# 20 gallon high, multies tankmates?



## Bubbles407 (Jan 10, 2012)

hey im moving 4 adult multies into a setup 20 gallon high, and i was wondering what i can put in with them to give the tank some more life? would it be possible to get a schooling fish for the upper half of the tank, i was thinking a bunch of rasbora,danios or white clouds. im assuming theres no room for any other cihlid like another shellie species or julie pair? any suggestions?


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## AfricanLove (Jan 2, 2012)

You could do like 4 zebra danios


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## Jayhawk (Sep 21, 2002)

I'd lean towards fast moving schooling fish like zebra danios, too, but I'd get 1/2 dozen myself. I tried keeping a pleco in with my multis in a 20 tall, and they would attack the poor fish mercilessly in waves. Danios are fast and may be OK, but once your multis, um mutli-ply, it might or might not work out well.


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## AfricanLove (Jan 2, 2012)

Unless you can get 20 LONG those are real fun with multjs


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## lorax84 (Feb 19, 2013)

I used to keep multies in a 20H with 6 zebra danios. It was great when the multies were young, but as soon as a dominant male emerged e started beating up the danios really bad. Eventually all the danios were scared up into one corer of the tank and I took them back the my LFS. Personally I think that once you start the establish a colony there is really no reason for dithers, the multies will swim everywhere


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## jb9738 (Sep 2, 2012)

Can "petricolas" be housed with multifasciatus? I use quotes because I'm not convinced they are true petricolas. I have the petricolas and multis are coming in next week. But if needed I can keep them seperated


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## Jayhawk (Sep 21, 2002)

Multis are, ounce for ounce, the most aggressive and territorial fish I have ever kept...I was just glad they are so small or I think they might have ttied to bite off a finger whrn cleaning the tank. I'd keep them by themselves....once the colony gets going it will be a very active fun tank.

I once had a colony split in two and they would build this sand wall between the colonies which was always moving an inch or two one way or the other...they always did this at night, and I loved waking up to see what had changes in their multi-verse.


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## AfricanLove (Jan 2, 2012)

The catfish will probably prey on the multis. And you will have a tank of unhappy multis always defending there shells


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## jb9738 (Sep 2, 2012)

And thanks african love and jay hawk. I'll take your advice and keep them seperated. How big is your tank with 2 colonies in it? I'm looking to use a 29 gallon


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## Jayhawk (Sep 21, 2002)

Mine was a 20 high. Both colonies did great, but I eventually downsized tank numbers and sold off my multis because I really got into planted SA dwarf cichlid tanks.


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## AfricanLove (Jan 2, 2012)

I was going to do that with my 20L but I don't think my 100 shells would be enough


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## Jayhawk (Sep 21, 2002)

100 shells in a 20 long would work fine IMHO. You could set up two shell areas on opposite sides of the tank ans see how they handle that over time....sounds fun to me!


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## AfricanLove (Jan 2, 2012)

Honestly right now I could probably use 200. I prefer the 2-3 shell high piles. Maybe ill try to bulid them coming out of the corners.


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