Help stocking 54 gallon?

[gimmethatfish]

I just can't decide what I want to do. I have an empty 54 gallon that I will be starting to cycle, hopefully this weekend. Fishless cycle, seeding with mature media and gravel. The tank is pretty tall, 23 inches. I will have a ton of caves, and it will be moderately planted.


I can't decide how to stock it. I kind of love glofish, so I was thinking of a big school of glofish with some random other things. But I have also just begun my love affair with bettas, and I don't think bettas and glofish go together. I already have 2 mystery snails that need to go into the tank, so I can't get anything that will eat snails.



1 - 1 male betta with some nice peaceful schooling fish - some cories, maybe harlequin rasboras, a peacock gudgeon? what else? I have a male betta at home already in his own 10G tank who is very peaceful. He has had a couple of random tankmates out of necessity (and currently has the 2 snails, which are actually very big and somehow super fast and active for snails, antennae waving all over the place), and he never bothers anyone.



2 - small (5-7) female betta sorority with same as above? I would more heavily plant the tank if I were to go with this option.



3 - 10 glofish/danio combo with the cories, rasboras or mollies, gudgeon, and whatever else because no betta to worry about eating everyone? I love the zippy little danios.



I'm really pretty new to fishkeeping, and I don't know a huge variety of fish. I like the idea of the male betta as kind of the show-off fish of the tank or I like the idea of a sorority. I do have a spare 10G tank that if the betta/bettas were having issues, they could be evicted, which is why I would keep the sorority small. OR I could do a HUGE betta sorority with just the snails or maybe still the cories. So many choices. How do you narrow it down? I have a really good LFS with a good selection and good knowledge. Do you all just go to the store and get what catches your eye?

 

[libertybelle]

What catches your eye is a great idea as long as you have a smart phone with you to double check the requirements for those fish as you go! You shouldn't be adding too many at a time anyway or you risk cycle problems, of course.

Re: Glofish. Maybe they would work with female bettas rather than the male. (Less tempting flowy fins to nip?)

I liked the idea of the male betta as a show fish as well since they have personality. If yours is pretty docile should be fine particularly with the amount of space you are working with. I didn't have mine with danios, I had mine with neon and glolight tetras and everyone was happy. Betta was all over but mostly top and tetras stayed near the bottom. The one thing I will mention about community bettas is that as they get older the current and height of the tank can become hard for them. You can buy these suction cupped leaves and floating log houses that I used to give my boy a place to rest near the top.