Setting Up Most Colorful 55g Community Tank, Need Help!

[gagaliya]

hello! i read the livebears stocking and fry guide by annastasia - very informative article. But now i am worried about my stocking list. The original plan was to create the most colorful community with lots male fancy guppies as show fish. But after reading the guide, it seems they will kill each other? Here's my original action plan:

equipment:

seaclear 50 gallon 36x15x20
3x aquaclear 50 power filter
2x vis thermal stealth heater
lots silk plants (20" to 2")


livestock:

a) guppies (all male) x10
B) endlers (all male) x4
c) cardenal tetra x10
d) whtecloud x4
e) golden whitecloud x4
f) panda cory x 6
g) golden harlequin rasboras x4
h) high fin platy x1
i) Topsail Platy x1
j) glofish (zebra danio) x6
k) cherry red shrimp x10

here my questions

1) obviously based on the article the above setup is very risky. i dont want to take any chance and have my fish die. So if i revise the list to have:

male fancy guppy x1
male endler x1
male high fin platy x1
male topsail platy x1

will this guarentee them not fight with each other? Or will they still take out aggression on different species of livebear? for example a topsail platy going after a high fin platy etc

2) how likely is it for my zebre danio to nip the fins of my guppies/platies etc?

any comments welcome, thanks!

 

[dwarfgourami]

I think your original plan was the best. The main problem with male guppies is if they are kept in pairs or small groups. With a group of 10 they should have plenty to occupy them without any one fish becoming the permanent victim. And they are very sociable fish, so a bit sad to keep them singly.

The only problems I see with your original list is that not all the species are compatible temperature-wise: White clouds want a much cooler tank (22C and below) than endlers and panda cories. There is also a risk that the danios might nip the guppies. I think I would be inclined to leave the danios and whiteclouds out. I would then up the number of rasboras to about 8, so as to get more schooling action, get at least 5 endlers, and also up the number of platies to 4 or 5. Platies are sociable creatures. The different variations of platies are still the same species (well, actually a lot of them are hybrids), so will interact with each other. But you can perfectly happily keep a slightly larger group of male platies- or females (there is no colour difference between males and females). I take it you don't intend to breed- if you do go for mixed gender groups (=breeding!), females should be in a ratio of 2-3 per male.

I must say I like this idea of a large tank with lots of small colourful fish. It will look brilliant! Don't forget to provide some caves or bogwood for your cories to shelter in. Platies and guppies also like things to do- like plants to weave in and out of, or bridges to swim under.

 

[gagaliya]

thank you! very helpful response. Yeah I dont want any breeding & plan to have lots plants and a ledge for the panda/fish to play around with. 1 more question, do you think i should keep 4-5x platies of each type (ie 4x high fin, 4x topsail) or wll 4 total be ok? (2x high fin 2x topsail).

The funny thing is i currently have a 8 gallon biorb(do not buy this) with exactly the fish that shouldnt be in the new tank: zebra danio + whiteclouds. Not too worried about whiteclouds they should be ok at anything below 80F if the temp goes up slowly. Zebra danio on the other hand i heard horror stories about how a group of them would rip apart all the fins on the guppies. Really not sure what to do at this point about those guys....

will post some pics once i have it all setup

 

[blitztidus]

Can't wait to see the pics. Either way would be fine just keep the male/female proportion correct.

 

[gagaliya]

Hey guys, just an update. I got my fancy guppies! All from aquariumfish.net online. They were shipped next day air. My final stock list for the 50 gallon will be:
1) 14x fancy male guppies (IN TANK)
2) 6-8x albino cory cat aenus (5 IN TANK, 1 DOA getting more)
3) 20x cardinal tetra (PENDING)
4) 30 cherry red shrimp (PENDING)

here are some followup questions:

1) i noticed some of my guppies are missing chunks of their tails, not sure if it was shipped to me that way, or chewed on by other guppies after they were put into my tank. The question is will they recover? will the tail grow back? they all seemed healthy currently. I added 50 gallon dose of bio coat to help.

2) do they lose their color when stressed? after i received my fish i was disappointed to see almost all of them are near colorless. But after putting them into the tank, the color seems to come back a little.

will be putting in the cardinal tetra and another 75 gallon dose of biospira this weekend.

pics coming soon

 

[dwarfgourami]

1) i noticed some of my guppies are missing chunks of their tails, not sure if it was shipped to me that way, or chewed on by other guppies after they were put into my tank. The question is will they recover? will the tail grow back? they all seemed healthy currently. I added 50 gallon dose of bio coat to help.

Reason for missing chunks could be either nipping (by their mates or someone else) or finrot. Either way they should heal if you keep their water really clean and add some coat-stuff (as you have).

[/quote]
2) do they lose their color when stressed? after i received my fish i was disappointed to see almost all of them are near colorless. But after putting them into the tank, the color seems to come back a little.
[/quote]

Yeah, that's normal.

 

[gagaliya]

thanks, i hope it's not fin rot! aquarumfish seems pretty responsible online store.

one more question, are guppies ok with a current? i noticed mine all huddled in a corner trying to swim upstream against the bubbles (from bubblewand) with little success, so i turned off the bubbles for now. Will put a control valve on my air pump to reduce the bubbles, but are guppies ok with some current or will stress and die off?

 

[dwarfgourami]

thanks, i hope it's not fin rot! aquarumfish seems pretty responsible online store.

one more question, are guppies ok with a current? i noticed mine all huddled in a corner trying to swim upstream against the bubbles (from bubblewand) with little success, so i turned off the bubbles for now. Will put a control valve on my air pump to reduce the bubbles, but are guppies ok with some current or will stress and die off?

