Kinds of fish to use

[hampton]

Hello everyone. I'm new here and fairly new to tropical fish. I haven't had my tank up and running for awhile because I'm saving up some money for more decorations and some other stuff. When I did have my tank running I had three tiger barbs, six neon tetra's. That was great until I made the mistake of getting a pleco from our local walmart. Of course it had a disease and before I noticed it had already infected the other fish. All of them ended up dying. Anyway I'm getting close to starting the tank again. I'm just wondering what kind of fish everybody recommends. I want the tank to be a non aggressive community. The only one that I know I want is maybe some kind of loach. Any suggestions I would greatly appreciate.

Oh by the way I have a 55 gallon tank

Thanks

Mike

 

[LoachLover]

yoyo loaches are nice, gouramies, rosy barbs, and many more

 

[parker313]

YoYo loaches would be great for a 55g - you could get several of them b/c they stay pretty small. For a nice centerpiece fish, you could have rainbowfish. If you get 5-6 of them, they should be perfect community fish. They should all be the same kind. You could add in a couple schools of different kinds of tetras and/or barbs or one big school of one kind of fish.

 

[DarkSide]

yeah i'd say

3-4 dojo or khulli loaches
6 tetras (small)
6 tetras (medium)
2 large gourami's for a centerpiece
4 rainbow fish of your choice.
and 6 marbled hatchets.

I think that would be a very nice starter tank. Anybody have any problems with my list. To big to small?

 

[sylvia]

I like the list but I'd take out the medium tetra shoal and make the small tetra shoal larger by 2 fish. Then I'd go for 3 khulies and also get 4-6 cory cats... I'd also go for 3 pearl gouramies as a centerpiece - 1 male and 2 females I might also swap the marbled hatchets for silver but that depends on what I think I like more If I find I am not fully stocked, I'd get a bristlenose or bulldog plec as well

HOWEVER, if you are looking for easy and hardy fish - zebra/leopard danios, white cloud mountain minnows, platies, swordtails, guppies, bronze cories, black phantom tetras, black skirt tetras, three-spot gouramies and, to a slightly lesser extent bolivian rams, honey gouramies, pearl gouramies, moonlight gouramies, barbs, rasboras and most tetras and smaller, less-exotic plecs like bristlenoses or bulldogs.

 

[DarkSide]

So you say it should be like this

3-4 dojo or khulli loaches
8 tetras (small)
3 pearl gourami's for a centerpiece (1 male 2 females)
4 rainbow fish of your choice.
6 silver hatchets.
1 pleco.

I like that list. I think i'll be using it in my 55 gallon, I just have to switch some stuff around

 

[a1wonder]

My suggestion
6 Tinfoil Barbs
5 Fire Rasbora
5 Black Widow Tetras
5 cories
4 otos

And that is about where I'd leave it you'll have an interesting mix of many schooling fish all differnt colors and with many different personalities occupting all levels of your tank. Not to mention I bet you all the cories and the otos combined do not produced the same waste equal to one pleco.

Whatever you do best of luck sorry to hear about your walmart experance it sounds similar to the one I had. Oh well live and learn hopefully and will stop selling fish or inform their staff on the proper requirements of fish.

 

[hampton]

Thanks for all the quick replies. That is some great lists of fish use made. I didn't see the yoyo loach in your lists. Is that because I shouldn't put them in with your lists. Anyway thanks for the lists.

What if my local pet store (50 miles away) doesn't have these fish. Would they be able to order them do you think or would I have to find another store.


Thanks for all the info


Mike

 

[sylvia]

If you can call the 'local' pet store maybe they can tell you if they'd be willing to order fish in? Then go see what's already there and decide on what you're going to do.

 

[hampton]

Ok everyone. I think I got my list of fish I would want. I pkinda went off of darkside list. See what you think. B)



3- Kuhli loaches
8- Neon tetras
3- Pearl Gourami's
6- Silver Hatchets
4- Boesemani Rainbow
1- Pleco


Do I have to have any special gravel for the kuhli loaches. I was reading alittle about them and it was saying I should have sand. The gravel I have is like small pebbles. Would that work or would I have to change?

 

[hampton]

I forgot to ask also how to feed these fish. Can I feed them all with just normal flake food.

 

[jflowers]

Mine are ok in small gravel, just make sure its not sharpe as they burrow in it. Also, the pleco is ok if you go with sylvias suggestion of Bulldog or Bristlenose, most others will grow to big. They will all eat normal flake, but you should supplement it with sinking pellets and frozen foods such as bloodworm and daphinia occasionally.

Jon

 

[hampton]

How often should i add sinking pellets and frozen foods? Every other day, once a week, once a month? I've never feed any of my fish anything else besides flakes. Maybe that was part of my problem to. I've also heard different things on how many times to feed per day. I always use to feed them just once a day in the morning and that was it. Should I feed twice a day?

 

[jflowers]

I would feed the frozen as a treat once maybe twice a week. The sinking pellets every day if you have bottom feeders such as corys. The best thing is to feed a variety. Flakes are a good staple food as they are a mix of different foods, Frozen is good as it has lots of protien. Feed a little flake and a few sinking pellets each day and then once maybe twice a week replace this with the frozen (thaw it first). I feed mine once a day, some people here every otherday, the important thing is not to overfeed as this could poison the water. Make sure that what you feed is gone within 3 minutes, if it isn't you are probably feeding too much.

Jon

 

[hampton]

Thanks for all the help. Everybody has giving me alot of help and great idea's.
Also thanks for answering all my stupid questions. When I get my tank up and running,let it cycle and get some fish in it I'll try and post a couple pics.


Mike