Tank stocking help

[jessie9309]

Hello, I am new here and I found this website because I am up to my eyeballs in fish research. I am going to buy a 56 gallon tank and I am unsure on how to stock it. I am in love with discus fish but there aren't many fish, from what I've read, that go well with them. I don't want to dedicate the tank to just one fish. I want variety and a good amount of color, thus why I was looking into discus. I like bigger fish, like discus or angel fish. Any help would be appreciated greatly. Maybe I'm being to ambitious with the colors. I would like a cool 'centerpiece' fish. I could go on if you would like more details haha.

 

[treemanone2003]

Welcome !!! For starters, I would start off with learning the basics of cycling a tank if you've had no experience with fish at all. It's probably one of the two biggest downfalls to new aquarists. Here's a link. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...ou-get-started-with-your-aquarium-154837.html

The next would be stocking/compatibility. It's great you're doing the research before hand and your first thread is not something like "My Gar ate my Guppy, Why ?"

Angels are a great centerpiece for a tank and will get along well with many others in the proper environment. Discus are AWSOME, but really should be done by an experienced keeper. They're not impossible, just extremely demanding when it comes to things. That's not opinion but fact and (10 years) experience with them.

There are many other colorful fish in FW that will accept other tank mates. Many of the Cichlids (other than Discus) have a variety of colors. Some compatible, some not. It really depends on what you'd like to theme the tank as. Here's another link that may help but sorry, Discus is #1. http://homeaquaria.com/colorful-freshwater-fish/

hth and good luck !!!


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[jessie9309]

I'm not a complete beginner, I currently have a 20 gallon tank that will be given to my boyfriends cousin when we get our new tank. She's been dying for it since we got it lol.
I knew discus would be a stretch, after extensive research, I finally gave up on them, though I can still dream
I've heard a lot about cichlids being aggressive. Would this be a good setup?
Angelfish, peacock cichlid, german blue ram, and pearl gourmani. And possibly some bottom dwellers. I haven't figured out the numbers yet. Would one angel fish be ok? I've read that in pairs they either fight with eachother or team up and terrorize the tank.

 

[jessie9309]

And thanks for that link by the way, I need to brush up on starting tanks since 20 gallon to 56 is a large jump

 

[ImACoolguy]

I'm not a complete beginner, I currently have a 20 gallon tank that will be given to my boyfriends cousin when we get our new tank. She's been dying for it since we got it lol.
I knew discus would be a stretch, after extensive research, I finally gave up on them, though I can still dream
I've heard a lot about cichlids being aggressive. Would this be a good setup?
Angelfish, peacock cichlid, german blue ram, and pearl gourmani. And possibly some bottom dwellers. I haven't figured out the numbers yet. Would one angel fish be ok? I've read that in pairs they either fight with eachother or team up and terrorize the tank.

General rule of thumb is to keep cichlids with only cichlids, angelfish and Rams being an exception. Mixing cichlids with anything else is going out on a limb.

I am about to stock my 75g with peacocks and Haps cichlids from Lake Malawi. There are plenty of colors to choose from if you want some colorful fish. And they are on the more peaceful side compared to some cichlids.

If You want to go the angel route, 1 angel and 1 gourami will be fine. Angel aggression varies by fish, I had 2 at one time and they always hung out and left the other fish alone.

It's preferred to only have 1 gourami per tank unless breeding because they can have aggression issues with each other.

GBR are beautiful fish but are not the most hardy. It's best to have a good cycled tank before adding them to make sure they are okay.

Also Angels, any fish that can fit in its mouth is food.

I don't know how well Cory cats and angelfish work together but they seem to be a favorite on this forum for bottom feeders, they are quite small so groups of them can liven up the bottom of your tank since they are quite active.

Hope this helps


Caleb

~10g tiger barbs
~45g ick problems/loach and 5 tetras left.
~75g going to be African cichlids

 

[jessie9309]

I had heard somewhere that you want your tank cycled for around 6 months before adding the German blue Rams. I could leave out the angelfish I suppose, because I really do like a lot of cichlids. I want my tank to be pretty active everywhere. Any suggestions for very active, entertaining fish? Also maybe some suggestions for top dwellers? My tank is a decently tall tank, so I don't want the top to be boring.

