20 gallon long tank

[finius]

Hello,

I'm setting up a 20 gallon long tank 30"X12"X12" and want to make it a specialty tank, preferably with unique fish in it. I'm thinking eels, knife fish, gars, weird cats and puffers. The problem is that many if not most of these fish get too large. What could live happily in this size of tank and what additional requirements would they need?

Thanks!

 

[CFC]

I small oddball tank i plan to do in the future is a planted tank with 3 south american leaf fish (Monocirrhus polyacanthus) 4 banjo catfish (Dysichthys coracoideus) and 4 twig catfish (Farrowella species) in a 20g.

Other suitable small oddballs would be freshwater gobies, african butterfly fish, some species of puffer fish, pike livebearers, a single frogmouth catfish or glass fish.

 

[jread]

DWARF PUFFERS!!!!

I'm a little biased, though

 

[Perky]

2 Chaca Chaca an live in a 20 Gallon long. They may breed!

 

[finius]

Thanks for the replies. I've got about 6 weeks before I buy any fish so I'll keep these suggestions in mind.

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

You could try 2 South American puffer (Colomesus asellus) along with either some Bumble bee gobies that have been conditioned to freshwater, or Shell Dwelling Cichlids (info here)
or maybe some types of loachs, such as kuhli loachs (pangio kuhli) or hillstream loachs (although hillstream prefer fairly cool water) if you like gars and such, you should definitely check out Farrowella catfish, they're pretty strange.
Also heard good things about White Cheeked Gobies (Rhinogobius wui), they only grow two inch's so you could have several.
Although it would make a difference whether it is going to be a Brackish or freshwater tank, because oddballs are pretty evenly divided into both category's (all of the fish I listed are freshwater or can be acclimated to freshwater though).

 

[finius]

My LFS carries spotted green puffers. Could I fit 2 of them in the tank? That would be ten gallons a piece 1.5 square feet of surface area a piece. They thought it would work but I'd like to get the opinion of people who aren't trying to sell me stuff.

Originally I asked if I could put 20 in there. I'd love to see that reaction

 

[jread]

My LFS carries spotted green puffers. Could I fit 2 of them in the tank? That would be ten gallons a piece 1.5 square feet of surface area a piece. They thought it would work but I'd like to get the opinion of people who aren't trying to sell me stuff.

Originally I asked if I could put 20 in there. I'd love to see that reaction

Read this Green Spotted Puffer article to learn what they need.

 

[finius]

So can they live by themselves - could I get one?

 

[finius]

Thanks, BTW, that was a good article. My LFS told me all that stuff except the tank size.

 

[BlueDSM]

You would probably be fine with 1 Green Spotted Puffer, Puffers are generally solitary fish.

OR maybe you can get two Figure 8 puffers, they dont get as big.

You *might* be able to keep bumble bee gobies with either of the above....I say *might* because it really depends on the puffers temperment.
My GSP eats everything, but seems to ignore the BBG's, probably because the puffer is well fed and a little timid as far as GSP's go.

Dont listen to anything anyone in a LFS tells you. This may be a generalization, but hey, its true 95% of the time so why take a chance with that much of a probability?

My LFS has a tank full of GSP's....its so sad, theyre all beaten up and everytime I go back theres fewer and fewer, and the ones remaining are fatter. I know for a fact that no-one is really buying them - an employee told me that when I asked why they had been reduced to 1.99 each. Oh he also told me that they can live fine in freshwater, and can stay with cichlids

 

[Lithril]

BlueDSM seems like its time to find another LFS

 

[Opcn]

there are three fish refered to as GSP's the CSP has spikes running backwards on its belly and is true fresh water. One of the others has a round body and a small normal looking tail sticking out ( )> and it is hevily brackish the other ones tail taper begins at the waist and is relatively steady like a tear drop \/ and It is only lightly brackish.

Opcn