20 gallon suggestions?

Other options that would be cool but you'd have to be careful with would be to have a tank-with ONLY-a Convict Pair (that means 2 and only 2) or a Firemouth Pair. These fish are both recommended to be kept in bigger tanks, but if you can aqcuire an assured pair, you should be fine. You wouldn't be able to have any other fish in there at all, because these fish get very aggressive towards other tankmates when they are breeding, but you'd have a nice tank with lots of action, since Convicts and Firemouths are both active active breeders!

A great tank idea, but one that has to be carried out with caution and patience. Good luck!
 
ok say I get the shellies brevis. What bottom feeders would you reccommend and some type of fish to add to the activity such as making the male show territorial display as jayhawk spoke of in his report??? Are the white clouds the best?? Or are there other fish that would do well with them??
 
Of the shellies, if you go with brevis, they're pair bonding. If you can't get a pair for sure, get 4 to 6 (half large & half small). In the 20, you'll get a pair from the batch and any extra brevis you can either trade in or keep because they will show the territorial displays and all with each other.

Good bottom feeders for the smaller tank are Synodontis petricola (the smallest synodontis) and I've also done the old upsidedown catfish with them, too. Bushynose or rubberlip plecos work great also.

If you want upper water fish, danios, white clouds, guppies, platys all work well.

Earlier I suggested multifasciatus as another shellie. They'll only do well with fast topwater fish. They're so like brichardis. Mine beat the crud out of julies twice their size, and mercilessly picked on a pleco that I eventually moved out because they would attack him in waves. If you go with multis, just get 4-6, and within about 3-4 months there is a good chance you may have two groups. If not, you'll see displays and all just within the group. They're really cool little fish.

Either way you'll have a fun, active tank. Obviously, my two favorite shellies are brevis and multifasciatus!
 
OK Jayhawk which of the two would refer out of brevis and multi. to start with?? This is going to be my first experience ever with shellies. Im thinking of going ahead and putting my cories I have in a 10 gallon in the 20 with a pair of ram's and doing a pair of shellies in my 10 by themselves with maybe a couple white clouds as you suggested.
 
For a 10, either brevis or multis would work. If you want dithers in the 10 though, brevis would be your best choice. Multis will claim all of a 10 gallon tank. Alone they'd be great.

For brevis, if you can tell you have a male and female (males are larger, more colorful and honestly look tougher than the females), a pair of brevis with some dithers up top makes a great 10 gallon tank. Put in 3-4 snail shells (escargot shells, old apple snail shells, larger hermit crab shells), sand or crushed coral for the substrate, and you'll have a great tank. You can often find pairs of brevis at the LFS because they will hide in the same shell together.

For the multis, get 4. Unless they are adults, they are impossible to sex (males are just larger when full grown). Have 2 shells per fish, sand or crushed coral again...you won't need any dithers to make the tank more exciting. They're constantly digging, etc...

You mentioned this will be your first shellie tank. Both brevis and multis are easy, tough and fun. Brevis are terrible parents and eat their fry. Multis are unbelievably good parents, nearly all the fry will survive, and you can trade them in at almost any LFS for credit so you'll never need to pay for food, etc...again.

I'd go for whichever you can find most easily.
 
Ok im ready to do the rams and shellies but I have a couple more questions. Is it ok if I use a fine gravel substrate for the 10 gallon because I have a gravel substrate in an already cycled tank and besides that a 10 gallon is not worth the hassle to me dealing with sand. And the ram question is what type of decorations would you use for them. clay flower pots?? Driftwood?? Of course plants but what else??


EDIT: Also where online would you guys suggest I pick up some of these guy's I would really really like some wild blue ram's. I want neo. multi. shellies
 
Optix, I've never bought fish online, so I'm not much help there. Also, my computer died about 2 months ago so I lost some favorites I had, that included two big online shops that sold Tanganyikans so I don't have their links anymore. However, I think their names were Armkes and Wet Thumb Aquatics (one's in Texas, the other Michigan if I recall correctly).

As for fine gravel substrate, how fine is it? If it's as fine as large sand, then I think you're fine. If it's a little larger, Brevis, who dig less, won't care. But mutlis really do best with a substrate the size of sand - they live to dig, and their mouths are small. If you're worried about sand and your filter, I've never had a problem. Children's play sand works well as does pool filter sand or sandblasting sand (just rinse well). I use crushed coral sand from the LFS, but it does cost like $20 for a bag, but my KH is only 1 out of the tap so I like the buffering I get from it. You might be able to find Southdown Play Sand at your local Home Depot (certain parts of the country stock this play sand, it's argonite, costs $5.00 for a 50 pound bag and is every bit as good as my fancy crushed coral because that's what it is, too!).
 
Thanks for the info guys. I will go ahead with the sand jayhawk I just had a very frustrating experience with my 55 gallon using silica sand that drove me up the wall but it was because I didn't do a very thorough job of getting the dust out. I'll be more patient with the next bag :). Thanks for the info on the ram's too chil, im on there now hehe.


EDIT: ok are you guys sure the ram's will be ok in my ph?? especially wild caught one's I seriously have like 7.8-8.4 ph goin on here and im not gonna buy a fish that I'll just end up killing. Is there any way I can lower my ph significantly to keep them but keep it stable, I know I can use peat in my filter but that doesn't seem very stable. If you guys think I'll be ok because my Ph is very stable right now then let me know, but if not let me know that too.
 
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