Starting with Africans - can I put any in a 20L?

[Plano_Jeff]

Forgive me in advance for not searching the board and internet for answers. I had a feeling some of our resident experts might be happy to chime in and give me some advice.

I've got a couple of 20Ls to set up and was thinking of doing an African cichlid tank. Are there any species that are small enough that I could keep in there? How many could I get away with?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!

Jeff

[Bakushan]

I do believe you would want 28+ gallons for the "smallest" cichlid tank. They are too fast and too territorial to be confined to a 20.

[Rift2Reef]

You could do plenty of different things with a 20L with africans.

It could easily house colonies of any of the shell dwelling species from Lake Tanganyika. They are really too small for any Malawians but you could do alot with Tanganyikans.

Here's a good link:

http://cichlid-forum.com/profiles/category.php?cat=14

They could easily house pairs of Julies or Lamp species (Daffodils or Brichardi type fish).

Julidochromis Ornatus, Dickfeldi, Transcriptus would all be fine.

http://cichlid-forum.com/profiles/category.php?cat=11

Telmatochromis Brichardi is another small cool fish that does well in small tanks.

Those links should give you some good visual ideas but there are more options than you have tank space for!!

Let me know if I can be of any more help.

Dane

[Plano_Jeff]

Wow - thanks Dane. That is awesome info. Gives me a lot to thing about. It sounds like I need to come pay you a visit - do you stock many of the dwarf species?

Also - I've read a lot about crushed coral substrate to help with alkalinity. Do you recommend that? pH out of the tap in Plano is about 7.6, my other tanks seem to hang right around 7.2 to 7.4. I'd like a sand substrate, probably quartz, holey rock will help with buffering pH, right? Is it a big issue to be concerned with?

Thanks again for the great info.

Jeff

[Rift2Reef]

You dont need to worry about buffering. Most of the tank raised fish these days are raised in a ph around 7.6.

I would definitely suggest sand especially with Tanganyikans they all love digging and they need sand for that. Especially the shell dwellers they love to bury their shells so only the mouth is exposed. They can move some serious sand.

I do carry almost all of the mentioned species.

[kewlkatdady]

Nothing like a cool shelley tank...

[FishDaddy]

mehh....I like my brevis, but they are definitely people shy. If you walk up to the tank...in the shell they go! FYI, they dig pretty extensively in Flourite as well :rolleyes: