Fish died from Ich.. looking for new fish suggestions

[Chill]

I have a 50 gal tank that had a couple goldfish, a pleco, and catfish. The gold fish and pleco brought Ich into the tank we did water changes, salt dips, and increased the water temp but they all ended up passing away.):
We’ve mostly stuck to goldfish and pleco but now that we have a fresh start we are considering trying some new fish. We have to wait to get our tank healthy again and while we do that we want to start researching new fish and getting the tank ready specifically for them.
We’re far from experts with fish but we do know the basics so any fish suggestions that aren’t too hard to take care of?

 

[rlederer]

Well, first of all, goldfish prefer water temperatures from about 64 to 74 while Plecostomus and other tropical fish prefer water temperatures from about 72 to 82 or so. So goldfish and tropical fish are marginally compatible. So skip the goldfish and go for tropicals like zebra danios, most tetras, most barbs, or any of the other common stuff in fish stores and they are likely to be easiest to care for. And get them in schools of 6 or more of one species. And, the next time you get ich, try one of the medications for ich. Salt and higher water temp help, but they are not as effective as medication.

 

[Chill]

Luckily we were able to keep the tank and 72 and they all seemed okay at that temperature.

Yeah I think we’re gonna get the meds treat the tank and put the water temp high now that there’s no fish and have the medication on hand if we get it again. It was our first time dealing with Ich and unfortunately all our gold fish were white so it wasn’t as easily noticeable right away.

I’m gonna look into those fish it would be cool to have a schooling fish! We haven’t had those before!

 

[Skai]

With a 50 gal you have lots of room for either a nice big school of something or a couple smaller schools of different fish. Take a look-see through your store and see what colors might catch your eye then see what those specific fish need. Tetras and barbs are both pretty hearty fish and school nicely in my experience. But there are different types that can get different sized and have little behavior quirks.

 

[libertybelle]

I love little schooling fish, personally I prefer schools of smaller fish to a few larger fish. And I like big schools! I think fish look cooler and act more natural with lots of buddies. So I’d pick a just a few types of fish and do bigger schools rather than small numbers of a lot of things. If you like the idea of lots of different looking fish within a school white skirts; black skirts and all the different color glo tetras will school together since they’re all the same species. So will tiger barbs with their glo-fish variant.

I’d focus on levels of the aquarium so the space is being utilized. For example you could do a school of hatchetfish that would hang out mostly at the top of the tank, a school of cories that would hang out mostly at the bottom and a group of some kind of tetra (there are many many kinds!) that would swim mostly midwater. Add some otos (once the tank is well established and has some algae for them to eat!) because they’re fricken adorable and fun to watch and some nerites to help keep your glass clean and you’d have a fun and active tank!

You could do a male betta or a pair of some kind of gourami as well I’d you’re careful with which schooling fish you do. They often do fine in community tanks as long as there are no fin nippers around. So many options!