[zof]

Title says it all, I'm looking for ideas to stock my 20L, current inhabitants are just a Blue Gourami and an oto, the oto can be moved out into my main tank but the Gourami should stay as its in there because it liked to pick on my other Gourami.

What I'm looking for;
Only 1 type of fish
Species that will do well in a pH of about 8
A species that will do well in a high traffic area - Tank is between kitchen and living room
An active species
I'd like to dabble around with breeding this fish species

What I'm not looking for;
Livebearers - I have enough in my main tank
Fish that you have to separate - Like my Gourami, because I only have so many tanks
Fish that don't do well with live plants


It is a possibility some day I may be able to move the Gourami back to the main tank but not right away, so I'd like to try my best to keep it compatible. All comments, suggestions and criticisms are welcome.

Thanks!

[The Game]

You ma have probably been told this a lot already but 20L is actually very small. You could go on www.aqadvisor.com, enter your tank's dimensions and click 'show suitable species for tank'. You wouldn't get a very wide variety. I have a 32L and the only suitable species were a whole lot of snails and shrimps with some gouramis. However, you could try some ember tetras, never kept them before but others told me to keep them in my tank as a suggestion. You could try Pygmy Corydoras. Before I knew a lot about fish, I stocked my 32L tank with a male fighter, around 5 white clouds and 5 danios. You could maybe try some white clouds or neon tetras in your 20L but its really not reccommended. Why not try breeding the Gourami instead in that tank.

[eatmysox]

The Game is correct look up on aqadvisor what is alright for your tank, it is one of my best friends when it comes to stocking tanks. My suggestions would be to move the gourami and stock the tank with guppys. You could put a few in there and they all are very colorful. Another idea would be shrimp also colorful but small. My last suggestion would be endlers. They are a relative of the guppy but grow alot smaller, they also are very colorful if you get males (the females are plain grey). There are a few things that you can do :D Good Luck

[jeaninel]

I think the OP may be referring to 20L as a 20 gallon long?

[tanker]

Yes, I think you are right, jeaninel. 20 gallon, not 20 litre.

I'd like to suggest pristella tetras. The pH might still be too high for them, but you might want to look up their profile. I've got them and they are really great fish.

[The Game]

Hmm, if it is a 20 gallon and not a 20 gallon, then your options really open up. But why would you keep a single gourami all alone in such a big tank, I would have just kept him in a 20 litre, not gallon. We won't know the tank size until zof reads all this LOL.

[tanker]

If you look on zof's aquariums tab, he's got a 20 gallon listed with the fish mentioned and it certainly looks like a 20 gallon in his photos, not a 20 litre.

It looks from the OP that the gourami was put in this tank because he was picking on another fish.

[The Game]

Ooooh ok then. I would go on this site. Stocking a Peaceful Community Tank - The Free Freshwater and Saltwater Aquarium Encyclopedia Anyone Can Edit - The Aquarium Wiki It has good suggestions, of course there are more options but this could get you started.

[zof]

Yea I always forget about that whole rest of the word measures in metric thing, it is a 20 gallon long. Little update, I bought 2 Bolivian Rams for the tank in which immediately the gourami decided shouldn't be there so I had to scoop him up and throw him in my bagging container while I went to the store and bought a plastic paper folder so I could make a makeshift tank divider, well yesterday I rehomed the gourami to a friend that was just getting start back into fish. So now hes her problem! And so far I'm liking my rams, they are very sedate fish, in fact the easiest fish in the world to net!(my opinion of course) And so far I'm liking them and actually thinking about breeding them, I just need to wait a bit longer to determine what sex ratio I have since they are too young to show at this point.