You "fish" your tank looked this good!

[tamtam]

Tons of options! Lemon, pristella and emperor are ok usually. I've even heard people having success with neons, cardinals and black neons.

Usually you see it recommended that you get the tetras a little bigger and get your angels as small as possible. I guess the idea is that if the angels grow up with these fish they often don't view them as food. I do know that black neons grow bigger than regular neons too.

I would deaf stay away from blck skirts, bleeding hearts and serpae tetras. As well as most of the barbs. I think zebra danios would work out nicely.

If you can find them hatchet fish are a great looking little fish. They are also schoolers. Only thing is they are jumpers and you need a well fitting lid to keep them in.

Platys go well with angels as well.

As for plants the biggest thing is making sure you have enough light first off. Most stock lights aren't enough. You'd want probably 2 watts per gallon at the min. You'd want to stick with low light plants ot keep it easy. Once you get into the medium to high light the need for more ferts and CO2 grows and that's when things start to get complicated, IMO. lol.

Some good beginner plants are java fern, java moss, most anubias and crypts. I hear good things about water sprite and wisteria too. Though I know nothing about wisteria. lol.

 

[Crawdaddy]

Great looking tank. In my 37, I have some green tiger barbs, rosey barbs, peppered cories, 4 bosemani rainbows, a BN Pleco, a 4 baby electric yellow cichlids. The cichlids are only there while they grow out a little bit more. It was the safest option to keep them alive. In a couple of weeks they won't fit in anyone's mouth, so they will then go back in the 55 with the rest of the cichlids. If my wife hadn't noticed them, I would have left them in he big tank for lunch. I'm running out of room for fish, and don't have the floor support (tank is upstairs) for a bigger tank. Eventually I'll get my 6 foot tank and then they can breed all they want.

 

[rlstoll]

Thanks everyone. Great advice. I went to the fish store today just to look at my different options. I wrote down all the ones I liked the best.
They are:
Tiger barb
Ram cichlids
Electric yellow.
Silver Molly
African dwarf frog.
Silver dollar.
Glofish starfire red danio.
Tetras

I really liked the cockatoo cichlids that was posted earlier. If I could get 2 of those.(hard to find?) if not maybe the electric yellow. The store said a max of 4 inch. Is that too large for my tank?? Would a school of tiger barbs go well with a pair of cichlids? And the African dwarf frog was picked out by my girl friend. Not sure if I can make that work .
So maybe future stocking plan:
8 tiger barb
8 tetra(not sure the type)
Silver Molly or silver dollar. Not sure which or how many.
A pair of cichlids.
And if at all possible snails or some kind of algae eater??

What do you think!! I need all the help I can get.

 

[Crawdaddy]

The yellow labs or electric yellows can get 5-6 inches, unfortunately I think to big for a 37. There are quite a few dwarf cichlids that you can find. Just do some online research.

 

[absolutangel04]

Reminder: threads are not the place for chit chat. Please keep your posts about the OP's tank. Thanks.

I don't know anything about yellow labs, so I am leaving that one alone.
IMO, tiger barbs are too nippy to make good tankmates with rams or other SA dwarfs. But, cherry barbs, gold barbs, ruby barbs, or snakeskin barbs would all work out better.
Not all tetras are created equal. Many would work out great in this set-up, but not all. It would be more helpful if you told us what sorts of tetras you are interested in.
Silver dollars get too big for this set up. Smaller tanks can keep fish smaller, but that comes at the expense of their immune system, bone structure, and overall health. Stunting a fish enough will shorten it's potential lifespan.
Silver mollies and GloFish are fine for this type of community. The GloFish will stay higher up in the tank than other schoolers, so they help give the tank a balanced look IMO.
I do not recommend an ADF for this set up. They would likely get out competed for food. But, you could set up a little 5-10g tank for just ADF to keep your gf friend happy. They are social and interact in groups.

 

[rlstoll]

I think I like the neon tetra the best. Maybe get a school of neons and a school of GloFish. And still not sure what other medium size fish I want maybe 1 or two. Then finish it off with 2 cichlids. Hopefully 2 cockatoos if I can find them.

What does everyone think?? Any suggestions on the med sized fish and how many??

 

[Sharkbait54]

I think I like the neon tetra the best. Maybe get a school of neons and a school of GloFish. And still not sure what other medium size fish I want maybe 1 or two. Then finish it off with 2 cichlids. Hopefully 2 cockatoos if I can find them.

