60g Stocking & Order

[panathinaikos55]

60g Stocking Order

My tank is basically finished cycling... finally. The next task is finalizing my stocking plan. I read through plenty of posts for similar sized tanks, and spent quite a bit of time on AqAdvisor developing my stocking plan. I'm not 100% sold on it yet so please offer some feedback, but my main question is in the sequence of which to introduce the fish into the tank.

Here is my stocking plan (as it sits right now) for all 23 fishes:

10x 5 Banded Barbs
4x Dwarf Gourami
3x Cockatoo Apistos
2x German Blue Rams
1 Angelfish
1 Rainbow Shark
1 Gold Nugget Pleco
1 King TIger Pleco

Keep in mind this is a newly cycled tank. In what order would you introduce the fish?

 

[Kimlafeiet]

I would probably stock the cockatoo and german blues last, as they need a well established tank. Maybe the barbs first?
And I would really reconsider putting 4 dwarf gourami in one tank. Dwarfs can be pretty mean, especially to other gouramis. I have a dwarf gourami and a sunset honey gourami in my 55 gallon, and the dwarf has become a real booger lately. He is the "king" of the tank, and is especially nippy with the other gourami. I am regretting getting 2 gourami, and may end up having to rehome one if things dont change. :-(

 

[panathinaikos55]

I would probably stock the cockatoo and german blues last, as they need a well established tank. Maybe the barbs first?
And I would really reconsider putting 4 dwarf gourami in one tank. Dwarfs can be pretty mean, especially to other gouramis. I have a dwarf gourami and a sunset honey gourami in my 55 gallon, and the dwarf has become a real booger lately. He is the "king" of the tank, and is especially nippy with the other gourami. I am regretting getting 2 gourami, and may end up having to rehome one if things dont change. :-(

Noted, thanks for the heads up on the DG. I've never had any before, so have no experience with them. I like how they look, and AqAdvisor didn't mention anything about having them in the tank together.

I was thinking the Apistos and GBRs would go in last also. I was leaning towards adding them (depending on how everything goes) around the 6 month mark, and as the last additions.

If I drop it down to just 1 Dwarf Gourami, what else should I add to the tank... another small school... more of some of the other fish... some other speices not already in there??? I'm looking for a good color mix as well as some inhabitants of all levels of the tank (plus I was leaning towards fish I've never had before as this is the largest tank I've ever owned).

Order so far:

Barbs/Angelfish/1 Pleco - good to add all in at the start?

 

[panathinaikos55]

One thing I forgot to ask is about the ratio of male/female to add to the tank for the fish I have chosen.

Apistos - 1 male & 2 female?
GBR - 1 male & 1 female?

What about the Barbs, and the single fish?

 

[panathinaikos55]

Any thoughts?