Stocking Question

[disguised]

have an aquarium stand leftover from a long time ago. its a real nice one. although id like to go bigger i dont have the room the stand is a 55 gallon. its longer not a tall kind. anyways. i havent gotten the aquarium yet but i was curious how i might set it up. its been a long time since ive done this so need a little help. was thinking of stocking something like this...

x6 glo fish
x5 tiger barbs
x1 rainbow shark
x1 pleco (algea eater one right?)
x1 maybe some kind of shrimp?

from what i understand this gives them all space glo fish swim near top. tigers middle. shark on the bottom and should maybe be big enough? i know 55g is the minimum for any kind of shark as even the smallest ones get about 6"? thats why i picked the rainbow though because i dont think it gets quite as large as some of the others. even if this isnt overstocked would anyone have any better ideas as to what might be neat?

want to keep a real natural looking habitat. like actual rocks stacked up, live plants, little open area in the middle etc. just curious if anyone knows of some different fish species that are active look unusual or would be cool to have. Thanks!

 

[librarygirl]

Hi and welcome! You'll want to read up on cycling. There's a link below in my signature: guide to starting a FW aquarium. It covers fish-in and fishless cycling; read up on both and choose one (letting a tank run doesn't properly cycle it regardless of what the fish stores tell you).

Your stock sounds OK, I'm not sure about the Glofish and the shark though, glofish are pretty small, the shark might see them as food but I could be wrong as I've never had a rainbow shark. ALso what kind of Pleco? You'd want to avoid the Commons, they get very large.

Tiger barbs can be very aggressive too so I'm not sure the glofish would be good with them either. And it's recommended to get a very large shoal of tiger barbs to reduce aggression among themselves, so you might want to consider a larger group (maye 10-15).

 

[disguised]

Yea I'm familiar with Cycling and am actually about to get a bottle of pure ammonia from ace over the next day or two (does anyone know what brand or type it was at ace?) before I even get the aquarium. That way as soon as I get the aquarium I can put my sand decor and start cycling right away to get through that long process. Does anyone know of anything that might be cool to stock a 55g with? Was def going to go with the smaller pleco. I want a nice variety in it but don't want them to be cramped either.

 

[librarygirl]

It's the ACE Janitorial strength ammonia.

 

[disguised]

Ok cool thanks. Any other recommendations of fish, substrate, etc. like I said been awhile since I've done this. Just curious if there is anything else I should be considering?