bumblebee cat, border loach, or other bottom feeder for community?

[rnocera]

I've got a 20H community tank set up right now. It's more for my wife's interest than mine since she hates all of my oddballs, but is also there because it was empty, holds water, and has a nice stand. So, right now I have a few longfin danios (zebra, albino & leopard), and some porkchop raspboras. It's set up with a pool sand bottom with some large tumbled stones mixed in, a big chunk of rose quartz and another reddish aquarium stone of some type. I have a nice chunk of driftwood to put in, also. I'm going to add fish little by little and hopefully have a tank stocked heavily with easy-going cheap fish that add a little color to the house, compared to my gar & polypterus. I'm hoping to have a tank that's really full of schooling fish, compared to my "monster" tanks that are fairly sparsely stocked because of space requirements & such. Maybe then the missus will decide fish aren't so bad.

But, it's time to add in a bottom feeder. Once food sinks 2/3 of the way down the tank, the danios & raspboras could care less about it. My wife found a loach that appears to be a Burmese border loach, and she likes it. However, I've been reading a bit on them that says they need a 29 gallon aquarium. Would one of these work in my tank, or should I skip it & find something smaller?

If not the border loach, what do you think of a bumblebee catfish? I'm specifically talking the little 2.5" Microglanis iheringi. We have a couple of these in at work, and I'm thinking one or two of them would be really cool in the tank. Do you guys think 2 would work OK, or would I be better of with 1, or a couple cory cats?

Thanks!

 

[Eoibio]

You could with 6 cories or 6 kuhli loaches Kuhlis and cories are both active and pretty small fish and would suit your tank well Maybe some brochis splendens, the emerald cory but these might be a bit too big...

 

[wtkunkel]

I would go with the Corys and/or the kuhlis for this size tank. The Bumblebees would not contribute much to bottom maintenance, as I have never found them to be real active or to eat much. They are really too small to provide much in the way of tank scavenging.