Male guppies are not always very strong, so may struggle with a current.

 

[Nevergone815]

Hey guys, just an update. I got my fancy guppies! All from aquariumfish.net online. They were shipped next day air. My final stock list for the 50 gallon will be:
1) 14x fancy male guppies (IN TANK)
2) 6-8x albino cory cat aenus (5 IN TANK, 1 DOA getting more)
3) 20x cardinal tetra (PENDING)
4) 30 cherry red shrimp (PENDING)

i think that this will work out awsomely. i would prefer (personally) a mix of male and female in the guppies (3-4 male, 10-11 female), a mix of cardinal and neon tetras for slight color variation (like a 50:50 ratio) and only like 10-20 cherry shrimp. again that would be my preference but yours will work out just fine as well.

here are some followup questions:

1) i noticed some of my guppies are missing chunks of their tails, not sure if it was shipped to me that way, or chewed on by other guppies after they were put into my tank. The question is will they recover? will the tail grow back? they all seemed healthy currently. I added 50 gallon dose of bio coat to help.

the fins will most likely grow back over time. this is just from males nipping at each other over territorial aggression. you'll probably never be able to fully get rid of it as the males may still nip every once in a while.

2) do they lose their color when stressed? after i received my fish i was disappointed to see almost all of them are near colorless. But after putting them into the tank, the color seems to come back a little.

loss of color is just from stress and is normal when any fish is being shipped. try to avoid as much movement inside the tank (i.e. moving around things) until they get their full color back. keep the lights off as much as possible as this will allow them to settle easier. in a day or so... most if not all of their color should be back to normal.

will be putting in the cardinal tetra and another 75 gallon dose of biospira this weekend.

i know people who swear by biospira... what exactly is it? is it the stuff that allows you to add as many fish as you please at one time and introduces bacteria into the water to nullify the ammonia and nitrites? if so... where was it when i needed it at the beginnings of my tank?

pics coming soon

please hurry i cant wait to see them!!!

 

[Darkerwhite2]

wow can't wait to see picture... One of my next tanks is going to be about a 70 -75 gal tank with about 60-70 cardinals or neons

 

[gagaliya]

thanks guys for the response! Currently having some "technical difficulties" in finding large quantities of cardinal tetras from my trusted lfs(s). May need to order online, but those fish dont ship well so i am a bit reluctant.

I decided that may not be a bad idea to wait a little as biospira isnt working 100%(ammonia 0.25-0.5 currently). Cardinal tetras are notorious for massive dieoffs during introduction even with proper acclimation.

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Biospira is basically stage1+2 live bacterial in a bottle. You add to the tank, then a full load of fish right away, and your tank is instantly cycled. This is the ideal situation, HOWEVER there are many conditions that will prevent it from been successful, for example:
a) if you didnt shake it vigorously you are just adding water to the tank, while leaving most of the bacteria in the bag.
B) if it wasnt fridged properly, bacterial would become active and since there is no food, they would die. So one should only buy from "authorized" dealers instead of a lfs that has it on a shelf somewhere...
c) no water change for 48hrs, the bacterial will be free floating during the initial period trying to attach to your bio media, if you change the water the bacteriall will be gone along with the water
d) no uv, they kill bacteria
etc etc....

I added enough for 150 gallon to my tank, followed all proper procedure, unfortunately ammonia is still not 0. So all i can say is biospira works sometimes at best(or partially). BUT this is the ONLY product that MAY WORK. All those other crap like Cycle etc are useless.

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Didnt want neon tetra, because i am afraid of the dreaded neon tetra disease which will be a tank wipe most likely. Cardinal are surprisingly resistent to it.

 

[Nevergone815]

thanks for the inf on biospira. i was interested because my bacteria colony doesn't seem to be strong. even if my levels are good i add one fish and it spikes (i did the dreaded cycle with fish- doesn't produce the strongest colonies as the fishless cycle does)

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as for the neons... the dreaded neon tetra disease can be avoided but it might not be worth it in your case
and shouldn't be a prob if you keep your levels good and properly aclimate them. i never personally had a problem with neon tetra disease and my family gets them everytime they set up our 55 gal US hex tank

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as for the cardinal teras... just get like 5 or so, then add another 5-10 and so on until you get the 20 that you want to get. this may be the easiest as your trusted lfs might get limited shipments in and this way you only add a couple and let the levels go down and avoid unnecessary deaths (as your biospira isn't working well). just wait a week or so to let the levels go down before adding another group

don't worry the cardinals will find each other and form the large school that you obviously want to have

 

[gagaliya]

here's a video of my tank and current stock if you are bored as can see it's missing a school of fish that stays in the middle of the tank - cardinal tetras! The water is crystal clear, the particles are actually bubbles. If i didnt know better, i say guppies are bottom scanvengers...

http/64.246.6.234/fish.html

some pics..

my bare tank:

Equipment:
- 50G seaclear 36x15x20 acrylic
- big ale stinyray 36" stand
- 2x 100W vis thermal stealth heater
- 2x aquaclear 50 power filter (cant fit the 3rd one!!(*&#@(*#)
- tetra whisper 60 air pump with dual output -> double bubble wands
- Tom external lcd temp monitor/alert + analog intank thermometer
- Coralife automatic light on/off power strip
- 1x Coralife aquaglo bulb (need to buy a 2nd strip, tank too dim)


Aquascaped:

pigs, stealing all the cory's food: