CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

The tank in my office is finally ready for fish. Now's the hard question: what do I put in there. It's only a 20 gallon tank, so I don't want anything big. What should I put in there?

I was reading in an earlier post about convicts. Would this tank be too small for one pair of them? How do you sex convicts?

What else would be good? I saw some beautiful african cichlids at the store. The guy working there said that they would be fine in my tank, but I know they're often misleading and give false info. I thought the coloring on the africans were beautiful. Are there any of these that I could have? Are they easy to breed?

I appreciate the help! Thanks!

I would not recommend breeding... inter office relationships rarely work out and then it is so odd seeing them everyday afterwards... j/k

Angel fish would work very well in that tank, maybe even discus if you limited it to 2-3 of them. I think alot of the african's stay small enough to work in that size tank as well. Also convicts would do very well in a 20 gallon.

Adam

What kind of filtration do the fish you mentioned require? I've got a power filter on there right now, and don't want to have to buy anything new. I know my oscars are messy and I don't want to have to have messy fish at work. I know my boss would love seeing me working on my tank instead of work.....

I could be wrong but I dont think angels and discus are very messy they also do well with plants which would look very nice. I dont really have any personal experience with discus or angels so maybe someone else can answer that better then I.

Adam

So I should steer clear of convicts and africans if I don't want a messy fish?

ahhh actually not necessarily however I have had less experience with convicts and africans then angels and discus (my dad kept these two when I was a kid)... so I have not idea at all. Maybe Tony will know he has both cons and africans.... take it away tony

Adam

you can try a pair of firemouths in the 20 gal tank. they arent that demanding and i guess pretty hardy. convicts and firemouths arent that messy compared to oscars or anyting like that. they're about as messy as somewhat large comunity fish.

heres a good site for cons and firemouths. http://www.geocities.com/cichlid_guy87/index.html

How do you sex convicts? Is it possible when they are small (at the store...)?

They're pretty easy since they mature fast. If you see orange-reddish belly you've got a female, if you don't see it, doesn't mean it's certain it's male. The male though will have bigger fins more pointed dorsal etc...and it will generally be the bigger one if they're same age etc...mark on the belly is pretty good sign to look for, convicts are easy to sex, easy to breed, and easy to raise....great fish all-around.

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Joe
www.cichlidfish.com

Well, I think i'm going to put convicts in the tank. Should I just have one pair of them in a 20 gallon tank? Can / should I put any other fish in with them?

i'd stick with one pair of convicts and a small variety of pleco, such as the clown pleco. the common pleco will outgrow your tank. you could also try a chinese algae eater if you can't find a clown pleco. if you add anything else, there's a good chance of the cons killing them during breeding. one question, since the tank is at work, what will you do with the fry?

Id go with 3 angels, a clown loach, and perhaps 3 bleeding heart tetras. And also live plants if you want to try something new.

I dont reccoment using that tank for breeding. Because when you need to transfer the fry it is going to be very difficult. I run 3 tanks for each type of breeding fish I own: spawn tank with the parents, fry tank, and growout tank.

i think the angels and tetras would be fine, but i woulnd't reccomend a clown loach. for one thing, they're schooling fish that will be much happier in groups of 3 or more, otherwise, they will be very skittish and hide a lot. also, they can potentially grow to 12", and the 20 gallon will be too small in the long run. granted, they grow very slowly, but i'm sure being as this tank is at work, you'll want to stock it with something that will never need to be moved. just my opinion. perpaps a school of cory's for the bottom instead. or maybe 3 zebra or yo yo loaches instead. they don't get nearly as big.