Large fish for 55 gallon?

[Aquaman23]

So I've been thinking instead of a huge community tank, I may get just one or a few large fish for this 55 gallon. Does anybody have any ideas of large fish that are easy to care for for a 55 gallon?

 

[Aquaman23]

Just wanted to add the dimensions. This 55 gallon tank is:

4 ft long
12.5 inches wide
21 inches deep.

 

[Lexilove]

I think eels are cool!

 

[Rutrag]

A nice syntodontis cat like an angelicus or a featherfin and a school of Denison's barbs.

 

[bettaowner]

Angelfish or discus.

 

[Lexilove]

Cool too^^

 

[bud29]

Angelfish or discus.

Can discus be kept in a 55? They get huge.......

 

[Aquaman23]

Angelfish or discus.

I just did a little bit of looking at discus fish. How big do they get? How large of a tank do I need for a few? Do they need to school?

 

[Aski247]

I just did a little bit of looking at discus fish. How big do they get? How large of a tank do I need for a few? Do they need to school?

You could keep roughly 4 or so of them. People say they are hard to keep. I don't know first hand as I have never kept.

There are also a lot of other cool SA/CA cichlids you can keep in a 55. Jack Dempsey, convicts, fire mouths, just to name a few of the more common ones that can be housed for life in a 55g.

 

[jetajockey]

sunfish

 

[bettaowner]

Discus can be hard to acclimate if they are wild caught. The cheapest specemins would cost 50 dollars. They get to be about 5 or 6 inches.

 

[bud29]

Wait, discus get to be larger than 5-6 inches!?!?! I thought they got like 8-12!

 

[Aquaman23]

The discus are awesome, but a little too pricey for me. Do the cichlids get to be around 5-6 inches? I want a few fish that are larger in size but still impessive looking.

Also, I thought cichlids couldn't be kept with each other?

 

[tamtam]

Leopard Ctenopoma! - Leopard Ctenopoma

Mono Sebae are pretty rad looking but could pose some challenges, they are brackish but I read when they are smaller apparently they can be kept in freshwater but as they grow they need to have their water gradually changed to a higher salinity.

Of course their are angels.

Larger gourami?

There are lots of sizes for cichlids. The dwarf varieties like the bolivian ram get to be about 3 inches but there are lots of other types that are around 6" too. Then there are the big suckers that can get a foot. lol.

 

[LyndaB]

Do you not want any small fish at all? Do you have a size preference in mind?

 

[Aquaman23]

Do you not want any small fish at all? Do you have a size preference in mind?

I originally wanted a bunch of small fish, but I decided to just get 1-4 large fish. Like 5-6 inches or bigger.

 

[ZHiTcH41]

Get rainbow fish

 

[Aquaman23]

What about oscars? Those get big don't they?

 

[jetajockey]

A 55 is about the minimum for a single oscar to live in long term, and even then a lot of people recommend a 75+ for one.

 

[bettaowner]

Oscars are big and also messy. That is why you would need a 75+.