Help with stocking my tank

[Ian086]

Hi all. I'm a newbie and need some advice on choosing some fish for my tank.I have a 55g which has been set up and running for about 3 months now.It's fully cycled and i already have some community fish which are doing great.I do the usual maintance, 20-30% weekly water change and my water tests are constantly good- 0 ammonia,0 nitrites and <20 nitrates.My water is crystal clear and after fiddling around with the set-up a few times i'm pretty happy with the result.I have a few medium size ornuments and one corner is quite heavily planted with large fake plants.(sorry but i'm not sure how to post photos). I have 2 mollies, 2 platies, 2 swordtails and 1 columbian tetra(1 died recently) and 1 small pleco??(sucker fish) . My local fish store is small and independent but very helpful. He only has a small selection of freshwater fish(guppies,mollies,angels,swordtails etc..) He said he can order stock for me. I want to stock bright,colourful,active,medium sized community fish..I intend to get some guppies and neons..I would appreciate any advice or suggestions(common names would be great) on fish i could add and how many fish i can safely stock as i don't want to overstock...Sorry if i went on a bit, but i want to give as much info as possible!! If i left anything out please let me know. Any help or advice will be greatly appreciated... Thanks Ian

 

[Rivercats]

Hello and welcome to AA! First off you need to up your school of Columbia tetras to 6. Tetras do much better in schools of at least 6 fish. If you like neons I would suggest seeing if you can get Cardinal tetras instead. IMO they are much hardier and actually more colorful than the neons, plus they get bigger. You could do 8. So you would have the following:
2 Mollies
2 Platies
2 Swordtails
6 Columbian tetra's
8 Cardinal tetra's
2-3 Honey Gourami
1 Pleco

Then you could do a nice center piece fish or pair... I would suggest a pair of Honey Gouramis (they also come in Sunset Honey and Golden Honey) or perhaps a pair of Bolivian Rams. Personally with the fish you have I think the Honey Gourami's would look good. And you could actually get 1 male and 2 female Honey Gouramis. Do you know what kind of pleco you have? If it is a common pleco it will get much too large for your tank. A more suitable sized pleco would be a bristlenose pleco. I have a longfin albino bristlenose pleco. They stay small and are perfect for your size tank. One thing tho, you should have a piece of driftwood in your tank as pleco's need to rasp and eat on it to aid thier digestion. You might also consider 6 Panda Cory Cats for bottom feeders also.

 

[Ian086]

Hello and welcome to AA! First off you need to up your school of Columbia tetras to 6. Tetras do much better in schools of at least 6 fish. If you like neons I would suggest seeing if you can get Cardinal tetras instead. IMO they are much hardier and actually more colorful than the neons, plus they get bigger. You could do 8. So you would have the following:
2 Mollies
2 Platies
2 Swordtails
6 Columbian tetra's
8 Cardinal tetra's
2-3 Honey Gourami
1 Pleco

Then you could do a nice center piece fish or pair... I would suggest a pair of Honey Gouramis (they also come in Sunset Honey and Golden Honey) or perhaps a pair of Bolivian Rams. Personally with the fish you have I think the Honey Gourami's would look good. And you could actually get 1 male and 2 female Honey Gouramis. Do you know what kind of pleco you have? If it is a common pleco it will get much too large for your tank. A more suitable sized pleco would be a bristlenose pleco. I have a longfin albino bristlenose pleco. They stay small and are perfect for your size tank. One thing tho, you should have a piece of driftwood in your tank as pleco's need to rasp and eat on it to aid thier digestion. You might also consider 6 Panda Cory Cats for bottom feeders also.

Thanks for the great advice Rivercats..Great suggestions. Just a few quick ones; are the gouramis you mentioned also known as qwarf gouramis. Including what you suggested, can i still add some guppies as i love the variety of colours. I think the pleco i have(about 2 inches at the moment) is in fact the large one you mentioned which will outgrow my tank(i will return it to the lfs) I have a piece of driftwood which i had in my molly fry tank(10g)-Have 4 little fellas who are doing great so far, about 3 weeks old. Long white strings started growing in the fry tank so i removed it. Sorry i don't know the proper name for this or even if there is one! Is this normal. The driftwood was unboiled as i received it when i bought the 10g secondhand..I think i mastered the photo upload, so please check it out. Please be warned, looking at your tank it probably won't be to your taste(or others) but it's a joint venture with my 12yr old daughter and we wanted lots of colour!!....Thanks again..Ian http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=131860&stc=1&d=1352940028

 

[Rivercats]

Hey if that makes your daughter happy then that is all that matters! As for the DW if you use it when and if you can get a small pleco I would boil it before adding it to the tank. If you had to add a couple guppies I would do no more than 3 and make them males for thier color. But do watch that the columbian tetras don't decide they like to nip those long flowing tails. Not saying it will happen just that it could. You will be stocked to the max so be sure to have enough filtration and do your 50% WC's weekly to keep water quality good. Also depending on how you feel about WC's you could see about investing in a Aqueon Water Changer. No more buckets and super easy to use. I have one and could never do WC's on my 220g without it not to mention my other tanks. Oh, if you'd like to see my tank you can view it at .... http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f70/220g-planted-newly-rescaped-231568.html.

 

[Ian086]

Hey if that makes your daughter happy then that is all that matters! As for the DW if you use it when and if you can get a small pleco I would boil it before adding it to the tank. If you had to add a couple guppies I would do no more than 3 and make them males for thier color. But do watch that the columbian tetras don't decide they like to nip those long flowing tails. Not saying it will happen just that it could. You will be stocked to the max so be sure to have enough filtration and do your 50% WC's weekly to keep water quality good. Also depending on how you feel about WC's you could see about investing in a Aqueon Water Changer. No more buckets and super easy to use. I have one and could never do WC's on my 220g without it not to mention my other tanks. Oh, if you'd like to see my tank you can view it at .... http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f70/220g-planted-newly-rescaped-231568.html.

Will def be adding one of those water changers to my wish list. I checked out your pics..very nice. It's my aim to have a set-up like that one day but i have to master the basics first!!...Thanks for all your help and advice....Ian