Ok, my goldfish recently began spawning. Not that i don't want goldfish babies, i just don't want and or appreciate the horrible mess it makes (and made) in the aquarium which i spent so much time to make presentable. Anyway, the goldfish are now in a 120 gallon outdoor pond and i am faced with an empty, cycled and newly redecorated 55 gallon aquarium. I would like to know what you all would suggest to put in it. I'd like tropical fish, preferably not cichlids. I thought about 20 neon tetras would look good but am happily willing to change my mind. Anything is apreciated Thanks

how about 10 zebra danois and 5 rosey redsand with some coreys

I don't know that much about tropicals, but with a 55 gallon tank to stock you have a lot of scope when it comes to stocking, plenty of choice I'd say

Take your time to come up with a combination you're happy with. There are lots of knowledgable tropical-fishkeepers on the site - I'm sure you will get ton's of ideas.

In the meantime, how about doing a keyword search on this sub-forum for more ideas or scroll back through some of the topics as stocking questions come up quite frequently. Good luck with it - sounds exciting!

Coreys are catfish right?
That would look cool. Would the zebra danios school if i only had 10
Thanks


P.S. I did the search before and got alot of 10 or 12 gallon questions. So i thought i would switch it up and ask about a big tank

yes i think they are a catfish :

yes they would school

Yep - they are catfish and they school and there are loads of varities too - a very popular addition to a tropical tank I had pygmy corries once - great fun to watch!

Sounds fun, i would also like to put in some kind of algea eater to help with brown algea which i have a small problem with.

If you want something smallish - ottocinclus are great and although their staple diet is soft green algae, they have a reputation for clearing up brown algae too - although they are sensitive fish (usually unsettled by shipping to LFS and then to you) and need a stable environment, so better introduced a bit later on. They do better in a small group/school or min of 2-3

Hi

I have a 55 gallon tank as well, Ive had some stocking problems with my time with the tank. My tips would be

1. Plan your stocking plan in advance and research each fish and ask questions on boards like this.
2. Try not buy on impulse ever it will throw your stocking plans way out, if you fall in love with a fish and feel the impulse ask the shop to reserve it then come home and research it first. (this has happened with me and ive had to take fish back because of problems)
3. Try and stick to 1 focal fish species per level, one for top, one for mid water and one for bottom. Then have smaller fish and schools around them.

Some fish sugestions, I will allways promote keyhole cichlids I know you said no cichlids but, these are very peaceful and mine never fight with each other or any one else at all and very hardy they survived a week in bad water when my filter failed and recycled. When they are adult they are white with black markings and the male has blue tops to his fins, they get to around 4 inches and do best in a pair.

Or you could try gouramis? If you have a well cycled filter you could try some of the more delacate species like chocolate or licorice. Or you have the more common types like the blue gold or pearl. Pearl gourami are often very peaceful, where as the blues and golds are quite agressive to each other so with the pearls you could get two a male and female (the males have a red chest females have white chest) or one gold or one blue (three spot gourami are the same)

If you want a big schooling fish, how about silver dollars? If your tank is planted ignore this as it wont be planted for long with these lol they are herbivores and eat as much plant as they can. Or you could do dension barbs, sometimes called rose line sharks but they are barbs and need to be in schools big silver bodies with yellow tails and a red stripe down both sides of the fish really bright as well. Both of these 2 fish get to a big size and would fill the tank quite well for them to feel safe you would need about 4 in the school.

You seem to really like the cory catfish idea I like cories there are some gorgus species out there and you would be amazed at how many there are (they have stoped naming them now and started a number system called C numbers now) You could say get 10 of these, they would love it! But if you do get 10 get all the same species, different species will interact but if you have one species they will school all over together and play and race etc, I really like sterbai, pandas and skunks. Peppereds are quite nice as well. For a feature fish on the bottom you could look at some L number plecs, like the gold nuget (green with gold spots) or a bristlenose or rubberlip or peckolita species (lots of pretty ones). Or you could look at some of the smaller Syno catfish, multipunctatious (sp) stays around 5 inches or Euruptious (sp) gets to 6.5 inches there are more but im not to good on names lol.

An alternative to cories as well could be dwarf chain loaches? I really like them but they can have a high price tag around £10 each ($20) where i live.

Also for schooling fish you said about neons, I would recomend cardinals as neons are sometimes weak due to inbreeding to meet demand in the stores, cardinals grow a bit bigger and are often more colourful than neons aswell.

For an interesting school you could have hatchet fish, they are surface dwellers and come in different types, like marbled, black and silver etc. You need a cover though as they can jump!

There are so many schooling fish out there one of the best things to do would be to go to an LFS or 2.....or 3 and see what you can find.

A stocking from me would be
Pair of keyholes (male and female)
5 Marbled hatchet fish
8 Cardinal tetras
8 Corydora sterbai
1 Gold nuget plec

Using the inch per gallon rule these fish take up 50 gallons (if ive got sizes right, did it from memory), which is probs the amount of water in there due to decorations and gravel.

