Stock suggestions for 55 planted tank

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Stevearoonie

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jul 10, 2018
Messages
1
Location
Weatherford, TX
I recently set up a used 55 gallon tank I bought off of Craig's list and I'm looking for suggestions for stocking it. I'd prefer something fairly hardy as I'm out of town a few weeks at a time, and the wife isn't that excited about our hobby.

Currently the only livestock are snails. I got some FloraMax substrate when I bought the tank. It's been cycling for over a month now with a few pieces of shrimp waiting for some fish. I'm running an Emperor 400 power filter and a Hydor internal pump for increased circulation. Currently planted with 3 Amazon swords, a few clumps of micro sword grass, and some Italian Val, plus a few unknowns that sprouted on their own. There are a few pieces of drift wood scattered about, but nothing really tall yet.

Since she'll be the one looking after it while I'm away, I tried to get my wife involved in choosing the stock. She's decided she likes neon tetras, but I feel it would be a waste of a tank to keep such small fish, even if I was to have a school of 15 or 20. I've thought about gourami or angels, but I've read they would eat the tetras. She seems to prefer fish that are reds or blues, so I'm hoping you all can provide some suggestions!

Thanks in advance!
 
i keep alot of gouramis and im getting into keeping angels also. i have kept my gouramis with neon tetras, black neon tetras, black skirt tetras and they have never tried to eat them. they are fast enough to get away from a gourami even if it tried. im new to angels but again i think they would be fast enough to get away from them. since she likes reds and blues serpae tetras have a beautiful red to them and i found them easy to keep. maybe some mollies or guppies that are red or blue? they will breed quickly in almost any condition and you will have more than you know what to do with. maybe some cherry barbs? maybe cardinal tetras over neons? they look almost the same but cardinals have full red under their blue neon stripe. you cant beat a large school of neon or cardinal tetras. 20 or 30 would make your 55 gallon super active. blue freshwater fish are a bit harder to recommend. there arent many that are have blue that arent agressive fish. blues will be things like cichlids, a few gouramis are blue, discus,blue emperor tetra, blue skirt tetras. i think a good combo might be 10 serpae tetras and 10 blue skirt tetras(i cant seem to fin anywhere to buy them so may be hard to find) or cochu blue tetras. hopefully this gave you a few ideas.

 
You can keep Angels with neon tetras. Currently I keep them together. I also keep cichlids with neon tetras with no problems. A larger school of 12-15 neon tetras with an angel or two would be a good start. A gourami would be fine with tetras as well and the gourami and angels are fine too. This is coming from my personal experience as I've kept all these fish together at one point or another.
 
Not sure on the easy part, but rainbow fish run in red and blue. There is also blue tetras. You could also do a betta sorority and get a bunch of females in different colors
 
I have a 55g Planted

20 Neons
8 Rummynose
4 Roselines ( 55 is on the small side for them )
7 Cory sterbai
1 Pearl Gourami


My Neons look awesome in this tank. I love large shoals of small fish.

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If you would like another school and some more red ember tetras are awesome and add very little bioload.

Just a thought.
 
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