Would these fish work together in a 20-gallon long aquarium?

[Devon Greatwolf]

After much reading and mind changing the following are the Tanganyika fish that I like:

Altolamprologus compressiceps "Sumbu"
Neolamprologus brichardi
Julidochromis dickfeldi
Neolamprologus leleupi “Orange”

Would these fish work together in a 20-gallon long aquarium? If so, what type of stocking would you recommend?

I was thinking:

1 Altolamprologus compressiceps "Sumbu
1 Neolamprologus brichardi
2 Julidochromis dickfeldi
3-5 Neolamprologus leleupi “Orange”

For filtration, I am using a Whisper 30-gallon HOB.
I promise I will perform a minimum 20% WC weekly!


In addition, what, if anything, do you know about:

Tanganicodus irsacae “Jeweled Goby Cichlid”

Tank is set-up waiting to clear. I jump-started the cycle with media, and deco from one of my other tanks.

Right now I am thinking faux saltwater!! Deco consists of 15lbs of crushed coral, 10lbs of coral-colored fine gravel, pink sandstone cave stack across 50% of back, large false coral shelf across 50% of back, a few pieces of true coral, a nice tubeworm stalk, and several shells of various size and shape. I intended to get enough “large snail-type” shells to provide complete cover of all open areas of the tank. I also plan to change over to a more “natural” set-up (keeping with the pink sandstone by adding more and lots of “lace” rock; possible some driftwood too, if I can find something that is light in color). I am going to add some anubias nana this weekend.

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcomed and much appreciated

Peace

 

[Orion]

I might be worried about the leleupi paring off eventually. Once they do they will most likely make life hard for the rest of the tank. Not that there is a thing in the world wrong with letting them breed, but in a smallish tank it's difficult to pull off a community type setting with most any of the Neolamps while you have active spawning.

I've had some of the dwarf sumbu and to be brutishly honest, they were pretty boring. I had a breeding pair and even when they had fry they just hovered right above their shells. IMHO, I would pass on these. If you like the look of the comps then get some comps. If you like the idea of shellies, there are several other species that are much more active that may fair well in a community setup depending on tankmates.

A brichardi singleton is ok for a community. Get anymore than that and you run the risk of forming a pair. Brichardi are fierce when defending a spawn and won't back down. They do make a very nice species only setup though.

Julidochromis dickfeldi are great. Fairly peacefull and in general make a good tankmate.

Tanganicodus irsacae is a bit different than the rest though. They need a diet that consists more of veggies than protein, and to much protein can be harmfull if not fatal to these fish. They also aren't as aggressive, and feeding time can be difficult for them because they aren't always as willing to push their way to the food first. Because of this normally they are best suited to a species only tank, but carefully selected tankmates can sometimes be done successfully with them. I think the julie dickfeldi would be one that could be kept with them.

Tank setup sounds like a neat one! Get us some shots of it once you have it all setup.

 

[Devon Greatwolf]

Orion,

First off I really dig your avatar my sides hurt from laughing.

Secondly, are there any Shellies you would recommend to go with a pair of Dickfeldi. And should I get the Dickfeldi first or the shellies?

 

[Orion]

I would probably add both at the same time if possible. But either way, I don't think it's going to matter to them.

For shellies, multies or occies are always a good choice. Occies being the better of the two just because of their size. I think any of the larger shellies should be fine.

 

[Devon Greatwolf]

What if i switched the number of Leleupi and sumbu and dropped the Brichardi?

 

[Orion]

I don't think dropping the brichardi is going to hurt anything. Most of the time, they are decent tankmates when kept as a lone fish. And the sumbu comp was just a personal opinion.

If you want to try to get a pair of leleupi breeding, then 5 or 6 young is a good number to start with. All neolamps can be pretty pushy when spawning, and a 20 gallon doesn't forgive much in terms of space, but I don't think that the leleupi are as bad as brichardi for example, but still fairly aggressive.

The big question is what do you want to get out of your tank? If you want to see breeding leleupi then the other tank mates are going to be stressed and possibly in danger when they spawn. Also the tank setup is going to play a part, as the more territories and caves the fish have to seek refuge in the better off they will be. Not tring to say that it's going to be impossible to have a breeding pair of leleupi down the road and other fish in the tank, but in a 20 gallon the chances are much slimmer. A larger tank would be much better suited, and give you much more stocking options if this is a viable option.

Really, I do apologize if I sound like a downer here. I'm not tring to overload you with information either I promise. Just tring to better prepare you so that you might not make the same mistakes that I made starting out with these great fish.