Advice on Fish for My new 55gal

[Deepen]

Hi all,

Just set-up my new 55gal tank while I let it run for a week I now have to decide what fish to add . I have been reading the forum and trying to decide what kind of fish to start with. There is a ton of good info here and I cant decide what to do.

I would like to start with fairly easy types of fish, what would be good for a 55gal tank? aggressive or passive what would be good for helping keep the tank clean? I don't mind a few tiny fish but not to many. I would rather have fewer med-Large size than more tiny.


Please Any advice would help, thanks in advance for your help.

8O

 

[TankGirl]

Welcome to Aquarium Advice!

May I suggest a fishless cycle? A healthy aquarium for fish is one that contains loads of nitrifying and denitrifying bacteria. One way to get that bacteria before putting fish in is to add household ammonia to the tank daily until the cycle is complete, 4-6 weeks. During that time you can research the fish you want, and see which ones are compatible with your setup. There is a discussion of the nitrogen cycle in our Articles section, and here is a link explaining how to fishless cycle: http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/cycle2.html

You are certainly free to cycle the tank with fish if you want (I know it is hard to look at an empty tank, LOL) but this is just the way I prefer to do it.

For fish, go to the LFS and post back with any fish that catch your eye, and we can help you pick.

Good luck!

 

[ploughking]

I'm not gonna boss you around but when you said to help it keep clean I would suggest a pleco, maybe dwarf? Clown loaches or SAEs are appropriate in this area. Go with the fishless cycle and when it is finished slowly stock up. In fact, if you are interested in keeping cihclids like oscars ask oscarbreeder if there are any compatible tankmates you aslo want? HTH

 

[Endgame319]

Maybe a trio of bala sharks?