any community fish ideas?

[Bricks34]

i turned my preditiory tank into a community tank today. i have a couple barbs, minnows, and gouramis. its a 55 gallon tank and wanted some more fish to put in. any ideas? i want some color on the fish. but if not thats ok

 

[Coursair]

i turned my preditiory tank into a community tank today. i have a couple barbs, minnows, and gouramis. its a 55 gallon tank and wanted some more fish to put in. any ideas? i want some color on the fish. but if not thats ok

What kind and how many
Barbs
Minnows
and Gouramis ???

Exact species will help with stocking suggestions.

 

[Bricks34]

3 tiger barbs, 1 golden gourmi, 1 blue gourmi, 6 what I think are red minnows, 2 multi color gourmis (not sure of the name)

 

[Talvari]

Those tiger barbs are definitely semi-aggressive. In my experience, you should have at least 6-8 of those. In smaller groups their colors aren't as bright, they are more likely to chase other fish, and they dont exhibit the same behaviors

Be careful mixing certain gouramis, too. some of them can be quite aggressive towards others of the same species. I had a gold gourami pester my blue gourami to death
Other than that... I had good luck adding rainbowfish in with my tiger barbs, but YMMV. I had Australian rainbowfish, but there are alot of other, brighter, varieties.

 

[Coursair]

3 tiger barbs, 1 golden gourmi, 1 blue gourmi, 6 what I think are red minnows, 2 multi color gourmis (not sure of the name)

The Gold and the Blue are color varieties of same species ( 3 Spot ). They can get very nasty with other Gouramis, even if one is a female, males get territorial. The Multi colored ? Maybe Dwarf Gouramis ? Google and see if that matches.
DGs are more peaceful, but still may harass each other as they are probably both Males ( females are silver ).

I would pick ONE large Gourami or the two DGs but not all 4. They might be fine, but as they mature you could have dead fish.

The Gold and Blue can get aggressive with other fish as well. Read up on them. They are considered Semi-Aggressive not Community.

 

[Bricks34]

I can't find what he/she is any ideas?

 

[CoryFan]

I can't find what he/she is any ideas?

Paradise gourami.

 

[Bricks34]

Actual fish in tank.
1) tiger barb
1) albino tiger barb
2) green tiger barb
1) rosy barb
1) paradise guarmi
1) blue guarmi
1) golden guarmi
6) longfin pink danio
1) crawdad
1) albino bristle nose pleco

 

[Luananeko]

That looks like a semi-aggressive stock list, not a community tank... Gourami and tiger barbs are generally pretty fussy, especially when kept in small groups or singles of different species. Definitely look into either getting more tiger barbs or rehoming them. They'll bully and nip the other fish in the tank until they are dead unless you have 8+ to lower their aggression.

Mixing dwarf gourami with any more than 1 large gourami tends to cause issues as well. Large gourami do best either alone or in a group of 5+ to spread out aggression. Dwarf gourami have a similar rule, since the males tend to be very territorial and it's rare to find females. I'm not familiar with paradise gourami to say how aggressive they are.

How big is your crawdad? I've heard they can eat smaller fish as they grow, so your danios could be at risk depending what type they are. Knowing the crawdad breed will help us figure out what size it will grow to.

Aqadvisor.com is a good starting point for figuring out fish compatibility. It tends to be a little on the conservative side, but it lets you know what to watch out for. Honestly the only fish in that list that I'd call true community fish would be the danios and the bristlenose. That's not to say you can't make things work, but it takes a lot of balancing and watching carefully to catch problems early before an aggressor (or group of aggressors) take out half the tank.

 

[Bricks34]

The crawdad is one of the feeder ones. When I had my predatory tank he didn't get eaten and he has taken where I have two big rocks with a little space in the middle and another rock on top and dug out the sand and made a home. He's about 1.5"s

 

[Luananeko]

Feeder crawdad is a pretty broad term, so he could get anywhere from 2" to 6"... 2" is workable, if he gets much bigger than that and your danios can get munched if they get too close to it's claws.

 

[Bricks34]

They are the ones you buy that ate 50 cents. My danios stay at the top of my tank

 

[Coursair]

They are the ones you buy that ate 50 cents. My danios stay at the top of my tank

Fish sleep. That's when they get eaten.

 

[Aquatopia]

A way around the aggressiveness of the Tiger Barbs is to go with Pentazona (5 striped tiger barbs), the are laid back and I have 8 in my 45ga community tank that play nice with others.

 

[Bricks34]

Is there any type of bottom dweller that won't hurt my fish?

 

[Aquatopia]

My favorite loach, the Dojo Loach, has the most personality of any fish I've ever had. Although she's totally not aggressive, she doesn't always stay at the bottom. In my 45ga I also have a pair of Lochata Loaches, 4 Panda Cory, a Bristlenose Pleco and a Clown Loach. The Clown Loach and Pleco are starting to get pretty big so I'm going to move the Clown to another tank soon.

I also have a big blue lobster but I don't recommend that. I've got lucky with this one in that it prefers shrimp pellets over fresh sushi but I've had blue lobsters in my other tanks and there have been mysterious deaths...

 

[Luananeko]

Dwarf chain loaches, zebra loaches, hillstream loaches (have pretty specialized care though), a shool of cory cats, zodiac loaches, red tail or rainbow shark (only get one though, and can only be with larger or quick fish like the danios)... The list goes on. Look at the loaches/bottom dwelling fish you have access to at your LFS, find out which ones you like, then come home and research them. Anything with a max size of less than 5 inches is usually going to be the right size as long as they don't need too large a school that they take over your stocking plan.

 

[Bricks34]

Could a rope fish work? I'm going to the pet store I a couple hours.

 

[Aquatopia]

I've never had a rope fish.

 

[Luananeko]

I've never had a rope fish, but I've read they get up to 1-2 feet long and will eat your other fish... Bad idea imo.