Help with stock for upcoming 55gallon?

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exodus

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Mar 22, 2006
Messages
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Location
Redding, CT
So I have a new 55g tank in the works, I plan on picking one up at Wally World as soon as I get paid early next week.

Now I know stocking it is a ways off, but I figure I've got the time to figure it out now, so I might as well.

Planning on having a standard 55gal, 4 foot long with the standard walmart filter. This will be upgraded within a month to an emperor 400, and I may decide to throw the filter on from my 10g if I decide to add the fish from there into the new tank.

Now, I'm really not too sure what I want as far as stocking goes, which is why I could use some help. I'm thinking I'm going to want a semi-aggressive tank. I've got a few fish I know I want, a few that I'd like to have, and I need help figuring out how to fill in the gaps.

So here's the list -
6 Tiger Barb
1 Bala Shark
3 Kissing Gourami
3 Black Phantom Tetra
1-2 BN Pleco

And thats as far as I've gotten sofar. I put together a table in Excel and they all look to be compatible, but I'm still not sure if these guys would be good together.

Can anyone make some suggestions as to what to add or get rid of? I'm looking for fun fish, with an active and interesting personality, in addition to staying on the small to medium side of things.

I'd also like to add, at some point, a Ghost Knife and a few (3?) German Blue Rams.


So where to go from here?

TIA!
 
I would nix the Bala Shark. They are schooling species and need a tank substantially larger than 55 gal. The rams IMO are much too peaceful for a semi-aggressive tank. What kind of knife are you interested in?
 
Fishyfanatic said:
I would nix the Bala Shark. They are schooling species and need a tank substantially larger than 55 gal. The rams IMO are much too peaceful for a semi-aggressive tank. What kind of knife are you interested in?

Alrighty, shark is out of the mix then, as are the rams. As far as the knife, I'd love to have a black ghost knife if possible.

Are there any other fish that you'd put in there that would go well with those guys?
 
black ghost knife fish grow up to over a foot long and will eat any fish that it can swallow. they will not be around much during the day only at night. your choices are semi aggresive and rams area peacefull if you want rams you need to bring the aggresive down to community fish like bolivian rams, german rams, rainbow fish, dwarf gourmis, tetras etc.

if you like to see a 265g community tank looks like check this live cam:
http://www.loumarks.com/rainbowfishcam.html
 
kaz said:
black ghost knife fish grow up to over a foot long and will eat any fish that it can swallow. they will not be around much during the day only at night. your choices are semi aggresive and rams area peacefull if you want rams you need to bring the aggresive down to community fish like bolivian rams, german rams, rainbow fish, dwarf gourmis, tetras etc.

if you like to see a 265g community tank looks like check this live cam:
http://www.loumarks.com/rainbowfishcam.html


Okay, I can get rid of the knife as well. Forgive my ignorance, as I'm kinda new to this and thought I read somewhere that you can sometimes keep them with other less aggressive fish, which now that I think of it, would probably have to be quite large to make that true.

I think I'll just forget the idea of the Rams, as I kind of like the idea of semi-aggressives.

Back to the drawingboard.

Would you guys say the information http://www.elmersaquarium.com/c106communityinfo.htm there on choosing fish is accurate? Might just be easier if I picked one and followed it for the first time out.

Thanks for the responses sofar.
 
Forgive my ignorance, as I'm kinda new

You sir have found a gem of a site to sort it all out.Your ahead of the curve just by asking "before" you get it all wrong.Your ignorance maybe true...but it'll be cured...and your common sense is working fine.
 
SCFatz said:
Forgive my ignorance, as I'm kinda new

You sir have found a gem of a site to sort it all out.Your ahead of the curve just by asking "before" you get it all wrong.Your ignorance maybe true...but it'll be cured...and your common sense is working fine.

Well thanks, that makes me feel a bit less like an idiot. I prefer to be well educated on things I'm about to dump a few hundred dollars into :D
 
Either a rainbow shark or a red tail shark would do well. Could also do some dwarf gouramis as well. Could also go with an eel, like a tire track. I have 2 fire eels in my 55G, but will be needing to move them to a larger tank in the future. Any loaches would go well too.
 
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