Stocking 20 G help

[SSlayton10]

New to the board here. Just got a new 20 gallon aquarium and wanted to start it off right. Have been cycling the tank for about 2 weeks and now have 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and 5 nitrates. Plan to start stocking in another week or so...

So, my question. I'm interested in gouramis and cichlids in particular. I like colorful, active fish. I'd love a stocking suggestion using either of these species and a few other fish. I don't think the two would go well together based on what I've read, but if they would then that would be great! If not, I'm more interested in gouramis...so please let me know how many would be adequate and what would be some other suggestions to add with them in a 20G.

[Cameron]

First of all welcome to the forum, its a really nice place, with lots of info. How are you cycling your tank? pure ammonia, fish?

Gouramis and cichlids aren't compatable with each other, so its either one or the other. I think a cichlid setup would be fairly difficult in a 20, but maybe possible. You might like to have a male, female pair of gouramis some tetras and some cory catfish.

Good luck with your tank and keep us posted.

[SSlayton10]

Thanks for the quick response. I cycled using a piece of old filter media from my parents 55G tank.

With the gouramis, am I stuck to only dwarfs or can I select from a few others? The LFS has quite a few smaller gourami species in a 10G display tank, although I don't remember exactly what type they were...I'm assuming they can get much bigger and shouldn't be in a 10-20G.

I was initially leaning towards a gourami (or two, didnt know how many I could get in a 20G!), some fancytail guppies, and some cories for bottom cleaning. Also plan to get an apple snail, because I think they're pretty neat! I like your idea of tetras, but at my LFS they are always ate up with ick so I don't want to bring them in. Any other fish that would go well with this setup to replace the guppies/tetras?

[wolf_eyes]

If you're cycling using filter media from your parents tank you need to put fish in that day otherwise the bacteria in the filter piece die from the lack of food.

What type of 20 gallon is it? Is it a 20l or a 20 tall? If its a long you could do one honey gourami or one pearl gourami, a schooler fish that's 1.5 to 2 inches full grown(6-10), and some smaller species of cories(4-6).

[cer]

Since you like colurful fish I think you would like cardinal tetras!

[escamosa]

If you like cichlids there is a couple that you can put in with gouramis comfortably.
One is the African butterfly cichlid and another is the Bolivian Ram.
You will need to provide places for both gouramis and cichlids to hide in though.
Gouramis like a well planted area and the cichlids and, or Rams will like rocks, cave type set ups and some plants.
One good thing about the fish you have selected is that they use different parts of the tank, Gouramis spend most of thier time in the top third of your tank while the cichlids like the bottom to middle parts of your tank.
What you could do is maybe get one or two Gouramis, that will give you a nice fish for the top third of your tank, let's say a school of six or eight red eye tetras, black skirt tetras or for a splash of colour some serpae tetras for the middle third of your tank and two of either the butterfly cichlid or the ram.

Good luck with the tank.thumbs2:

[escamosa]

Sorry for double posting but i thought that SSlayton10 would like to see one of my Bolivian Rams.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2ewgtfn.jpg

[SSlayton10]

I really do like those Bolivian Rams slimey, thanks for the pic! I plan to get a bigger tank later on, and I'll probably load it with Cichlids and definetly some of those Rams.

As for my tank now, I actually was wrong on the size. I measured it because long or wide in response to wolf_eyes. It is actually a 15L.

I went out and bought 9 Cardinal Tetras, because I do like them and for once they looked fine at the LFS. And, a huge plus, the employee obviously couldn't count them easily because she gave me 11! So I've now got 11 Cardinal Tetras and will see how they do for a few weeks before I purchase anything else. I'm wanting to get some bottom feeder fish next, so cories would be nice. I liked the Sterbai or Julii cories that they had at the LFS, it was one of those two...can't remember just going off pics on here. How many do you think I can add along with one Dwarf Gourami that I'm wanting and the 11 Cardinals that I have, or would that be too much? Also, any pics of Cories that you think are colorful or neat looking are appreciated...would save me some digging! I may special order some from the LFS if I find a type they don't carry.