20 gallon setup options

[GodFan]

Got a 20 tall I am going to be setting up soon. Weighing my options now. Im on a basically spend nothing budget. I am going to try to make this my dream self sustaining/ecosystem tank. The only think I want to do is feed and top off. Will be low bioload.

My main question is what to stock with. I have 2 ideas.

1) a betta fish with a healthy.... herd?.... of african dwarf frogs (I am leaning toward this because I like listening to them sing)

2) a bunch of shrimp and snails with a predator to eat the small babies.

I am very much leaning toward option 1 as I will have snails, shrimp, and a small predator in my other tank (scarlet badis in my 36 gallon) and I want to listen to the frogs. However if you show me the most amazing fish to ever swim the waters of the earth that will thrive in my self sustaining setup I could be swayed.

So throw some ideas out! Would also like to know if any fish will eat plants like water wisteria and water sprite.

Thanks and God bless!

 

[Scottyhorse]

Well AD frogs are messy eaters, and I have read lots and lots that you need to hand feed them due to poor eyesight. So not exactly super low maintenance. But doable.

Have you thought about doing wild live bearers? Like least killie fish? Or a native fish like Pygmy Sunfish? Want some sunnies soon.

 

[azmodan]

I've never owned them myself but an interesting fish that could work would be a small group of American flagfish. Aside from being quite pretty they are micro predators that also feast on certain algae and have been known to be somewhat herbivorous too. A steady colony of shrimp supplemented with algae and some plants could keep them well fed.

 

[GodFan]

Wow thanks yall! Scotty I did consider that but the live bearers just dont really seem right for this one. I have never found the others at a LPF/LFS.

I really like american flag fish and I would like to keep this tank at room temp possibly so that is a good option. Woukd they work with the adfs? My bro had some awhile back and they ate fine for us. They even tried to spawn!