55gallon tank

[Bigougit]

Just got a 55 gallon tank and I dont know what to put in it, the only thing I know I want is fish I havent kept before (pearl gouramis, rasboras, cherry barbs, corys, white clouds, livebearers)

I've considered everything from a heavily planted tank to a practically empty Oscar tank. I have a great filter so I can put almost anything in there I want.

Any sugestions?

 

[WaterPond]

a nice cichlid tank might be nice. I really love oscars! i have always wanted one. If you want a community tank there are too many fish to name! I am thinking a nice simple tank with some bigger fish, but that is just my plan for if I had a 55gal. Oscars should relly have a bigger tank though. There is a museum in town where i live and the owner has a 30gal hex with two full grown albino oscars that he has had forever, so it can be done. I nice heavily planted tank might be nice, with a few angels or discus'(if you are up to the challenge of discus). With some botia loaches, and a school of something. That would be very nice. If you do a planted tank, definately go for tom otos! SOOOOOOO many possibilities!

 

[Bigougit]

lol exactly I dont know what to chose from. I'd love to try a planted tank but at the same time I want bigger fish

 

[hc8719]

There is a museum in town where i live and the owner has a 30gal hex with two full grown albino oscars that he has had forever, so it can be done

i know its not your fault, but thats really wrong, arent full grown oscars like 10"

i know i say this alot, but try to ignore the $1.82 fish, like many mollies, guppies, tetras... its pretty tempting i know, but paying $4 a peice for more exotic fish is worth it, otherwise you have a great tank, full of not so great fish...

but thats just me, some people love the platies and mollies...

 

[JustOneMore20]

What about African cichlids? I'll be setting up a Mbuna tank soon and plan to have some Yellow labs, Rusty Cichlids, and Cynotilapia afra "Cobue"....along with some skunk loaches.

 

[Bigougit]

my friends dad has well over 40 tanks with nothing but cichlids. She would slap me if I started keeping them lol. I was considering rams though. But not an ALL cichlid tank

 

[JustOneMore20]

Well how about a community tank with rams, angels, tetras or rainbowfish, and loaches?

 

[Bigougit]

I think most loaches look weird lol and the ones that have been recomended to me so far have all been unfit for my setup. Other than that the setup sounds great, I've never considered rainbowfish though

 

[JustOneMore20]

Rainbows are very interesting looking and really colorful. I like Bosemani rainbows. Turquoise rainbows are also very nice. Zebra loaches and Yoyo loaches are very cute...they don't look weird and won't outgrow a 55g. Other loaches are polka dot, kuhli, and dwarf chain.

How could you resist this face?

Well, since you are unsure, how about going to browse the local fish stores and see whats available...maybe you will see something that sparks some interest.

 

[Bigougit]

ha! if I would have done that I'd be stuck with a pacu right now lol my mom wanted it so bad, but I doubt I'll ever be able to house that monster of a fish.

I was thinking of getting a pair of angles, and I'm interested in rams but other than that I'm not sure. I kept an dragon goby when I first started keeping fish, It didnt work out to well 'cause the store never told me it was a brackish fish. Maybe a loach would kinda remind me of that since they both have eel-like bodys.

 

[JustOneMore20]

I just said browse...not buy. You go to the LFS see what you like, come on here and tell us and we'll let you know what will work. Then you won't be stuck with a fish you can't keep properly.

Some rainbows would work with the angels. You could get some Dwarf neon rainbows. They are smaller then the types I listed above. You could have a nice school of 6-8 along with your angels.

 

[maxwell1295]

An Asian community would be nice. I have a community setup in my 29g with Cherry Barbs, Honey Gouramis, a SAE, a Hillstream Loach, Kuhli Loaches, Female Bettas, and some Gold Zebra Danios. It's a really pretty and active tank. That combination of fish provide activity at all levels of the tank. All of the fish are peaceful and get along really well, now that I have gotten rid of the bully Paradise fish.

 

[Bigougit]

hmm...an asian tank might be cool... as for fish I like...lets see

angelfish, rams, ancestress and other cats, cichlids (but that probably wont work out lol), I LOVE gouramis but I already have some.

Idk the stores close to me dont have a very big selection. And where I do my actual fish shopping is too far to just go look x.x

The things i'd like to see out of this tank:
-more color (rainbowfish will work for that)
-I'd like to see the mating habits of an egg-laying species, but hopefully not have to deal with too many baby fish
-A tight schooling group of fish (my cherry barbs and rasboras dont school very much)
-Some biger fish (I have mostly 2-3 inch fish)
-Fish that wont tear up my plants

I know I wont be able to fit everything I want into 1 55 gallon fish tank but those are the things I'm hoping for, If you give me some suggestions I can look up pictures of the fish and do the research. Thanks for all your help and any help you give in the future

 

[JustOneMore20]

Rummynose tetras are great schoolers. They school alot tighter than my other tetras and I only have 4 of them. A bigger school would look great. They would also stick together more with some bigger fish, like angels, in the tank.

