Not Creative No Vision...help Stocking?!?!

[sswells]

Had a 5 gallon, moved up to 55 gallon. Had
1 Skirt tetra
2 Serape tetra
1 Chinese algae eater
1 fan tail guppy (lost the others this one survived last 6 months).

Upgraded to 55gallon.. all cycling gone well-starting to add fish. While I'd love
a large tank and large fish but 55gallon will be it. Have a few smaller ones already
but would like to add some a little larger and want some color.

Purchased 3 Dwarf blue gourami (possibly 2 male 1 female by what I can tell looking at the fins)
all seemed well. Later I added 2 kissing gourami's (daughter wanted "kissy fish"). Day 2 and
one of the nice "kissy" fish was a terror - chasing everyone and nearly pinning the blue gourami
to the ground kissing them... next day 2 of the gourami's had chunks from the fins gone - Called a
friend and dropped the monster off to him...kept the docile kissy fish..next day he was in charge and
acting the same..dropped off at the pet store.

Suggestions??? Looking for some color and really don't want a school of neon tetras (good color but just
too small)... Maybe 3-5" max I would say so that I can have a few and a variety. Son like the blood parrots (dyed I'm sure - I know many say no way )-from what I can see they may not work out so well.
I am willing ot give up a few of the small fish I have to get size/color.

Thought of the yellow lab cichlid's = seem on the less aggressive side.. Just don't know - reading all types of stuff on forums and some people seem to have it work out mixing some but HELP.

Hopefully that's enough = I'd like to open to stocking suggestions.. 4 ft 55 gallon a few smaller live plants + few plastic.. some hiding spots (large bell + rocks w/ hiding areas).. thanks for your creative suggestions.........

 

[Wills]

Hi there wow an extra 50 gallons thats quite a lot more room Few comments about your stock and ideas so far,

Dwarf Gourami - Good fish for the tank but I would consider trying to swap one of the males for an other female, the females have shorter stubby dorsal fins where as the males flow more.

Skirt tetra - Good fish for the tank, but all tetras need to be in school of at least 6

Serape tetra - Same as Skirt tetra but known to be very nippy especially with things like guppies, these could have been the reason why the other guppies died. Due to stress of constantly being fin nipped

Chinese algae eater - On okay fish for the tank, not a good choice for the 5g though. They get quite large and very aggressive as they get older again a contender for having killed your guppies

Guppy - Again good choice for the tank, could consider some more males if you want. However they do occasionally clash with dwarf gourami with the dwarf gourami not liking the guppies and showing aggression towards them.

Kissing Gourami - Get pretty big and as you found out aggressive so yeah you did the best thing

Parrot Fish - If they are died I can not urge you enough not to buy them, it is an utterly cruel practice and despite it putting the fish at extreme risk of disease and death in buying them you show support for them and a need for the trade to supply them which just is not the case. Im afraid its an issue of supply and demand and as hobbyists we need to cut demand completely. However if they are an orangey colour they are not dyed thats the colour they are bred to be. They are also a hybrid fish with all kinds of genetics in them and the smile is actually a genetic default that is bred into them, they can never close their mouths and that can lead to eating issues. Additionally their sizes are pretty unpredictable, usually getting to about 8 inches but a member has got an adult the other day and they are a massive 13 inches!

Yellow Labs - There are a few members that have decided to try and mix african cichlids with a community envrionment. It is a matter of luck at the moment due to the fact they are working personally I think it is a matter of time till something goes wrong. Also with african cichlids its not just the high levels of aggression its also their water needs that make them unsuitable for community tanks as they need a high Ph in the water which is provided by crushed coral sand on the bottom and also rocks that will react in water to raise the hardness and Ph of the water. However a 55 gallon tank is a good size to do an african cichlid tank in and its not that much harder than community tanks if you wanted to consider it, there are quite a lot of colourful fish if you go down that option but your choice.


I think the best direction to take the tank would be keep the Dwarf Gourami and try to get 1 male with 2 females and a school of 6 Skirt Tetras maybe even 10 a big school is always a good thing and looks great. I think the tank is big enough to handle 2 pairs of gourami with ease so you could look at mid sized gourami like pearls? Or Thick lipped, you can get an awesome line bred orange thick lipped gourami that is pretty much just bright orange

Hope thats helped

Wills

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, good analysis by Wills. This story is interesting in that its been almost a perfect tour of many of the most aggressive fish one could think of! Kissings can be very dominant like and that actually, given the chance, dwarves can be too to a lesser extent. In fact its also true of the black skirt tetras, they can turn out to be stealth mean nippers, but will take a back seat to serpae who still are king in the nipping territory.

If you do decide to think about a large shoal of smaller colorful tetras, ones that are bigger than the neon/card option as you say, I'd maybe consider rummy noses as these grow to a significantly larger (for a small torpedo shaped tetra) body size than the neons and are colorful in a large shoal. If you were to decide to enlarge the skirts and serpae into shoals then perhaps another shoal could be Lemons, as they would be third down the nipping scale from the other two and presumably could hold their own and they are similar body shape to the serpae. Lemons are more subtle in that you don't notice the color so much in the shop but it can get much better in shoals in the home tank.

~~waterdrop~~