.

Don't forget that if you've totally cleaned the tank then you will have lost your good filter bacteria, and will need to cycle the tank; fishless is always the best way

 

[Ashley901]

to the forum, Ashley

There are literally hundreds of different kinds of cichlids, of sizes ranging from an inch or two (Tanganyikian shell dwellers) to well over a foot (oscars, Texas); what kind were you thinking of?

Knowing the actual dimensions of your tank (length is important for fish to have enough room to swim up and down in) and whether your local water is hard or soft will help us recommend some suitable species for you.

Don't forget that if you've totally cleaned the tank then you will have lost your good filter bacteria, and will need to cycle the tank; fishless is always the best way

My tank has been cleaned and running for 5 days with no fish in it. I have been thinking maybe angel fish, but I havent done much research yet. My tank is 16 inches wide and 12 inches high.. I think. (by the way i dont know if i replied this right, I just typed under your response)

 

[SandraNewbie]

So about 2 feet long then? Giving you a footprint of 320square inches, which isn't bad for a 20 gallon.

 

[Essjay]

You didn't say whether you cleaned the filter. Even if you didn't, if the tank has been without fish for 5 days, the bacteria will be starving to death. You need to add ammonia to the tank to feed the bacteria till you get your new fish.

At 12 inches tall, your tank does not have enough height for angelfish, I'm afraid. They need 18 inches of water depth.

Do you know if youe water is soft or hard? If you get limescale in the kettle or showerhead, it is hard. Or look at your water supplier's website. This will help decide what kind of cichlids you can have. If the water's soft, you could have apistogrammas, for example. If it is very hard, shell dwellers would be a better choice. With apistos you could also have a shoal of small fish that swim higher up in the water, such as tetas or pencilfish.

 

[Flute]

Agreed with Essjay If your water is soft, Laetacara and nannacara species are lovely too

 

[Ashley901]

I have no idea if it's hard or soft water, but I totally cleaned everything including the filter, the bio wheel is still in there from before to leave some of the bacteria in the tank. Other than that it's basically like new

 

[fluttermoth]

You'd probably know if your water was hard because you'd get a lot of limescale build up in your kettle, showerhead, washing machine etc.

You need to get some fish food or, preferably, household ammonia in the tank ASAP or all your good bacteria will have starved, if they haven't already

 

[Electric Warrior]

In a 20G, you could easily keep a trio of dwarf cichlids, like some apistos. You couldn't keep much else in a tank that size with them though. But they are great fun to watch and keep.