Dwarf neon rainbowfish (Melanotaenia praecox) are a smaller type of rainbow that are still very colorful. You could have a school of them, as well as some Rummynose, along with the angels. If you go for a larger type (Bosemani or Turquoise) that get around 4 inches, I'd substitute them for either the angels or a school of fish. Basically what I mean is if you get a school of the larger rainbows, you could either have a 2nd school of fish with them, or the pair of angels...along with some bottom fish.

For mating habits, you could get some Rams. If you get a pair or 2, you could end up with some eggs and maybe even fry. If you leave the fry in the tank, they will probably get eaten (if they don't eat the eggs), so you won't have to "deal" with them, unless you want to. German Blue Rams or Bolivian Rams will work. Germans are obviously more colorful, but they can be sensitive to water quality, so add them long after the tank has cycled, if you go with them.

The bigger fish you could get would be angels. They get around 6-7 inches tall and about 5-6 inches long.

You could get a pleco for the bottom. Bristlenose, rubbernose, and clown plecos are all good choices. Or you could get a fancy pleco if you want to order it offline.

 

[Reefmonkey]

Indopacific brackish biotope, with some bumblebee gobies, monos or scats, a figure 8 puffer?

S. American blackwater biotope, maybe Rio Negro, with discus, angelfish, rams or other dwarf cichlids, tetras, corys? You could even make it a paludarim, have some frogs, epiphytes, a little waterfall?

I haven't had anything but biotope aquariums for the last 15 years, and now see it as the only way to go, all the fish from the same ecosystem in the same part of the world, a faithful reproduction of a small slice of another part of the world.

 

[Bigougit]

thanks so much for the suggestions, since it seems like putting angelfish in my tank rules out allot of other possibilities I think I will go without them for this tank. And I want to order them online if I do decide to get them, they have some amazing angelfish online (which I cant afford right now).

Right now I'm not so much into biotope aquariums since I am limited on how many aquariums I can own. So for the time being I'm going more for beauty.

Here are some setups I was considering:
2 German Blue Rams
6-8 Dwarf neon rainbow fish (or maybe fewer of a larger rainbow fish)
6-8 Rummynose tetras
4-6 Ottos
1 Bristlenose Pleco

4 German Blue Rams (or maybe 2 of them and 2 Bolivian rams)
6-8 Dwarf neon rainbow fish
6-8 rummynose tetras
1 Bristlenose Pleco

I'm not entirely confident in my personal stocking rates so if I can add more or if i'm pushing it please tell me, thanks

I dont know anything about the size of loaches or how much to stock so I didnt include them but if they are really that great to have then I would listen to suggested stocking schemes that include them

 

[JustOneMore20]

Your stocking looks good. If you want loaches, you could have a group of 4-6 in either of those two lists. Most get about 4 inches and they like groups. You could have as little as 3, but I suggets 4 or more because they act alot different in bigger groups. They are more playful.

Most people say not to mix bolivian and german rams. Sometimes they will interbreed, which isn't good. I'd choose one type and get a pair or two. I have a single bolivian male and wanted to get a group of germans and people told me I shouldn't....that I should just get more bolivians (which I can't find).

I know you mentioned you already had cories, but if you decide against the loaches, you will have room for a nice shoal of cories. You could get 6-8.

And like you mentioned above, if you go with the larger rainbows, just bump the numbers down to 4-6.

Sounds good....it will be a great tank...especially with Rummies and Rainbows...thats one of my dream tanks...

 

[Bigougit]

thanks allot for your help. since their is room for the loaches I think I'll go with the second setup because Ottos and loaches would be too similar for me lol. But maybe if I read up on them I'll decide to get both, who knows.

At this point I just need to worry about getting the plants for my tank...and the new lights...

I guess its off to the freshwater - planted tanks forum lol

 

[jibboo]

I've had ottos and loaches ... imo they are not in any way similar.

My ottos always hung out in my plants or on the glass ... my loaches rarely leave the bottom (except to venture up to steal food from my cichlids).

Ottos are more fish to keep your algae down, not to really liven or entertain the tank. Loaches are much more entertaining with their quirky attitudes and actions.

You don't sound like you're getting bigger fish. Rams are, for the most part, 2" community fish imo. Who cares if she slaps you ... its your tank. Besides, oscars are technically cichlids ... so maybe if oscars are OK, then you should check out the South American cichlids ... they are pretty different than Africans from what I understand ... plus they lay eggs whereas a lot of Africans are mouthbrooders.

If you want to see some nice spawning, get some convicts (most are black and white striped, but I've seen pink ones as well) and readily spawn from what I've read.

If you go with live plants, consider your lighting and if I had to do it over again, I would've put some kind of plant substrate under my sand. Plus SA cichlids are better with plants than Africans (although I've had next to 0 probs with mine)

 

[hulkamaniac]

What is your water at from the tap? If you've got water that's really hard, I'd go w/Africans. If you've got water that's really soft, you could consider a lot of south american fish.

A tank I want to put together when I ever get the space is a faux saltwater tank. The LFS here in town has something similar to it. Basically it's a crushed coral substrate and a lot of base rock and corals. The tank looks like it's saltwater at first glance because it has the basic saltwater look and the Africans swimming in it are bright blues, yellows and other colors.