Thoughts for a 20 gallon.

[tarheels910]

Im thinking about redoing my 20 gallon. I want to replace the gravel with sand. Im thinking about that pool filter sand. Any other cheap sand suggestions? I plan to put a female Convict and a male Firemouth and try to breed them. Thanks for your help.

[sumthin fishy]

Why on earth are you going to do that?

[tarheels910]

Some people have been successful and I wanted to try it? Why do you have a problem?

[sumthin fishy]

Yes, there is a big problem with hybridization. There are many fish that you cannot get pure strains of because of introduction of hybred species. Genetic deformities can and do arise. Are you prepaired to cull (nice way of saying kill) A portion of the offspring because of this? Mabey i come across a bit harsh, but there are all kinds of folks showing up here who want to play god (theres a thread of some guy right now putting a saltwater damsel and firemoths or something in a brackish tank just to see if they will live, WTF?) Quite frankly it gets old having people advocate bad practices. Mabey they dont know any better, mabey I am being a jerk about it(I am sorry for my post in the other thread), but after you tell 100 different people why, you start getting unjustifiably upset about it.

There are thousands of species of fish out there and I do not understand the need to create more of them. Just because someone else does it doesnt make it okay, and letting known hybreds into the hobby is frowned upon by most longterm fishkeepers(there was a time when I did not see the big deal of it, because I had not seen the big picture). It would be much more admirable to find a specie not currently being bred in captivity, and try to breed it. For example, someone has reportedly bred the Black ghost knife in captivity. While the exact details were not outlined in the article, it had to do with a rapid drop in temperature, change in ph(both of wich are not usually advisable in fishkeeping), and shortened lighting to reproduce the conditions of the Amozonian rainy season. But this was no "let me try this" experiment. It was conducted with reaserch into the habitat of the fish.

Now for your question. Pool filter, or playground sand will work well and can be found at places like Home depot. I personally would not put those 2 fish in that size tank, and I would be prepaired to seperate them if they dont get along. One problem may be that the con female will try to protect her eggs from the foreign specie, regardless if he's the father.

[tarheels910]

Oh I didnt know it could kill some offspring. Thanks for the info. Im not going to try it now... I may just get a pair of convicts. Thanks for your help.

[sumthin fishy]

Convicts are quite prolific breeders, and quite common. Many stores will not take the offspring, or will not offer you much of a price for them. If you have your heart set on breeding, and you have a 20 gallon tank, and you dont want to try something thats never been done before, why not go with something a bit more interesting? apistogrammas, rams, or african shell dwellers would be far better suited to that tank. The shellies would be especially good if you added some crushed corral to your sand to help up the hardness of the water. Just a thought :)