What does everyone think?? Any suggestions on the med sized fish and how many??

I like it why dont you throw in a dwarf gourami?

 

[rlstoll]

That might be a good idea. Just one??

And I just did my first water change. I'm trying to get the Ammonia levels down. Nitrite and nitrate levels are still nil. I need those bacterias to grow!!!!

 

[Sharkbait54]

That might be a good idea. Just one??

And I just did my first water change. I'm trying to get the Ammonia levels down. Nitrite and nitrate levels are still nil. I need those bacterias to grow!!!!

Yeah sometimes they are aggressive toward one another.

 

[monsteridea]

Nice! I have that same fake driftwood ornament. My fish love it

 

[rlstoll]

Alright cool. I think I will just go with one dwarf gourami.

Stocking plan:
~8 neon tetras
~8 GloFish
1 dwarf gourami
2 cockatoo cichlids

I think that looks really good to me. I will most liked add them in that order. I read that you are supposed to add the most aggressive fish last. Also I will try to add four tetras at a time. Don't want to fill to fast.

Any suggestions on making the cycling process move faster. I don't have access to seeding material. Bacteria starter??? Fish??? Anything???

** you weren't supposed to tell anyone it was fake?

 

[rlstoll]

That was supposed to be a wink face at the end. Whoops!

 

[monsteridea]

** you weren't supposed to tell anyone it was fake?

Hahaha! Anyone who shops at PetSmart should know it's fake ;p

 

[Jess1ca]

I would go with either a pair of German blue rams and a nice school of small tetras. Or go with the apisto's like that cockatoo. But their are a ton of little terra fish like emerald green tetras, ember tetras, ruby tetras, etc. those are considered micro fish so you could probably put a school of about twenty in there with the dwarf cichlids, but as mentioned if you go cichlids you will need more hiding places and I would suggest some live plants as well.

+1 on rams! Super gorg!!!

 

[azmodan]

If you get the opportunity I might recommend a honey gourami over a regular dwarf gourami as they are very peaceful and most importantly are not susceptible to dwarf gourami disease.

 

[BlaseMrNiceguy]

I would also suggest one or two nerite snails they are pretty good at controlling algae in my 29 gallon.

 

[tamtam]

Alright cool. I think I will just go with one dwarf gourami.

Stocking plan:
~8 neon tetras
~8 GloFish
1 dwarf gourami
2 cockatoo cichlids

I think that looks really good to me. I will most liked add them in that order. I read that you are supposed to add the most aggressive fish last. Also I will try to add four tetras at a time. Don't want to fill to fast.

Any suggestions on making the cycling process move faster. I don't have access to seeding material. Bacteria starter??? Fish??? Anything???

** you weren't supposed to tell anyone it was fake?

That looks like a good stock and the order is fine. You could prob get away with 2 dwarf or honey gourami in that size tank but it would need more plants and territories for sure.

I wouldn't worry about the 4 at a time stocking. The great thing about fish less cycling is that it allows you to build a really strong cycle and add your fish all at once if you want. You are dosing your ammo up really high, higher than a regular tank will ever produce and there is no worry about a mini cycle. With a fish in cycle you would of course add slowly to allow the bacteria to grow and the cycle to progress and catch up but not an issue with a fish in cycle.

 

[rlstoll]

That sounds great. I do like the honey gourami better than the normal dwarf. I think I will get more plants for cover and hiding places for them all. I definitely need some more taller plants.

The snails are a good idea. Is there any special treatment or care that I need to aware of for the snails?

That's great to hear with putting as many fish as I want in at a time. Maybe I'll just do a species at a time so they get adjusted before new tank mates come. And now all I need is my ammonia levels to start dropping!!!!

When I get a pair of honey gourami and a pair of cichlids do they need to be male and female or does that matter?

 

[rlstoll]

So my tank still has not started it cycle. On my way home from work today. I saw a 55 gallon tank sitting on its lawn with about 4 inches of water in it. So I thought it might be a free tank and went to check it out.

The tank has rocks in it and fish!!! It looks like the people who lived maybe got evicted or something no one is there. There was a stand too. The tank looked ok condition wise except there was no cross bar at the top it had gotten broken off. Is the tank worth anything? And would I be able to use the rocks from that tank to get my tank cycled?? Might be a bad idea. What do you all think?

 

[Crawdaddy]

I don't know if its worth anything, but yes you can use the rocks as long as there are no contaminants in the tank.