What fish should I add to my tank?

[Dekz]

I've got a 20g that I recently set up.

Currently it has:
1 Sunset Variatus Platy
3 Zebra Danios
8 Neon Tetras

And very soon I will be picking up 3-4 Julii Corys.

I'm not sure what to get after that, I'm looking for that "main/feature" fish.

I am considering a Dwarf Gourami but I have read mixed things about them. Everything from them being extremely peaceful and nothing to worry about, all the way to them being quite territorial and aggresive.

Any thought on the DG, or other suggestions?

 

[haykay]

Dg are more prone to disease than some fish. Really the aggressiveness to other lower swimming species will depend soley on your particular speciman. GENERALLY they leave other lower swimming fish alone until they invade their "territory"

 

[thominil]

try angel fish or some kind of molly orandas and black moores are cool 2

 

[Zagz]

I disagree don't add any types of goldfish as they are a coldwater fish and should not be kept with tropicals. How about some rams?

 

[Dekz]

try angel fish or some kind of molly orandas and black moores are cool 2

I'm pretty sure my tank is much too small for an Angel fish, and won't it get big and eat everything else?

I disagree don't add any types of goldfish as they are a coldwater fish and should not be kept with tropicals. How about some rams?

I absolutely LOVE German Blue Rams, would I have any compatibility issues with any of the other fish?

 

[Zagz]

The danios may be a bit zippy for them but if you have some hiding spots/plants they should be fine.

 

[FishEggs]

i second the rams or maybe rainbows.

 

[Dekz]

The danios may be a bit zippy for them but if you have some hiding spots/plants they should be fine.

Just to be clear, are you worried about the Rams having places to hide from the Zebras, or the other way around?

i second the rams or maybe rainbows.

I've never seen Rams at any of the LFS so that's my only concern. I was actually originally going to go with Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish, perhaps I will do that if the DG is a potential problem.

 

[Zagz]

Neither hiding just the danios may startle the rams a bit, hiding places will make them feel more secure.

 

[bs6749]

I agree that no goldfish should go in that tank. Not only because they are coldwater but also because the tank will be overstocked with the additional fish.

I've kept 8 GBR's in a 55 gallon tank with danios and they were never startled by them. They paid no mind to them whatsoever. They did go after glowlight tetras during spawning but the danios would stay clear.

A 20H would be fine for a pair of angels but a 20L wouldn't. They may eventually go after your neons though.

 

[Dekz]

Good news, I went and checked out some LFS today and found some that had German Blue Rams for sale. I also have a friend that will take my Zebra Danios off my hands (which will free up some space, and I read that they might annoy the GBR).

Would a GBR get along with my Platy, Neon Tetras, and Cories?

Could I get a pair of GBRs or would they be aggresive towards each other?

 

[FishEggs]

a pair would be great!! 1 female and 1 male then maybe you'll get more without having to pay for them. lol

 

[Dekz]

a pair would be great!! 1 female and 1 male then maybe you'll get more without having to pay for them. lol

Ok awsome.

Any tips on sexing them? I want to go pick them up tomorrow and I assume the staff at the store will be useless.

 

[bs6749]

Rams are easy. Females have a pink tinge to the belly when they are of a mature age. If they don't have this tinge then they are either male, too young to sex, or poor quality fish that you should not purchase. Males lack pink bellies and are larger and have a taller black dorsal ray in the front. Generally the female's front black dorsal ray will be the same height or shorter than the rest of her dorsal rays.

 

[Dekz]

I did a ton of research last night and tried to learn how to sex them. Good thing I did because when I went to the store today to get them, nobody on the entire staff had a clue what they were, nevermind how to sex them. . I did my best and I THINK I got 1 male and 1 female. They are drip acclimating right now, I will try to post some pics asap.

EDIT:

Rams are easy. Females have a pink tinge to the belly when they are of a mature age. If they don't have this tinge then they are either male, too young to sex, or poor quality fish that you should not purchase. Males lack pink bellies and are larger and have a taller black dorsal ray in the front. Generally the female's front black dorsal ray will be the same height or shorter than the rest of her dorsal rays.

I watched the tank for quite a while trying to see behavioural clues in addition to appearance. There were 5 rams in the tank. 3 of them had bright colors (including rather yellow bellies) big dorsal fins and occasionally nipped at one another. The other 2 were slightly smaller, rather drab looking, and never bothered any of the others. None of the fish had pink bellies, but I used my best judgement and assumed that the first 3 were male and the other 2 were female. I will get some pics up as soon as they are in the tank.

 

[Dekz]

I guess something went wrong with the white balance and the pics came out pretty red. Hopefully you guys can still tell me what sex these are:

 

[Zagz]

Congratulations! From the looks of it you have a male and a female, although they look like bolivian rams, not german blue rams. Either way they are gorgeous.

 

[bs6749]

The only thing I'm 100% sure of is that those ARE Bolivian rams!

 

[Dekz]

Works for me, I was told Bolivians were better anyway. I would appreciate a few more opinions on the sexes though, thanks for all the help so far.

 

[bs6749]

GBR's are much more colorful than Bolivians and the demand for them is greater than Bolivians as well. Bolivians aren't "better" than GBR's but it's very common to see poor quality GBR's as they are mass produced in Asia where they are subjected to growth and coloring hormones that weakens the fish and shortens their lifespan. This has caused the common misconception that GBR's are more fragile than Bolivians which isn't the case at all. Good GBR's obtained from a breeder will be just as healthy as Bolivians, which often are wild caught specimens.