Compatible Fish

[55gal]

I'm sure you guys get a lot of questions regarding fish compatibility but here's another. I have a 55 gallon fresh water tank. I have one Angel fish, 3 bleeding heart tetras, one Cory catfish, 6 guppies and one Chinese Algae eater. We recently had something wrong with the tank and lost 2 Guppies, 2 Corys, one Angel fish and a Bala Shark. It's been about a month since we lost any fish so I think it is over and I can get some more, after all my Cory is getting lonely. I was wondering what fish would be good to add to the tank. Should I get another Angel or should my one be ok without another? Would any types of Gouramis be ok? I heard tetra species are good with Angels, so what species should be good and what tetras are no good for my tank? Also name if they should be the only of their type in their tank or should be in groups (and how big of a group) if you know.

Thanks for any help, I hope I will learn some stuff here and be able to help people instead of being the person always needing help, but for now that is who I am

And I know this is bad but I might as well be honest we have never tested the water and up until now have never removed chlorine from the tap water. I know it's bad but I really want to start taking this aquarium hobby seriously. I am young and can't drive so some of this depends on whether or not my Parents feel like taking me to the fish store. My dad is somewhat old fashioned and when he was a kid never needed to do that stuff so he feels it's unnecessary but I think he will get me the stuff because he really likes the tank and the hobby in general (even though I have to do everything he just looks at them). So I hope I can learn what I need here.

 

[Kiwigirl]

Welcome to the hobby of fish keeping, it is unfortunate you have come to a bad start in you hobby.

First of all lets get futher problems prevented before it happens again.

You have to dechlorinate your water before adding it to the tank. It is harmful to the fish not doing so and can even kill them.

Water perameters, you obviously know about these but to put it bluntly fish in a tank are swimming around in their own toilet. Hi levels of toxic ammonia, nitrites and nitrates can also kill your fish.

API Test kits are good to use and must have on your list of fish keeping.

I'm only guessing here, but it sounds like you are a novice to the world of fish keeping.

Finding the right balance in a community tank compatiblily wise is a bit of a juggling act.

Stocking levels are also very important. An overstocked tank will also cause problems. I advise you to stick to the 1 inch of fish per gallon rule until you have gained some experience.

Angel fish do not need to be in a schoal of other angels, that is optional for you if you want another one.

Don't put fin nippers in with angels (for obvious reasons)

Depending on the size of your existing angel, glowlight tetra's are ok (in schoals of 5 or 6)
Gouramai's are ok with angels.
Red eye tetra's also known as Lampeye Tetra are ok with angels, but I found them to harrass the gouramai's.
Fighters are ok with angels, but I have also found mine to harrass the gouramai's
Platy's are ok with angels.

Neons tend to be prey and are delicate fish, they should also be in schoals of 5 or 6, I have found my fighter to stalk them when the lights are out and once again depending on the size and age of your angel they are also ok with angelfish.

As you can see finding a balanced compatible community tank can be a juggle.

In general you need to make your choices based on tank capacity and try to strive for a good balance.

The above is based on my own experience. Others may be different.

Good luck and happy fish keeping

 

[55gal]

Thanks for your help. We are now using a conditioner to get the chlorine out of the water and will get a test kit as soon as possible, before we get more fish. As for compatiablity I could get gouramis but then most teras would be out. It's just I need common fish and Gouramis seem to be every where i go, especially thosre powder blue ones. We really want some color, all we have is black, brown, gray and little red hearts but we want as much color as possible. Anyone else have ideas?

 

[vinylman]

If you want Gouramis, avoid Dwarf Gouramis; they're prone to a fatal Iridovirus. Any other (reasonably sized) variety should be fine. Have you considered Honey Gouramis?.

 

[Kiwigirl]

Vinylman said:

Have you considered Honey Gouramis?.

These would be the better choice of Gouramis as they are from what I read on other forums a bit smaller.

I feel I may have also confused you a we bit now that I look back on my last post.

If your angel is the size of the palm of your hand then I suggest you avoid putting small tetras like neons in the tank with it, but if it is about the size of your average 2 litre milk bottle top then yes go for you can put small varieties of tetra's in with it.

The redeye tetra did chase my honey gouramai, but this may also be due to the fact that it is the only redeye tetra remaining in the tank. (I also had my share of problems when I first started keeping tropical fish).


