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Fishyfanatic

Fishyfanatic

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
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Location
Illinois
I just got a 55 gal setup for an anniversary gift from my fiance and he said that I can put whatever I want in this tank, it is MY tank and he will put no input into it. I am so excited that I want to start right away. The only tanks that are completely "mine" are the 10 and 5 gal and now I finally get to stock my own 55 gal with whatever I want. My problem is, I want to have a specie specific tank. Something colorful, fun to watch, no goldfish, nothing that stays small (like guppies or tetra's). This really limits what I can do with the tank because all that I can think of that would fit what I want would be cichlid's.

I want the tank to be "different". Meaning that the fish that inhabit my tank wouldn't be something that everyone has. So no platy's, rainbowfish, or swordfish. I've had Gourami's before and they just weren't as active as I would like. I'm thinking that I would be limited to South American cichlid's since we already have an African cichlid tank. Can anyone think of any other specie that I can have that would fit what I'm looking for?

I've been looking around online and have found many different types of the SA Cichlid's and absolutely love the German Blue Ram, Firemouth Cichlid, Double Full Red Cockatoo, Orange Cockatoo, Red Star Flower Horn, and Managuense Cichlid's. I'm not sure if any of them are painted/dipped/injected because they are all very colorful. I don't want to order the fish and then find out that they are painted. I've made that mistake before with parrots and the blueberry tetra's and want to make sure that none of them are going to be "altered". I wouldn't be putting all of those cichlid's in the tank, it's just a starting point to narrow down from. I plan to do plenty of research before even cycling the tank so I can set the tank up with the exact perimeters that the fish need. Can anyone comment on the fish that I listed? Or give me alternatives to cichlid's?

I'd thought of doing saltwater or even brackish but if I do either of those tanks, I want to have at least a 150 so I wouldn't be limited to the type that I can keep. I appreciate everyone's suggestions!
 
I'm looking for something larger. I love the African Cichlid's because they get larger and they have great personalities. But like I said, we already have an african tank.
 
the only suggestion i have is to check out www.liveaquaria.com

they have a really wide variety of fish to check out as well as bios on all of the fish...im not sayin to get fish there, i dont believe in buying fish online, but itll help broaden your horizons with any luck
 
haha, that's funny Mortalum because that's the site that I always use for fish profiles. In fact, that's where I got my list from. :D
 
lol...yea its got amazing information, those bios are exceptionally in depth...but i'd never get a fish shipped to my house, too much stress on the fish...
 
I would never get fish shipped either. It just seems like a lot of stress. Quick question (I know that I should just start a new thread for this, but here goes- Would Ghost shrimp be fine with a betta?)
 
i dont see why not depending on the size of the shrimp...bettas are mainly surface/midwater fish and shrimp are bottom dwellers...if u get larger size ghost shrimp they should be fine...plus ive noticed any time i had a betta they are wasteful fish and the shrimp should give u longer between tank cleanings
 
Just a thouhgt but an amazion biotype setup would look wondeful, You could have a heavily planted tank, grvael, add CO2, have some tetras, cories, and have 5 cokattoo dwarf cichlids, have some dritfwood, and have a beautiful bio type tank.

JMHO
 
you could do a brackish tank and get puffers- you don't need 150gal tank for that

They are species only and very active
 
puffers are a good idea ... also you could do a tank of badis badis (they may be smaller but really cool). Then there is the apisto's (your cockatoo cichlids) or even kribs. If you want to really go out on a limb, do some bichers/polypterus. They have lots of personality (and personally i want to start keeping them in a tank.) There is also Barbs or even some loaches, catfish or synodontis catfish

just some options.
 
have some tetras, cories
Click to expand...

I do not want anything that is going to stay small. I love our Cichlid tank because the fish are big. I'd like the next tank to stay that way. We have smaller fish in the little tanks because that's all they can hold.
 
I would love to do a brackish tank. There's one main problem, the lfs doesn't carry brackish fish. No, scratch that, they have one WHOLE 20 gal tank dedicated to brackish. None of the others do. I would love to have a Brackish Snowflake Moray Eel, but don't I need a large tank for that? I'm not sure exactly how large they can become. I tried searching online for them, but all I end up with is the SW. I've also always loved puffers, but again, we don't have a selection around here. Then there is the thought of ordering fish from the lfs, BUT, I've tried that before. I went in one day and asked for prices on some African Cichlid's. The guy said he'd call me Monday. Well, 2 months later I finally got a call saying the fish were in. I tried again to order, but the guy never called back. SO, I definately don't want to special order.

I would love to do a SA Cichlid tank, but those fish are hard to come by around here.
 
You should call and call and call and hound and hound and hound
=o)
Click to expand...

HAHA, I did that the first time. He said he'd call on Monday, I called on Tuesday. He said he'd know by Friday, I called Saturday. This happened for 3 weeks until I just stopped calling. Then he called and said they were in, I told him all I wanted was prices. He told me the prices and they were WAY over priced so I said I didn't want them. He got all pissy with me and said that I had ordered them and I had an obligation to purchase them. We got into it and I refused to even buy from that store again. They still overprice everything. I bought a Master Test kit from there for $40 and found one online at bigAls for something like $16. Their angels (medium size) are $18.99.
 
Living in Southern Illinois (and when I say Southern Illinois, we are 30 min from Paducah Kentucky) you don't really have too many options. There are two stores that are owned by the same woman and they are way over priced (angels for $19), one in the mall that sells painted fish (the place where the owner told me that the blue parrots weren't painted), and the only other place around is Hardware and Pets. It's a hardware store and the guy sells fish on the side. It's a very dirty grimy place. Those are the only stores in a 2 hours radius. So I ventured off into Missouri and found a GREAT place, but its 2 hours away. Only problem is that they sold me blueberry tetra's without telling me that they were painted (I asked but the girl said she didn't think so). We are thinking of going to Paducah and seeing what they have. I'm not too farmiliar with the place so I wouldn't even know where to start.

Thanks RoK for the info! After reading that thread I think that the 55 might be a little small. I may have to give up my hopes of getting a moray eel until we go sw. We plan to purchase at least a 70 to 150 gal tank around Christmas and make it saltwater. Then we can get a sw moray eel. maybe banded eel.

I'm still searching for something to fill my new 55 gal though. Maybe I should just do a community schooling tank. But I want something active and colorful. I'm thinking SA Cichlid's is going to be the way to go.
 
Yeah, I was going to suggest a brackish tank. Mono's and bumbleebee gobies would do pretty well for a 55. Scats also have a very cool unique look to them.

If not, maybe center the tank around a small school of bala sharks? They are very fun to watch and when they get bigger it makes for a very attractive tank.
 
We had bala's about a year ago. I was never a fan of them. We only got them because my fiance just HAD to have a shark. We had a bad case of ick and it was the happiest day of my life (Not that I am suggesting that killing fish is a good thing to do but I just never liked the bala sharks). He wouldn't get rid of them for anything. They just don't have color. That's the main reason why we have an African Cichlid tank, they are full of vibrant colors and they are very active. We just got back from PetsMart and saw some full grown bala's and I saw his eyes light up when we passed by the tank. Thank goodness that we don't have the tank or the room for them. BUT, we saw a 150 gal that he's trying to figure out how to move money around so he can go tomorrow and buy it. It never ends!
 
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