20 gallon tank semi newbie

Hello,
I just recently got back into fish after a 10 year gap. I'm in the works of setting up a new 20 gallon tank to start cycling soon.
I'm either going in the direction of owning a Betta or goldfish owning.

i have a female betta for free

In the past I had a 55 and 75 gallon where I had Shubunkin and black Oranda's and yes they are extremely messy fish and you need really great filtration and dedication to keep them.

I'm leaning more towards a Betta just because when ever my sister and I go out shopping I see them in those tiny cups and half the time they are ignored terribly. And I thought I could make one Betta's life a little better and give it real room to enjoy life.

I've always been a cold water tank owner in the past so I'm trying to do all the research I can before setting up the tank to cycle for the next month.

I ended up getting a 20 gallon kit and a oak stand for the tank this week and currently I'm researching live plants and so forth. Because it's been a few years since I've had fish and products and information has changed a lot since then.

:D

I agree that its hard to 'catch up' I'm recently back after a 20 yr 'gap'..... Not that I knew much then, I was 6
Ask all of the questions you want and we will hopefully be able to answer them all

Welcome. Hope your tank works out for you. I would pick the betta and them some kuhli loaches and cory cats. The betta will spend a lot more time near the top and the others I mentioned will cover the bottom of the tank and keep the whole thing moving. Plus they will scoop up leftover food. I would also go with 3 otto cats.

I would leave out the ottos for a while. At least till you get back into the swing of things. They are very picky with their water quality and tend to die easily.

I agree heated tanks are a whole other world then cold water tanks. I got some Betta fish books at the library and have been reading about them. I was just kinda get one fish once I have the tank at the right levels and so forth.

It's great to see that maybe down the road there could be other fish in with a Betta. At this point I'm taking things really slow to learn all I can about the right settings for a heated tank so I won't cause the fish to be a casualty.

I'd be just content having one healthy and happy fish in a environment it would find most enjoyable. In the past I had huge tanks but I want something more manageable in scale this time around.

Thanks for all thr welcome's I'll probably be bugging you all with silly questions lol.

Bug us all you want

I'm glad to hear that you are reading up on the fish instead of just throwing a hodgepodge of fish in a tank like some people do. I applaud you for that

Welcome!!

I've never had a problem with ottos here in AZ. But fern is right I would wait about a month before I threw them in

I wouldnt call it catch up, just learning new stuff, Id go betta too, i feel for them when I see um. but if you did go goldfish, i woudnt get the typical gravel type rocks for substrate, id go with something more like some aquatic plant soil,or large rocks so they are easy to clean, possibly an under gravel filter. but im a salt guy so FW people please correct me if this is not a good choice

After researching a few Betta books and reading up on setting up aquariums and such. I decided to go the Betta route to make one little fishes life better. I'm going with a under gravel filtration system and then a filter on the back of the tank as well. After researching live plants I decided against them because of all the work involved with C02 tanks and such. I'm doing back ground plants in silk bamboo.

Sounds good. Keep us updated & lets see some pics