55G Stocking Question

[joe17]

I got a 55g tank (48in long x 13 in wide x 20 in high), planted with mopani wood and lace rock. I was thinking of stocking with the following fish:

8 x harlequin rasboras
2 x angelfish
6 x cardinal tetra or rhomb barbs
5 x threadfin rainbowfish
6 x sterbai cories

Any thoughts/comments/criticism is much appreciated as this is my first attempt at a tank that size!

Thanks in advance!

 

[Elrohirthehasty]

Well, angels and neons is the age old disaster waiting to happen....cardinals are a bit bigger tho.  Any thoughts others?  Other than that it sounds like a nice stocking.  I love harlequins and someday plan on doing a 55 gal with 30 or so of them and maybe some gouramis.

 

[joe17]

I've heard a lot of good things about them so I thought I'd give them a try Do you think I would have room to get a couple more fish to make the schools a little bigger or would that be overstocking?

 

[attibones]

Well I personally would choose one large school of small fish instead of several schools of them. Maybe if you cut out the cardinals then you could have twelve rasboras and eight or so of the threadfins. Bigger schools are always more impressive.

 

[wrightt3]

I'd avoid cardinals, they really aren't that much bigger than neons. Perhaps a few millimetres at most. You'd want to aim for something that is 2 inches or more. e.g. rummy noses.
Harlequins should be okay due to their diamond shaped body. I would personally just have a large harlequin shoal rather than many different shoals.
Something like this would be good.
-12 harlequins
-8 threadfin rainbowfish
-2 angels
- 8 sterbai cories
Like I said, 1 shoal looks better than several so you could replace the threadfins with more harlequins or perhaps another centrepiece type fish. It's down to personal preference really though.
 
ha ha, looks like attibones posted before I could finish. I'll post this anyway just to reiterate what he said.

 

[joe17]

allright, so I'll leave the cardinals.out sounds way too risky for me! Thanks for the quick replies. My tank is newly setup and I am waiting on the plants to arrive soon but any suggestions as to how to introduce the fish to the new tank - like which species to add first and which to keep for last, once the tank is more mature?

 

[wrightt3]

allright, so I'll leave the cardinals.out

sounds way too risky for me! Thanks for the quick replies. My tank is newly setup and I am waiting on the plants to arrive soon but any suggestions as to how to introduce the fish to the new tank - like which species to add first and which to keep for last, once the tank is more mature?

If it's properly cycled it shouldn't really matter too much as they are all fairly hardy. Just add the angels last so there are no territory problems.

 

[joe17]

sounds good! Thanks a lot for the info!

 

[joe17]

I can't find the threadfins locally and can't find a site that will deliver to canada so if I replace the rainbowfish with black phantom tetras, would that work?

 

[wrightt3]

Probably not a good idea with the angels. Phantoms are known to be fin nippers. Hatchets maybe? you could possibly replace the harlequins with rummynoses and do a south American tank.

 

[joe17]

I heard that the black skirt tetras were known for fin nipping but thought the black phantom tetras were better. Hatchets are also not available here although I love my lfs, they really know what they're talking about compared to the stories I've heard from others and take good care of their fish but have a pretty limited selection of fish. They mainly carry cichlids, livebearers, tetras, barbs, danios and a few other secies such as a few rainbowfish, a few oddballs and the few species of sharks ... Any other species of tetras that would do well with angelfish? Would rummynose and harlequins coexist along with the angelfish and cories?
 
I really wish I could find a website where I could get some fish but can't seem to find any that will ship to canada .... 

 

[wrightt3]

Ah, yes, sometimes I get confused between the two

 Black phantoms should be fine

 

[joe17]

Allrighty I'll just make sure they are black phantom and not black skirt when I buy them!