Choosing fish

DylFunk

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Hi, i have recently aquired a 55g(US) tank from a friend of mine who tried keeping fish for a couple of years but wasnt too interested anymore. anyway i am currently about halfway through my cycling process and have been looking into what kind of fish i should get. ive come up with a few ideas but dont know how many of each to get, what to add, or if they will even get along in the first place.

Khuli loach
neon blue gourami
flame gourami
neon tetra
Guppy

now i know that even if i get a fair amount of each of these guys i will still have some room to add more. so any suggestions and/or critisism is appreciated.

THANKS :)
 
Hi dylfunk...

hmm that wouldnt really work because the kuhli loaches would probably nip at the guppies fins and I have experience with that. 2 dwarf gourami's will not work unless it is a pair but 2 larger kinds like gold and blue or lace and gold would work :). so if you like what you have their how about this
kuhli loaches
larger gouramis or a pair of some kind of dwarfs
neon tetra
and from there you will have a lot of space to work with. If you haven't cycled yet I would try zebra danios they worked for both my 20 gallon and 55. Hope I helped :D
 
thanks now i just need to decide what other fish to add, i probably want some kind of glass cleaner/algea eater like an otto or bristlnose
 
also do you think i could have a pair of neon blue gouramis as well as some larger gouramis or would they fight?
 
I have 2 Kuhli loaches and they don't nip anybody's fins.
 
my khulis don't nip anything but food. they certainly are little mongers but they don't bother anyone on purpose.
 
thanks guys, any more suggestions about what else i could add?
 
im sorry dylfunk I gave some wrong information,

I have some kind of sand loach and they were real mean to my betta but now they are in a semi-agressive 10 gallon with 2 tiger barbs and a pleco. Sorry about that one. :thumbs:
 
The loaches, guppies and neons should all get along. The gouramies you listed are both varieties of the same species - colisa lalia - the dwarf gourami. In a relatively large tank like yours, you could easily keep 2 males without problems. They shouldn't bother your other fish either - just each other. However, I would preffer that you got a male and 2 females or 2 males and 4 females. I wouldn't put dwarfs with any other species of gourami. I also have to disagree about keeping larger gouramies together. You should only keep one male blue/three-spot/opaline/gold gourami per tank (unless it's a large tank, planted and with lots of females). You can keep several females though and a male with several females. I know other people have had different experiences but I would say these fish are more suited to a tank with slightly more aggressive species and I've had several kill off my dwarf gouramies... Moonlight gouramies are more peaceful but larger so you could only keep a few. The males can also be territorial (like other gouramies). Pearl gouramies are beautiful and peaceful (IME) and I would highly reccomend them for your tank. However, I would suggest a male and 1 or 2 females (though it doesn't realy matter as long as the males don't out-number the females) and you could still try keeping the dwarfs though it all depends on the individual fish as some are more aggressive than others (gouramies are such characters...). Three-spot/blue/opaline/gold gouramies are all the same species. You can mix one of these with a moonlight and a pearl but I would suggest only getting a male pearl and keeping the rest female.
I would also suggest switching the neons for black phantoms or harlequin rasboras as they can be quite fragile and don't have as much character as phantoms or shoal as well as the rasboras. Golden dwarf barbs are also wonderful and pretty (IMO). You may also want to consider platies instead of guppies as they are less likely to be harassed and are livelier (than male guppies at least). Also, without the guppies, you could get zebra danios which are remarkable fish... no matter what you might hear. They are absloutely beautiful, very active, have characters and there are several varieties (the long-finned ones are stunning).
 
so im thinking something like

6 khuli loaches
1 bristlenose plec
? zebra danios (i need a good number)
cardinal tetras? (ive heard theyre similar to neons without risk of NTD)
2 neon blue gouramis ( im sorry but their colors are amazing so unless theres some reason that i really shouldnt get them then i'm putting them on my list.)

and if female pearl gouramis have the same coloration as males then maybe one or two of those

so thats what ive come up with so far from suggestions and my own personal interest ;) . so now i just need to know how many zebras to get, if i can get pearl gouramis with the neon blues, if cardinals are better than neon tetras, and more suggestions if i have room.

thanks for all the great input so far. :D

the only reason i dont want platies or guppies is because ive heard they breed easily and i dont want to have to deal with babies at the moment.
 
6 khuli loaches - fine
1 bristlenose plec - fine
? zebra danios (i need a good number) - 7 :)
cardinal tetras? (ive heard theyre similar to neons without risk of NTD) - I like cardinals more but it's a matter of opinion realy. I'd get quite a few for a tank like yours
2 neon blue gouramis ( im sorry but their colors are amazing so unless theres some reason that i really shouldnt get them then i'm putting them on my list.) - dwarf neon blues right? they should be fine in that size tank but can be fragile due to in-breeding and males are territorial

and if female pearl gouramis have the same coloration as males then maybe one or two of those - they are the same but lack the orange, however, you may be able to keep a male and female pair - young pearls can only be distinguished by the male's pointier dorsal and anal fins.

Livebearers will breed a lot but you could have just males to elliminate the chances of this (not just females, they can store sperm from the LFS and slow-maturing males may look like females and then suddenly you get fry...).

With the fish listed you are pretty much at your limit. Just get a large shoal of cardinals ;)
 
so is it safe to house maybe 3-5 male guppies together? if so i'm thinking something like this

6 khuli loaches
1 bristlenose catfish
7 zebra danios
9 cardinals
2 neon blue dwarf gourami
3-5 male guppies

if there is any problem with this please let me know

THANKS :D
 
As long as it's only males you are fine. If you add females you need to make sure their is a 2 to 1 ratio. Personally, I disagree with sylvia in regards to the livelihood of guppys vs platies, but I think this type of thing comes down to personal choice, opionion, and experience.

Edit: Are you going to plant this tank or just have regular ornaments?
 
Ornaments are fine, but with the Gouramis and Kuhlis you will want to consider adding plants. They definitely like a planted tank. I believe Konrad05 has some pictures of his kuhlis peeking their heads out from inside some of his plants. :)
 

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