Intro and community tank suggestions

[mxmarvelous]

Hi!

I’ve had a betta for about a year and finally gave in to my desire for more fish. I set up a 65g tank about 8 weeks ago, got it cycled (with the help of filter media from my betta tank), and started adding fish this week. So far I have:

• 1 Electric Blue Acara
• 8 Congo Tetras
• 8 Black Emperor Tetras
• 1 Lemon Blue-eyed Pleco

The acara (Jack) and the pleco (unnamed—taking suggestions!) are pretty young still: Jack is about 2 inches long and the pleco is maybe an inch (so teensy!).

I’m wanting to add one more medium-sized solo fish. Some candidates:

• Opaline Blue Gourami
• Dwarf Powder Blue Gourami
• Dwarf Rainbow Gourami
• Electric Blue Ram

Thoughts on these or other suggestions? You might be able to tell I’ve been going for interesting colors with my choices. My substrate is black sand and decor is faux coral-y with neon accents (with some live plants). The tank is 36” long, so I can’t get anything that needs a lot of distance for swimming.

Thank you!

 

[Andy Sager]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
As for the one I'd choose from your list of 4, I'd do the opaline Gourami or an albino paradise fish. The Dwarf gourami family ( all the colors) are prone to a virus that can effect other fish so I'd stay away from them. You already have a cichlid in the tank so the Ram may have problems with the Acara even tho they are not supposed to be aggressive. Since you have black substrate, red fish and albino fish tend to really stand out against it. You may want to take a walk through your local fish store and see what they have in those colors that suits your fancy and can live alone or in smaller groups and that will live in either the top level of the tank or the bottom. Your other Tetras have the middle level pretty well stocked. Hope this helps.

 

[mxmarvelous]

Thank you! This is very helpful. I forgot about how virus-prone dwarf gouramis are.

I’ll go for a stroll around my lfs and see what I can find!

 

[Andy Sager]

Thank you! This is very helpful. I forgot about how virus-prone dwarf gouramis are.

I’ll go for a stroll around my lfs and see what I can find!