Stocking ideas 55 Gallon

[dirtydogg]

Ok, so I've setup my 55G like this. First of it was a great bargain $50 for tank, stand, UGF, Air Pumps, Siphon, Heater, Thermometer, Air line. Not to thrilled about the UGF, but set it up anyway bc it came with it. I added an in tank filter medium sized rocks and decorations consisting of large rocks, slate caves and artificial plants.

Here is what I've thought about stocking in it:
6-Black skirt tetra already in there
8-Tiger Barbs
1-Red tailed Black Shark
1-Banded Leporinus
1-Gold Nugget Pleco

That's as far as I've gotten. Should be a very active tank. With some interesting medium sized species. I was hoping somebody here has some history with mixing some of these species and could give me a little heads up of they won't work together. Plus I still have some room in the tank, if anybody knows what else will work in there with them.

Other future plans include adding two Bio-Wheel filters, one at a time, to replace the in tank filter. Maybe some inverts or something.

 

[sylvia]

Those should all be fine but CFC posted (in your other thread) that the leporinus would be very aggressive. Those I have kept were not but I had them in a species tank. You may want to re-consider that fish or at least be prepaired to remove it if it causes problems.

 

[dirtydogg]

After reading some more about them I've decided not to go with the leporinus. Any ideas what else would work in there? I would love to have another fish in the 6"-8" range.

 

[sylvia]

You could try some kribs/pulcher though obviously they are not in the 6-8" range.

Clown barbs, spanner barbs, spot-tail rasboras - are not quite as large as you'd like I think but close.

Various species of anostomus could work.

You could try some kissing gouramies but there is no guarantee they could deal with so many fin nippers. Similarly, you could try moonlight gouramies or three-spots but there's no telling how they would be with the barbs and black skirts as their ventrals are prone to being nipped off by overly nippy fish.

 

[fufanu360]

what about some firemouths or some sort of cichlid?... i doubt the cichlids would take the tetras or any babrs very well though

 

[dirtydogg]

I was tossing around the idea of an acarra, but I'm not sure if they'll tolerate the smaller fish.

 

[fufanu360]

no... i think an accara would be like adding an oscar to a guppy tank....

 

[dirtydogg]

what about a parrot cich? They have a really small mouth, and my lfs just got some in that aren't dyed, I think. They are of a yellowish/brown color with a greenish color near there dorsal fin.

 

[fufanu360]

thats a good idea, although there mouths can be quite big when full grown, i dont think there should be any problems... all though they cant really do any harm, parrots are very aggresive too... not the best community fish, but i think it woul work!

 

[dirtydogg]

They are kind of slow moving right? Like the tetra and barbs wouldn't have much of a problem getting away from them. . . I hope.