Stocking Help?

[blur411]

I'm not ready to stock just yet...I'm doing a "fish in cycle" since I didn't read before buying a few fish...plus my tank came with one already.

It is a 55 gallon long tank, with a sand carib-sea substrate with a filter and heater

I have already:
3 fancy tail guppies
1 Pleco (unkown, I attached a picture to another post trying to find out what kind)
1 moon snail
2 ghost shrimp

I have a basic planted tank, working on more of those

I want to get:
Loaches (I was thinking 3-4 Clown Loaches)
3 Dalmation Mollies
Male Betta (not sure if I can put one in or not)
5 Cat Cory's

any recommendations?

 

[fluttermoth]

Forget the clown loaches; they get far too big for a 55g. If you want loaches, you could look at zebras or yoyos (I'd recommend zebras, yoyos can be quite boisterous IMO)

All loaches and coryodras do better in groups of at least six and would greatly benefit from having a sand substrate.

Male bettas and guppies generally don't mix; the betta (not being the brightest fish in the world!) will mistake the guppies for other bettas and attack them.

The mollies should be fine.

 

[blur411]

Thanks for the help! I really like the Zebra and YoYo's as well..so a few of those, with cat corrys, and the guppies with a few Mollies should be OK?

 

[fluttermoth]

I'd pick either the zebras or the yoyos, rather than a mix of the two, but yes, you should be fine with that stocking, IMO.

 

[blur411]

Thank you! At that point would that be about all I could put in there? Say I did 5 zebra loaches.