And before you end up with one avoid the common pleco altogether, are tank busters.

 

[Miss Wiggle]

kiwigirl is right you need to get the hang of tank maintenance and and water testing before adding any more fish, here's some topics to help you.

this topic explains the 4 main things you should test for, the relationship between them and why you need to test. It goes on to tell you what to do if your levels are wrong but don't worry about that just yet, just get your head around the nitrogen cycle and get some test results, let us know what they are and we'll take it from there.

and this topic gives a detailed description of the weekly maintenance you need to do for your tank.

I can understand why your dad may not want to get worry with all this stuff, fishkeeping has changed vastly in the last 30 years or so, advances in science, technology and our understand of aquariums mean that 'we' (your modern fishkeeper) do a lot of stuff that's contrary to what was considered good practice years ago. Print off these pages to show to your dad, if he's sceptical and needs more persuasion get him to come on here, we can explain to him why we do this stuff now and show him scientific websites and papers to back up what we are saying. Although hopefully he'll just be impressed with you doing your own research and will take your word for it!

Now as for stocking, you should definately get more cories and more bleeding heart tetra's, they need to be kept in groups of 6+ so the first thing to think about getting is some more of each.

The second issue is the Chinese Algae Eater, while these are fine when they're small they get very large and aggressive, look at the comments and links further down this page I'd advise you to try and re-home this if you can or eventually it'll start attacking your other fish.

OK so with that out of the way the next thing to look at is how many fish your tank can take, the guideline is 1" of fish per us gallon of water. This isn't a dead set rule, lots of exceptions, but it'll give you a good idea of the amount of fish you can have.

so once you've sorted out the stocking issues above you should have

1 Angel fish, 5"
6 bleeding heart tetras, 18"
6 Cory catfish, (depends on which species, assume they get to an avergae 2" each) 12"
6 guppies, 6"

that's 41" of fish, you have room for 55" so you've 14" to play with.

if you want colour I think something like tetras, rasboras or danios is best. I'd get two different species, and 8 of each of them. Just browse your lfs for what you fancy, double check with them that they don't get much bigger than 1" each but most of these species will stay small.

Sorry that's a lot of info to bombard you with but you say you want to do it right, this is a good start IMO

 

[55gal]

Wow, thanks that is great help! I'll def. get the water under control first. I think my Dad is now willing to do what we need to for the best tank and healthiest fish possible. I'll do what I can to get rid of the CAE. Do you think that the fish store that I did NOT get him from will take him? If I try to give him away to a person are there any type of fish that they can be kept with (I'm thinking giving him to a class room but I don't want to give them a killer fish). I tried neon tetras in my tank since they are my Dad's favorite but they died pretty fast and we found no bodies. I don't know the Angels ate them but that's my assumption. I'll look at honey Gouramis other Tetra species and rasboras and danios, are there any types of those I should definitely avoid? Ok thanks for all the info, the weekly maintenance guide is great help!

 

[Miss Wiggle]

it's possible that any fish store will take him, however they're policies on taking fish are quite individual. Just phone round shops in your area and hopefully someone will take him back. If not then try and advertise him on the buy/sell/swap section of this forum and see if someone near you has a suitable home for him. He basically needs a large tank nad can't be kept with community type fish. He's gonna need to be with other medium-large aggressive fish i think, although I've not kept them myself so can't speak with 100% authority.

Neon tetra's used to be very hardy fish, however as they are so popular mass breeding programmes of them have been set up and they've been vastly inbred and not in the best conditions. As such the neon tetra's we see in shops today are much much weaker than they were when your dad first kept fish. If you got them when the tank was first set up I would suspect that the tank cycling caused them to die from the poor water conditions. little fellas. However don't worry if you want to get some again you can, if the angel is small and kept well fed it's unlikely he will eat them, just make sure your water quality is right before you try again. All fish will have a munch on the dead bodies of other fish so that's probably where they went.

Don't think there's any tetra's, rasboras or danio's that you should definately avoid. Just find out the adult size and bear that in mind with your stocking, while lots of them stay around 1-2" some will get up to 4/5 so you just need to make sure you have ample room for whatever you decide on and don't assume that because they're small in the shop they will stay small.