 

[ImACoolguy]

I had heard somewhere that you want your tank cycled for around 6 months before adding the German blue Rams. I could leave out the angelfish I suppose, because I really do like a lot of cichlids. I want my tank to be pretty active everywhere. Any suggestions for very active, entertaining fish? Also maybe some suggestions for top dwellers? My tank is a decently tall tank, so I don't want the top to be boring.

You mentioned a "peacock cichlid". Some stores just label them as that but there is actually many different types a simple Google search and you will see just how many

Here's my list:
Flavescent Peacock

FireFish Peacock

Lemon Jake Peacock

Sunshine Peacock.

Eureka Red Jake Peacock

OB Peacock


HAPS
Blue dolphin

Black Fin Lethrinops

Insignus

Lethrinops Intermedius

Livingstoneii

Super Red Empress

Ivory Mloto

This is a list for a 75g tank. be wary of their sizes. If you go the cichlid route they have to be well stocked so they do not have room to establish territories.

Those peaocks are very colorful and might be just what you are looking for.



Caleb

~10g tiger barbs
~45g ick problems/loach and 5 tetras left.
~75g going to be African cichlids

 

[ImACoolguy]

And yes its recommend to wait 6 months for a GBR.


Caleb

~10g tiger barbs
~45g ick problems/loach and 5 tetras left.
~75g going to be African cichlids

 

[NigelK8485]

What are the dimensions of the tank? As far as cichlids, there are a lot of varying degrees of aggressiveness. People commonly use non-cichlid dither fish that are too quick for most cichlids and spread aggression throughout the tank. For mine I use a collection of boesemani, Australian, and turquoise rainbows to keep aggression down between cichlids. Rainbows aren't necessarily top dwellers but they utilize every area of the tank. Some of the smaller more peaceful cichlids such as keyholes or festivums could look nice and would work in a community setup. They aren't as colorful but they're cool looking. You could also look into the thorichthys maculipinnis (elliotti) for a cichlid with some nice color.


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[ImACoolguy]

Peaocks and Haps are very active swimmers all over the tank unlike Mbuna that like to hide in rocks.

Having plenty of rocks is still recommend. This is my tank, I'll be removing/rehoming the live plants because the cichlids will eat them up.


Caleb

~10g tiger barbs
~45g ick problems/loach and 5 tetras left.
~75g going to be African cichlids

 

[jessie9309]

Note to self: look into peacock cichlid types haha.

The tank is 18" wide, 30" long and 24" tall.

 

[jessie9309]

So it would be good to half a school of rainbows to keep aggression down? About how many do you suggest?

 

[NigelK8485]

Ah, unfortunately I don't think the tank is long enough for African cichlids or rainbows. Generally 4' length is the minimum suggested for both. For the Africans it helps keep territorial issues to a minimum and for the rainbows they're extremely active fish that need quite a bit of horizontal swimming space.


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[jessie9309]

Ah that's too bad. So does that rule out a large majority of cichlids? What about the German Rams?
Any suggestions for tall tank loving fish then?

 

[NigelK8485]

You could get away with a single angelfish then build the tank around it. Possibly a pair but I feel like the risk of aggression for me at least would steer me away from two of them.

I'd look at Bolivian rams over German blue, they tend to be hardier. You could look into the blue acara or electric blue acara, they tend to be peaceful cichlids and stay relatively small. Kribensis are little and have great color.

Hatchetfish are definitely top dwellers but they are very prone to jumping from tanks so you'd need a tight lid and cover any openings.


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[jessie9309]

I would prefer one angelfish. I really like the krib cichlids and the ram cichlid. I have a lot of research in front of me so I have no idea where this came from but what about emperor tetra and pristella tetra?

 

[jessie9309]

Oh and a bleeding heart tetra

 

[treemanone2003]

For a tall I'd definitely go with either veiltail or super veils. Perfect for a tank like that. Allows lots of room for their long flowing finnage. Super gorgeous fish IMO. Check these beauties out. http://theangelfishsociety.org/geneticofangelfishtails.doc


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[jessie9309]

Aren't veil tails bettas? I thought those were pretty aggressive. Very beautiful though.

 

[treemanone2003]

Aren't veil tails bettas? I thought those were pretty aggressive. Very beautiful though.

Yes and no. There's both.


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