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Originally Posted by emc7
You could keep one dwarf pike cichlid in a 20. But you'd need another tank with guppies or a pair of convicts to get him something to eat. They eat baby fish.
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I agree.
My
Crenicichla regani were very funny about eating fish - they would eat very very very small fry (ie smaller than feeder guppies - baby convicts were perfect size) but larger fishes would be ignored (of course, they were also eating blackworms, white worms, mosquito larvae, cut earthworms, frozen foods (bloodworms, mysids, krill, etc) and the occasional flake).
The breeder I got them from (as wee little babys) said his breeding pairs wouldn't even eat fry...
The only (somewhat) common Piscivore I can think of for that sized tank would be
Belonesox belizanus - the pike livebearer - and to be honest that's a really small tank for one (females get 8" long) -- I certainly wouldn't try keeping more than one in that size tank. And I haven't seen one of these in a store in over 15 years.
Another option (but even harder to find) would be
Luciocephalus pulcher - sometimes called the pike-head gourami.
But neither of these (or any other fish that is eating live feeders) would be easy to keep in a 20g tank - your going to need to do lots of water changes (I'd aim for at least 25% a week) to deal with the heavy disolved organics load. And if you're using store-bought feeder fish, you WILL end up with disease problems sooner or later.
A good article to read on small predators:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/FWSubWebIndex/pikefishes.htm