Stocking a 20 gal

[emotionless04]

Hi all,

i currently have a 20 gal tank with 2 angelfish in it (Note: they were removed from another tank i have cause they were harassing my gouramis) but any ideas on what else i could put in with them?

 

[mgamer20o0]

personally feel they need at least a 29 gallon. i tend to keep guppies with mine.

 

[kaiofcanada]

I agree with gamer...The angels will eventually need a larger tank. If they are small for now, guppies are great as well as mollys, platys, and some danios can be nice tank mates. Eventually you will want to upgrade as angels get very large. I currently keep my angels with a yoyo loach and some otocinculs. I will be introducing some very pretty new Red Wag Platys soon.

 

[Vikesfankevin]

If they are small you can put most stuff with them. If they grow up with fish like neons they will look at them as tankmates and not food. I Have 1 Angel in my 20 right now and it is in there with 6 black neons, 2 black phantoms, 2 red tip phantom tetras, 6 Corys, 1 rainbow shark, 1 butterfly pleco and 1 guppy. Gets along fine with everything.

 

[mgamer20o0]

that doesnt always work though.

 

[HN1]

If they are small you can put most stuff with them. If they grow up with fish like neons they will look at them as tankmates and not food. I Have 1 Angel in my 20 right now and it is in there with 6 black neons, 2 black phantoms, 2 red tip phantom tetras, 6 Corys, 1 rainbow shark, 1 butterfly pleco and 1 guppy. Gets along fine with everything.

There is so much wrong with this IMO, it's difficult to begin. 1st- fish don't make friends, they are instinctive creatures and as the angels grow, neons will become food. 2nd- A 20 is too small for an angel &/or a RBS. 3rd- The "butterfly pleco" is probably a hillstreams loach and would appreciate quite different water parameters and flow that the SA fish. 4th- The tetras should be in a larger single group versus a hodge podge mix.

JMO, no offense intended.

 

[Vikesfankevin]

There is so much wrong with this IMO, it's difficult to begin. 1st- fish don't make friends, they are instinctive creatures and as the angels grow, neons will become food. 2nd- A 20 is too small for an angel &/or a RBS. 3rd- The "butterfly pleco" is probably a hillstreams loach and would appreciate quite different water parameters and flow that the SA fish. 4th- The tetras should be in a larger single group versus a hodge podge mix.

JMO, no offense intended.

1-I know fish don't make friends but I have heard of this and I know you have too. I guess I will see what happens when it gets bigger.
2-I know a 20 is too small. I got the Angel very small and only because I knew I was getting a larger tank really soon(I was planning a 220 but couldnt get a house so its going to be a 55 instead).
3-Your right the "butterfly pleco" is a hillstream loach, I just looked it up. Its advertised as a butterfly pleco at my LFS. It was one of the fish they recomended because I wanted a small alge eater. Its done a great job and seems to be doing great. I have had him almost a year now.
4-I know tetras like to be in groups. I do have 6 black neons in there and I started with 3 of each kind of the phantoms but one of each died. When I got them I was hoping they would shoal together, they didn't but seem to be happy anyways. They are very active. Also I plan to get a group of them for my 55.

No offense taken. Thanks for the input.

Oh wanted to add this link. This is on the fish they call the hong kong pleco or hillstream loach
http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/pages/show_article.php?article_id=142

 

[bs6749]

A 20H is perfectly fine for a pair of adult angelfish. Both angelfish and discus breeders have used 20H tanks for many years to breed these fish. Actually Jack Wattley wrote an article about a friend of this that spawned discus in 10g tanks believe it or not just to prove that it could be done. As long as you can keep the water parameters in check in the 20H you will be fine. This may mean live plants and many water changes but it's far from being considered unreasonable to keep a pair of angels in a 20H.

A school of 6-10 neons should be okay with the angels. They will have little impact on the bioload of the tank and you will be doing regular water changes anyway with the 2 angels already in there. I raised 15 quarter sized silver angels with a small group of brilliant rasboras and they quickly outgrew those. I have about 8 of those angelfish that are well over baseball sized diameter in my 100g community tank and they lived happily with a large school of neons and never went after one of them! My discus would pick off a few of them but the angels couldn't have cared less about the neons. I do believe that growing the angels with the neons will help the angels avoid eating them. If you were to put the neons into the tank with the angels the neons might freak at the size of the angels and when the do that the angels know that the neons are distressed and instinctively hone in on them and hunt them. I've heard many discus keepers say this exact same thing. I recommend that when you introduce the tetras that you make sure that the angels have been well fed beforehand and you might also want to introduce them at night when the angels are sleeping.