55 Gallon Stocking Plan

[EelohEel]

Alright. So I've wanted a bigger tank forever, and after years of patience, a friend gave me a brand new 55 gallon that ended up not working out the way he wanted when he finished the construction projects in his office (was going to be a semi-built-in tank.) I want to be able to provide a great home to my already existing fish, so I am building a stocking plan around them. Right now, I just have a 15 gallon with a school of 8 harlequin rasboras, a single ember tetra from a tank years ago that had a crisis (he just keeps hanging on,) and a small school of otos. So here's my plan so far.

My question is; I want to add a few bigger fish, and wondering what might be compatible with my existing very small fish.

Plan: 10x Harlequin Rasboras
20x Ember Tetras
8x Otos

It will be a heavily planted and fairly heavily filtered tank. I want to avoid plecos I think, or at least larger ones, but might get a bristlenose or some other smaller guy. I'd like to get a few fish that get in to the 4-5 inch range that won't consider my little guys a snack. Will anything work?

Open to other ideas too, but not open to replacing the three I have picked since it's building on my current tank.

 

[Wills]

Tough one - you need to stick to schooling fish as I think most of the larger feature fish you would like in that size range would go for the ember tetras because of how tiny they are.

Something like Headstanders would be good - tiny mouths and I dont think would eat them. Peaceful Dwarf Cichlids like Laetacara - some of the smaller Apistos might work like Apistogramma Panduro.

Wills

 

[MBOU]

Personally, I am a fan of higher numbers/less species when it comes to shoaling fish or it starts looking really messy.

If it were me (and adding to stocking very slowly!!)

I would go for:

15 x Harlequins
20 x Ember Tetras
6 x Otocinclus
2 x Gouramis (Pearl, Gold or Opaline) as a larger top dwelling fish
Pair of cichlids (blue, gold or bolivian rams, laetacara curviceps etc)

Then maybe in the future if the tank looks empty, possibly candidates for extras could be:

Pair of Honey Gouramis
or
Pair of Croaking Gouramis
or
6 Sparkling Gouramis
or
6 Cherry Barbs
or 6-8 tiny fish like micro rasbora or celestial peal danios or crossband rasbora etc

Stuff like that

I wouldnt personally bother with a plec in a planted tank, they do tend to scrape at plants too much, you'll hardly see it and your otos will need as much algae as you give them

 

[#1 Fish Fan]

Otto's will eat most/all of the algae between them so you wont need a plec in the tank. I think MBOU's stocking suggestions for you would look and work out really nicely,

 

[Wills]

Wouldnt go for Blue or Gold Rams as they need higher temps than the rest of the fish. Bolvians would be great though.

I dont know so its more of a question but would Gourami eat Ember Tetras? Not sure I would trust them but dont have experience with them with smaller fish just larger ones.

Also adding more than one species of gourami to a tank can be iffy because they both take up the surface but its a decent sized tank so not too worried. Think I would go for the Pygmy and the Lace as Opeline and Gold can be a bit aggressive.

Wills

Wills

 

[MBOU]

I dont know, I find Gouramis are remarkably tolerant of each other, the more you have, the less they seem to squable!

I have a similar sized tank with 2 Thicklipped gouramis, 2 croaking gouramis, 4 honey gouramis and 2 Golden Gouramis (until i can swap them for Pearls). I also have a shoal of 5 ember tetras and 20 crossband rasbora that are way smaller. Gouramis arent that fussed about eating smaller fish and in planted tanks, mixing gouramis is less a problem.... maybe i wouldnt go for pearls AND golds/opalines as they do use the same space, though i think there is still room, so long as they are in m/f pairs. Too many males and you are asking for it...

I am also adding some Sparkling Gouramis tomorrow

As for rams, Im not so sure on high temperatures, i always found they didnt hold their weight very well in too warm a conditions, certainly i dont think higher than 26-27 is all that necessary and all the other fish will be happy enough with that. To me i think Rams are like discus, everyone seems convinced they only like being in really hot temperatures... i mean...discus especially dont need constant high temperatures... even most big breeders agree with that.... i personally think rams are the same.