Sorry for writting so much ^^'''' I got on a bit of a roll hope I've helped a little ^^

www.aquahobby.com <------ I find this site really helpful its lots of people writing reviews of their experiences with the fish species they have loads of different fish listed in the gallery.

Wow, thank you so much for all the info and advice. I will really keep the cardinal tetras and the dension barbs in mind. Also, i found photos of the panda cory's and really like those. Everyones ideas are really appreciated.

glad I could help , one thing on the denison barbs is that they get to 5 inches, but are really peaceful

another cool looking fish - blue ram - dont know much about em , but saw them on Aquabid.com and they look like an interesting fish

I looked at the blue rams and really like those. They sound like a nice, colorful addition to a new community tank.

Ok, i think i have decided what i want for my tank. Just to mention, i have the tank overfiltered. (For the goldfish) So the water params are stable and the tank is mature.

2 blue ram cichlids
20 cardinal tetras
4 panda cory's
1 gold nugget pleco or 1 common pleco

What do you all think? Will they get along? Did i make good choices? I have an interview with Wendy's ( first job baby ) Fryday the 15th and if i get the job i'm going to reward myself with the new fish. Peace
Get it.... Fryday.....Wendy's

Hold up, i waited to long and now i can't edit my post.
Anyway, scratch the 4 panda cory's and make it 8 so that they'll school. That would still only be 42-48 gallons if i'm adding right. Thats probably just about all i should put in because the tank is moderatly planted with fake plants.

Sorry

Yeah that sounds really nice Good idea with topping up the cory school. For the plecs, definatly the gold nugget the common will get too big. Other plecs you could look at, are....

Clown plecs
Rubber lips
Zebra plecs (very expensive and rare)
L202 inspector plecs
Peckolitas (quite a few different ones in this group)

They all stay small (4-7 inches) where as the common plec can get up to 16 inches.

Sounds good, can't wait to get them. I had to special order them from my lfs, should be here in a week. In the meantime, i have several things to do in the aquarium. The main thing being to lower the ph to 6.8 or somewhere near there. I want to lower the ph when the fish aren't in the water as to not stress them out. Also, this way if i mess up and drastically lower it no harm is done . I'm planning on putting peat in the filter (its a fluval) to achieve a lower ph. Wish me luck

How come your lowering the Ph? Is it for the rams? It might be worth while drip aclimitising them to your tap water (is it much different?) , which can be a pain but it will be easier than keeping the Ph down rather than having to buffer the ph down all the time.

Though to be honest if the rams are kept at the fish shop in regular water and seem healthy then they should be okay for your tank, mine were being kept in regular un altered water for around a month at the store (big fish shop, crammed with tanks, top tank on a small block near the till, they didnt get noticed much) and they are in my tank at 7.8! And ive had eggs once! (plec ate them though ¬.¬) So check what the tank is being kept at rather than giving your self work, also if they are kept in tap water Ph at the store and you bring them home to a lower Ph though its more suited to their natural enviroment it may actually shock them and do them some harm?

Yes, i was lowering the ph for the rams. I read that they're delicate fish and need water with a 5.0 to 7.0 ph. I have my tank at 7.4. Will that be ok for them? If so i'm definitly not going to mess with the water or the filter. Thanks for the advice.

I think mine are a little different to other rams. Mine are a tank bred strain, they are long finned, I think because of being bred for the finnage they were in regular water for longer. Also mine have been really hardy for my tank, ive read that they are reactive to nitrates but ive not had any problems with mine and one time due to family circumstances I had to skip a water change and they were fine. Also really odd again for rams but I have never had any agression at all!

If you dont want to adjust your filter try and find an LFS that have had them for a while maybee a month or so? And if ask them to check their Ph and if its the same as yours i dont see a problem.

Also dont know if you know there are quite a few different types of rams out there. There are long finned, gold, and balloon - they are the tank bred strains. Bolivian, german and blue are the wild strains in goldfish terms these are the the commons and the gold and balloon etc are the orandas, ranchues etc. ( I think this is right anyway, sorry if im wrong lol)

well pretty much u made your decision....post pics as soon u get them

Yes, i knew about the different types of rams and think that i am going to go with the German Blue. And i'll post pics as soon as i get them.

ive always found discus amazing fish. thats something to consider, theyre beautiful. but expensive$$$$

I like and looked into discus fish too but i think that they get really big. Also, i am kind of on a relatively small budget and don't want any fish that is too expensive.

wow!!!
it's been a crazy long time since i have checked out this topic!
ok, so what i ended up going with was..................drum role


15 neon tetras
10 panda corys
6 tiger barbs

they look really good together. i really wanted a pair of rams but they aren't available in my neck of the woods.
At first i was a little worried about the tiger barbs being aggressive but they're in a big enough shoal that it's ok.
thank you all for your input
peace


P.S.
there are pics somewhere in the non-planted tank forum.