Glass catfish stocking buddies for a 55 gal tank.

[Sereya]

First of all, Hello! I'm new here, and fairly new to the hobby.


I now have a 55 gal tank I acquired. It is currently being cleaned and prepared for cycling. It will have a sand substrate, and a few live plants.
The first order of business will be to rehome a poor common pleco that we foolishly bought for our smaller first tank, once it's ready. Eventually when he outgrows here hopefully I'll find somewhere to rehome him by then.

As for additional stocking my husband wants glasscatfish, I know they school and will need around 6 of them.
But I was hoping I could still add something of my taste in there. ( I prefer veil tailed goldfish which I know is not compatible with temp or other fish) but I was hoping people with more experience can provide me some suggestions on something colorful and bright, hopefully with flowing fins that I could safely add without overstocking?

Also will the pleco stir up the sand enough or should/can I also add some burrowing snails? I happen to be partial to snails. Especially mystery snails.

 

[Pseudomugil]

For stocking you could do:

8x glass catfish
1x (temporary) common pleco
5x boesemani rainbows
6x long finned rosy barbs
4x mystery snail

After you get rid of the common pleco, a better pleco species to get would be a clown pleco or bristlenose plecos.

 

[Sereya]

Thanks for the response! I have been looking at rainbow fish so I'm glad to see those listed! I'll definitely research all those.

Yeah I found out about the bristle nosed pleco too late or I would have insisted on that one to begin with.

With the list you mentioned would I also be able to put some nerite snails and blackdevil/lava snails in?

 

[Pseudomugil]

That should be fine but then reduce the mystery snails to 2. So:

2 mystery snails
2 lava snails
4 nerite snails

 

[Sereya]

Awesome! Thank you so much for your advice, that stocking list looks perfect! I love the reds, yellows and oranges of the barbs and rainbows!

 

[FWFishTanks]

Clowns aren't the biggest algae eaters IMO. They eat more driftwood and normal foods, but will eat some algae. They are interesting to watch nonetheless

 

[Pseudomugil]

Awesome! Thank you so much for your advice, that stocking list looks perfect! I love the reds, yellows and oranges of the barbs and rainbows!

No problem ! I've always loved long finned rosy barbs but I don't have the room in my tanks .

I am in love with my boesemani rainbows though they're awesome.

 

[Toad]

I've heard rainbows can get crazy at feeding time and glass catfish can be very shy, so you may want to look for something more placid?