Hello all. Sailfin Zach is my 11 year old son, and I wanted to thank everyone for giving him advice, even if I don't agree with all of it.
He wants to add 2 more Swordtails or a trio of Platinum Gouramis. Of course I told him the Gouramis aren't from Central or South America like the rest of his stock so it'd be a community tank rather than the Central/South American tank he was trying for. Otherwise Platinum Gouramis are a good choice since they're larger, slower, less aggressive type of Gourami and a nice centerpiece fish for a 55 gallon. My only question is how they'd do with the Angels, who so far are rather docile as far as Angels go.
In my experience Swordtails are one of the least aggressive Livebearers. At one point he had 1 Sword, 1 Molly, 1 Platy & 1 Variatus in the same tank. They were all males and they chased and generally harassed each other, well all except the Swordtail, who just minds his own business. I also have a few friends on here and elsewhere who swear the Swords are the least aggressive of the livebearers and I've never heard anyone claim otherwise until this thread.
This tank is fairly understocked. He has small Tetras that don't bother anyone, well except the Lemon Tetra goes after the Black Phantom male, but rarely. The Bolivian Ram pair bother no one, I see no reason they'd try to eat a Swordtail, especially since there's already one in the tank that they ignore. In fact the most aggressive fish in the tank by far is the unruly Bristlenose Pleco, who we plan to replace because he terrorizes the poor Corries, who of course bother no one.
The tank is shown in his signature but the stock has changed a bit, it's exactly what he posted in his first post in this thread. The plants have grown out quite a bit more than they appear in his signature as well. I would classify it as a moderately planted tank, as opposed to the heavily planted tank shown in my signature.
Sorry for the long post...............
