My 55 gallon...

[corykitty516]

So I know everyone must be sick of this question but I dont want to screw any thing up

OK
so 55 us gallon tank
Aquaclear 300
Aquaclear powerhead 50 (aka 402 or 400 I think) with quickfilter attachment
sand substrate
minimally planted ... currently

I now have
2 Silver Dollars 4" ea
(cant get rid of these... they belong to mominlaw)
5 assorted danios
(I would like them all to be longfin yellow zebra, I have to wait until LFS has them back in stock... then trade the 4 others in)
3 black kulhi loaches

In quarintine
2 otos ... friday after this when LFS gets them back in I'll get 4 more
(so plans for 6 total)

hopes and dreams:
glass catfish (group of 3?)
OR
dwarf neon gourami (2?)
OR
I dont know... some sort of tetra?
OF these what would be the best/most doable?

ok so I'd like something mid to top and peaceful... not something I need to keep a huge group of ... 3 or less unless I pick somethig really small... then 6 or less.

soooooo whacha think?

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Silver dollars get pretty big and need lots of vegies. You should persuade your mother-in-law to see it your way...

Get more danios.

Class cats:
http/www.planetcatfish.com/core/index.php

Need plants.

the rest seem to be fine.

 

[corykitty516]

Silver dollars get pretty big and need lots of vegies. You should persuade your mother-in-law to see it your way...

yep.. that is why the tank is "minimally planted" they ate everything but the java moss!!! I replaced it all with tons of silk and plastic . They get lots of peas and broccoli and algea pellets but they also go WILD for the shrimp pellets, flakes and live bloodworm.
They are kind of temporary inhabitants .... they were not gifts but rather I rescued them from her 5 (yes I said 5) gallon tank. She is sort of between houses right now but when she gets settled I'm hoping to buy her a proper set up and give them back. I think they live for some time and are now nearly full grown at 4" .. theyll probly get to be about 5" I'm guessing from my research. In the mean time I dont want to crowd them.

I was sort of thinking no on the glass cats anyway... they look cool but I dont want anything I cant house properly. maybe if I get another big tank ..... well thats for another day anyhow

So what about a dwarf neon (or I like the powder blues too) gourami or 2? I cant seem to see any females in the shops and I dont want babies anyhow. They dont seem to fight each other in the tanks at the stores but is 2 males a good idea?

The SD definately stick to the mid section the danios to the top and the loaches and otos to the bottom

I really only want more thing in there anyway and something small at that...maybe more danios will do the trick... the yellows are so bright and active... I love em!

BTW: I dont have a hard head about all this so if I hear a resounding NO on these I wont go out and do it anyway.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

I like that last comment. Lots of members on here will keep posting new threads to get a different response.

Then the dollars are ok. There should not be a problem if it is for a few months.

As for the five gallon, I had them in a 10 gallon with 3 goldfish. Of course, that changed after finding this forum.

If you want a pair for breeding in the future, I would suggest three spot gouramis or dwarf gouramis. You can find males about anywhere, but you can find females at Walmart. Actually, their gouramis are at half the price of petsmart, but you take a risk, and definitely need to quarantine them.

Gouramis can be kept singly, and the male will keep trying to breed with the female and even attack it. However, that is a problem encountered mostly in small tanks. Mine were fine in my 45 gallon tank.

Plans on breeding them in the future?

You consider rams?

 

[corykitty516]

I really dont want to get any thing that will breed in the near future. I dont have time to deal with fry issues and go to nursing school too. I also have kind of an attitude about buying petstore stock for breeding purposes. We used to raise show dogs and it was just not cool to breed pet quality animals. When I'm ready to get into breeding I'll get a nice pair from a good breeder .... anyway.. thats a tangent...
OR when I recover my 10 gal from the 3 feeder goldies that are in it (dont scream at me ... they were a gift for my pond given after it was too cold to acclimate them to winter conditions.. so here they sit until it gets warm I should put them in a big rubbermaid or something... here I go on a tangent again)
Anyhow ...maybe I could get one gourami for that tank... I see on the fish index that the min is 10 gal but is that really enough?

Rams ... dont know much about them... I'll have to look into that

After all is said and done 5 more yellow danios just might do the trick.

 

[bunjiweb]

Silver Dollars eat plants continuously, it is part of their natuarl diet, so if you are planning on making it a live planted tank, then SDs are a no no.

Ghost cats are lovely, but you should get a bigger group if you ever want to see them being active. 5 or more is suggested (I have 8 Ghost and 5 African Glass cats in my 57G). They need plants though as already stated to hide in. So dont really mix with SD's unless you go for fake plants.... but then you will have to remember to feed your SDs veggies to keep them in top form.

Also, get a couple more Otos, they are really funny to watch in a group - I have 5 in my 57G and they are very comical when they swim about together sucking on a patch of glass together.

Ben

 

[corykitty516]

yep ... lots of veggies and also algae tabs (the ones the darn corys wont eat) for the SDs.... I'm scrapping the glass cat idea for sure until I give these SDs back to mominlaw. I do have a bunch of fake plants but I think they cats would be happier in the real thing. I'll just wait.

Update: got 4 more otos at the LFS today for a total of 6 (pleeeeseeee liiivveee!).

Found out that one LFS will trade fish but they dont carry the kind I want to replace with and the one that does carry the ones I want wont trade. I may just GIVE the regular zebra danios back to the place they came from and forget it ... they are worth less than a dollar apiece anyhow. I have one or two more places to check with though.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Rams... all you need is to get one book on 'em and you are set. They are not overly demanding. However, they are kept in groups and do breed...

I had 2 goldfish and 15 other fish in a 5 gallon. Don't worry, you know about what you are doing, so I won't reprimand you.

One gourami would be fine. Dwarf or three spot would work well.

Lots and lots of text, so please forgive me if this has been addressed, but corydoras would be a good addition, too.

 

[corykitty516]

OH god I LOVE corydoras!!! Just see my screenname and avatar I may try to branch out and try a different variety. I have 6 julii now (well I've been doing some reading and they may be false julii).
That wouldnt bee to bottom heavy with the Kulhis and Otos already though? I saw a green variety today that was really pretty (they were called green ... actually looked more brownish with a greenish sheen)
They hadnt been mentioned yet btw ..I'll keep that in mind