Tank mates - ideas, suggestions, favorites?

[Mazdaman]

Well the tank and equipment decisions are final. I ordered my filter and heater on thursday. The tank (55gal) will be home on wed. march 2. The filter is a rena filstar xp3 and down the road a fluval 4 submersible.
I'm looking for some fun, colorful and active tank mates to go with my current fish.

The fish will be:
5 - boesmani rainbows (3 in 20gal currently)
5 - Parkonsoni Rainbows (2 in 20gal currently)
1 - red-tailed shark
?? 4 - aquatic dwarf frog (1 in 20gal) Not sure if I'm going to move him or not. either way he'll get three friends to finally keep him company.

Looks like I'll have quite a bit of stocking room left. What are some favorites. My wife really wants me to get angels. Suggestions wanted.

Also links and pictures would be great too.

Tank will have fake plants and deco
ph 7.6-7.8
gh 10
temp 79-80

 

[RoK]

Plecos, gouramis, catfish, barbs, giant danios. Are you looking for specifics though or what?

 

[Mazdaman]

anything really. Looking for what others would think to be great tankmates for the rainbows. Also looking for others favorites. I'm leaning more toward a big school of tetras 12 fish.... Just fishin' for ideas...

 

[RoK]

Well, if you want some tetras I'd go for the larger ones like the diamonds, penguins, congos. I also like the black phantoms and serpaes though.

 

[FishLover14]

Try a school of Black Phantom Tetras and Red Phantom Tetras- They are stunning in a school.

I would personnally not get a red tailed shark as they can be very aggressive and could easily kill any of the other fish.

JMHO

 

[SerLunchbox]

If you want something colorful that is still a rainbow fish, look at the Celebes Rainbow. They have great color and are active (plus they have a funky positionings of their fins).

Another option could be a school of corydoras. nothing like a school of emerald cories fooling around. Also, there is also the Kuhli loaches. Get more then 6 of those. They are a great thing to watch.

 

[ChileRelleno]

I too would ditch the Red-Tailed Shark, just too many aggression issues, and the ADF's too, they just don't belong in a active community of this type.
I also like the Congo Tetras, but I was thinking about how much swimming room the Rainbows'll be needing, (which is alot, very active those Rainbows) and therefore would suggest either more Rainbows or some fish who'll be primarily bottom.
The suggestions of Emerald Cories and/or Kuhli Loaches are very good and there are sooo many types to choose from.

 

[The Matt]

I say go with an Ompak Cat but it will nip at other fishes fins. Mine goes after my silver dollars and they are three times his size. They are really cool.

Matt

 

[lyquidphyre]

If your shark has ample hiding room and doesn't feel threatened, it should be okay.
I have a shark in my 75gal community and he leaves my fish alone. Now, ive seen some fin ripping (however, I don't know if their fins were ripped when i got em cuz the fin ripping is always on the new fish). But everyone seems to get along and my shark doesn't really mess with anyone

It can depend on their temperment as well, so I wouldn't completely get rid of the idea

 

[Mazdaman]

Getting rid of the shark is not an option. The red-tailed shark is my favorite and was the reason I got a tank in the first place. He has never bothered another fish or the frog. There is and will be plenty of caves and hiding spots for the shark so not a problem. The frog has never really seem to have any issues with any of the fish. He's got is few little spots that only an ADF could fit and I always see him peeking his little head out when I come in the room. It's quite funny to watch when he goes to the top for air the rainbows will kinda woner around him wondering where the heck he came from and then back to his hole(s) in a flash. I may have more room than initially planned as I think a 75gal is now the tank I will be getting. Good suggestions, thanks and keep'em comin

 

[DanW0007]

Threadfin rainbows don't get very large and are very attractive, if you want to stay with rainbows at least.

 

[JohnPaul]

Well it seems your tank would benefit from a few things to make it complete...

One, you need some bottom-dwellers. I am personally biased towards cory cats, so I would suggest getting 6 of the same species. Maybe something like peppered corys, which are among the larger cory species. If you get the 75, you easily have room for two different schools of corys, so you could get 6 of each. Personally I love the looks of panda corys, but again, there are so many varieties.

Two, I would suggest you look for colors you don't have in the tank, and see if you could get those. So far with the rainbows you have yellow & blue (boesami) and orange (park.) Celebes rainbows would add a nice bright yellow, almost yellow-green color. I think any good, planted tank benefits from something strikingly red--along those lines, I would suggest a decent-sized school of something like serpae tetras.

And anything reasonably large and multicolored would look good; perhaps you could explore some of the larger species of killifish. At least some would be active enough to "fit in" with your rainbows, I would think.

I also *suspect* gouramis would work, but never having had them, I will defer to others. My only concern would be whether the rainbows would be "too active" for the gouramis.

Anyway, let us know what you decide upon, and keep us posted on how its going!

 

[Mazdaman]

Hey thanks johnpaul. I havent seen to many cories but I read alot of people like them alot. I have been thinking about a school of serpaes which I really like. Had gouramis at one point and to me they were too docile. I like them acitve...