twenty gallon dwarf tank

[surforegon3]

so i have a twenty gallon high tank and currently in there i have a german blue ram, two bolivian rams, and a "gold" dwarf cichlid. is my tank stocked to its capacity or can i try to get another blue ram and gold dwarf?

 

[Mike Wise]

I think that you already have too many cichlids in it. Why not add some top or mid-level fish instead?

 

[surforegon3]

any sort of tetra i would believe right? how many would you suggest just a school or a few of two different species?

 

[dw1305]

Dithers

Hi SurfOregon3,
It would depend on what cichlids you intend to keep in the tank. It will also depend on the sexes of the 2 Bolivian Rams.
If the Bolivian Rams are a pair, at some point you'll need to remove all the other cichlids, and keep top orientated dithers with small mouths that won't be a danger to the fry. Ram fry are much less bottom orientated than Apistogramma fry. A small shoal of Pencils are the normal choice.

If you don't have a pair you can keep any small tetras you like, I'd definitely keep more than 5 of just one species. I like Black Neon Tetras, because they tend to stay well up in the water column, but X-ray, Lemon, Cardinal etc. will do. It's probably going to depend on your water hardness and pH and how warm the tank is, as ideally the Bolivian Rams like slightly cooler water than your Ram. I'm not sure about Nannacara, I've never kept them although I know they are more tolerant of the "wrong" water than most Apistogrammas.

Have a look at ApistoBob's site for further details of water habitat etc. <http://www.dwarfcichlid.com/> and search this forum for "dithers", "tetras" and "pencil fish".

cheers Darrel