Cichlids in a 20L

belmont0182

belmont0182

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Nov 18, 2003
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Hey all, i post in the general freshwater all the time but this is my first cichlid post. I have a 20L and im trying to decide what to stock it with. I think that putting some ciclids in there would be really cool. I am aware that my tank isnt very big, but its all i will have for a long time. are there any cichlids that i could put in the tank? and how many of them? i dont want to put any in there if i could only put 2 in the tank, unless i could put 2 cichlids along with some other type of species.

thanks for your help
 
Dwarf cichlids.

Look into Laetacra species (for instance, Laetacara Curviceps, L. Dorsigerus...and etc) or Apistogramma speices (Apistogramma Borellii, A. agassizziii...and etc).

Also, it depends on your water chemistry. Those speices I mentioned like neutral water. If you have high ph...can try out shell dwellers.
 
thanks

I dont know what my water is like because i will be moving shortly before is set the tank up. How many of those could i fit in my tank, and do you know the common names of those fish?

Also what are shell dwellers?
 
Shell-dwellers are small cichlids from Lake Tanganyika. They live in some type of large snail shells found on the bottom of the lake. They are small, but usually fairly aggressive. Most of them are supposed to be good parents. Some are kept as pairs, some as harems, and a couple (multies for example) live as colonies. There are some articles and species profiles in the article section of Cichlid-forum.com.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/shelldweller_corner.php

I've done some research because I really want some, but I'm going to wait until I can get another tank, with a larger footprint than my 20 gallon high.
 
From what I've read, if you start with anywhere from 4-6 multies they will take care of filling up the aquarium for you. It's best to have only one male. From what I've read, if you have more than one male (if you buy them young & unsexed or something) the males may divide the tank and more or less tolerate each other or they may fight.

Multies do need lots of shells. You can buy the neothauma (sp?) shells that are their natural homes from Armke's online, but they are $3-$4 each. I think most people get escargot shells. I'm not sure exactly where to find them, but I think maybe specialty grocery stores or something. Pretty much any shell that they can get in comfortably without getting stuck in should work. The www.cichlid-forum.com site I linked last post has a forum devoted just to Lake Tangayika cichlids--a search there could probably get you a lot of information.
 
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