Cool ideas to stock?

[disguised]

Have a 55g that has been out of use for awhile and want to start it up again. Anyone have any cool ideas for what I could stock it with to have some variety and neat fish to watch? Any ideas as far as substrate or habitat? Want to keep it looking real natural. About to start my fish less cycle in the next couple days. Thanks! Really excited about what all I could do with it. Lot of choices.

 

[disguised]

Bump. Any help/ideas

 

[Starka]

Well, depends on what fish you like?
Livebearers?
Cichlids?
Discus?
Tetras?
List goes on and on.

What I would do if you want to keep it natural is to pick one main fish like a betta and pick rest of the fish based for that enviroment.

 

[disguised]

Well originally I was planning on getting a rainbow shark with a few others but I heard 55g is the minimum for a rainbow shark. So I don't know that I want to eat up all that tank space on one fish and just use that to do a school of something brighter and active that will school around? I dont know. Originally it was rainbow shark, some tiger barbs, glo fish, and something else can't remember. But yea. Not sure that's going to work well from what I've been reading now

 

[sammybelle]

I'm a newbie...I'm REALLY enjoying the pool filter sand substrate I have...interestingly shaped/colored rocks I found outside...and 3 pieces of craggy driftwood. I, too wanted a really natural look. I would have liked to have some live plants, but my lighting isn't really sufficient (bulbs that came with the 55gal kit) and I dont' want to invest in better lighting right now. I was advised here that I might be ok with Java Ferns, so I might try that. the fake plants are ok for now and I have enough of them so I'm fairly pleased with the result. My setup makes me want to shrink myself and jump in! I'm almost done cycling, so I've started thinking about fish. I'l like about a half dozen julii or other speckled cories, a couple types of schooling fish, and a pearl gourami for a centerpiece. I have always loved fancy guppies, so I'd like a few of those, too!

 

[Galligak]

Well if you want a community I would look at a bunch of the different tetras, danios and rasboras. My favorites of those include rummynose tetra, diamond tetra, cardinal tetra, silver tip tetra and so many more!. A gourami would be good, as would angelfish. Opaline, blue, honey an pearl gouramis would be good to look at. There are some cichlids that would also do pretty good in there. Look up south American dwarf cichlids, they'd all be good in there. Maybe killifish? Cories would be good, peppered, albino, emerald, panda, etc. The good 'ole livebearers i.e platies, mollies, swordtails and guppies. Plecos (certain kinds only). The list goes on and on. Look at some of the fish I've listed.

 

[disguised]

Sounds nice. I was looking at some clown loaches too maybe but I don't think they can be alone? And they get rather large I think?

 

[Galligak]

Sounds nice. I was looking at some clown loaches too maybe but I don't think they can be alone? And they get rather large I think?

Yeah they get too large, but there are other loaches out there that would be good. All I know are khuliis, but I'm not sure which other kinds... I'll go look

 

[disguised]

Thanks for the list aquakai going to start googling some of them now

 

[siva]

There are tons of fish to choose from for your 55. Some examples: Angels, kribensis, bolivian rams, nannacara anomala, laetacara curviceps, keyhole cichlids, apistogrammas, Boesemani rainbows, turquoise rainbows, cochu's blue tetra, kerri tetra, purple passion danios, harlequin rasbora, pork chop rasbora, marble hatchets, peacock gudgeons, kuhli loaches, zebra loaches, orange lazer cories, false julii cories, clown pleco, pitbull plecos, leopard frog pleco, farowella cat, and panda garras.

 

[disguised]

Yea ok haha. I'll have to look at getting some clown loaches at the end of the year when I get a bigger aquarium. Only have room for a 55g at the moment and even it barely fits. Eventually would love to do a really large tank and have a bala shark too. They look really neat. But that's to far out haha. I'll settle for figuring out my 55g for now lol

 

[siva]

Bala's are schoolers so you'll want to get around 6 of them.

 

[disguised]

Thanks siva! There were a few in there I don't hear normally talked about that might be neat to have. Going to look into some of those too

 

[disguised]

Didnt know that about the bala since I haven't read much about them since that was going to be a project for much later in the future. Guess I'll need a much much bigger tank

 

[siva]

Yeah, it's kinda crazy. Also make sure you LIKE the look of them full grown. They look quite different than those cute little babies at the lfs. Personally, I don't care for them.

 

[disguised]

Oh ok lol. Yea the ones I saw at the store looked neat but def weren't full grow . They looked to be about 6" only and from I understand they get much bigger.

 

[Galligak]

Yeah they get pretty big, and I'm with siva with the appearance. I found some good loach kinds for your tank: yoyo, dojo, and my new found favorite the marble loach. Here's a good website to look at: http://www.loaches.com/

 

[disguised]

Tiger barbs ok in this tank size what might be good tank mates for them as I hear they can be a bit aggressive sometimes

 

[Galligak]

Anything that doesn't have long flowy fins or anything slow.

 

[siva]

I wouldn't go for any of the dwarf cichlids I mentioned if you do TB's. They are fast aggressive feeders that could outcompete slower bottom dwellers for food.