 

[Wills]

Probably not the place for a ram debate but I do think that they need higher than average temps for most of the year. I think we have to agree though that comparable to Bolivian Rams they are much less likely to do well in a general community tank. Which is why I would always go for Bolivians over Blues.

Interesting info on the Gourami though Not had them with really small fish in the past so wasnt sure.

Wills

 

[EelohEel]

I've been doing some more thinking. As much as I love them, I think I am going to skip the embers to give me more wiggle room with bigger fish. The smallest fish I'm going to have are going to be the harlequins, which are currently an inch long. So a few questions about what can go with those:

Denison barbs. I love them, they're beautiful. Will they bother the harlequins? Also, I know they can get pretty big, will a school of 6 be ok in my 55?

Dwarf rainbows or Australian rainbows. I know they move really fast, do you think they'll spook the rasboras? They seem pretty brave in their current 15, but I know I'm gonna be shakin' up their world.

I'm also wondering if there's any eel-esque fish that can go well in there. I just really love the look of long thin snake-like slitherers, but I know most of them either fit in to one of these catagories: Way too big, will eat my other fish, or will completely tear up my substrate. I'm pretty sure nothing will work, but wanted to throw it out there just in case.

Tomorrow is the leak-test, getting really close to setup!

 

[leighton_87]

Denison barbs are lovely fish but need at least a 4 foot tank (not sure on your dimensions) and they prefer much cooler temperatures to most tropical fish (18-24 degrees).

In my opinion dwarf rainbow fish woul work perfectly as would some of the slightly bigger rainbowfish in a tank that size. Make sure you get at least 6-8 of them as they can be skittish is small groups. They enjoy planted tanks that also have plenty of open swimming space.

The best thing I can think of for an eel type fish is the Khuli loach - have you considered those?

 

[EelohEel]

Huh. So remember that time I said I thought I had 3 otos, but I originally had 7?

Just transferred all my existing fish. I have TWELVE otos. I definitely originally had 7.

... sneaky little buggers.

 

[EelohEel]

Does a rope fish get big enough to pose a threat to my 1.5 inch Harlequins? I'm reading a bit about them and they seem really cool.

 

[Wills]

I would skip the Denisons as they are a big active fish and while a 4 foot is kind of okay for them I would want it to be a large 4 foot kind of 75g upwards.

The Dwarf Neon Rainbows sound pretty good to me

I would skip eel type fish - most are predatory and will go after your other fish so got to be careful. Can't think of anything suitable other than Khuli Loaches but they will burrow in the substrate but if you got a big number they would be pretty active say 12-14 of them would look awesome

 

[EelohEel]

Ok, I think I have a final stock plan. After conferring with the fiance, he said he really likes bigger slower fish as opposed to a school of medium fish like I was thinking. So I took him to the lfs with a list of all the fish that might work, and let him pick the ones he liked best; We decided on a pair of pearl gouramis. So we've added those guys in there, and here's my current stock:

2 Pearl Gouramis
8 Harlequin Rasboras
12 Otos
The lone Ember tetra

And I will add:
8 more Harlequins
6 black Kuhlis

eventually, but gonna let everything settle in a bit first.
Does this stocking sound alright? I think it will honestly still be a little skimpy, but can always add something later!

Also, nothing on earth is cuter than 12 little otos all stuck together on the glass.

 

[Wills]

Yeah sounds really nice

 

[EelohEel]

Alright, here's a picture so far. It's in a bright room so no great pictures

It's very lightly planted and decorated, since I did a direct transfer from my 15 and... while it was a heavily planted 15, 15 gallons of plants doesn't equate well to a 55 gallon

It'll start to take form once I get some more swords that are taller in the back, and some tiny plants like hairgrass or chain swords in the front and it all starts growing in. Will also add some more driftwood. My goal is to have the lower 60% heavily planted with plants that only grow that tall, and then have long stems above that with some of the sword leaves reaching the top. I am going to temporarily pick up a big bunch of floating Hornwart today so give some upper shelter while my plants grow in.