Tank Mates For New 45 Gallon

[Queen Bee]

I've been doing some research, and different sites give such a different opinion on the grouping of fish. Even 2 different lfs gave me completely different advice.

I am setting up a 45 gallon tank. (2 feet tall by 3 long). I have lots of bacteria to steal from other tanks, so shouldn't take long to get going.

Problem:

I wanted a different combo than my other tanks. There are fish I love, but can't keep with my other fish. What I would like to do is have a couple of each of the following: Angelfish, Rams, Pearl Gourami, and Paradise fish. I thought I would round out the tank with some swordtails as the ones I purchased earlier terrorized my guppies. The ph for all the fish are in the same range, as is the temperature. Some info I got said they will not go together, other said no problem being together.

Has anyone had any luck keeping these fish together? Any experience you can pass on to me to help me make my decision as to what to have in the tank?

Please help

 

[LauraFrog]

Personally I think you might have problems, firstly with the angels and secondly the paradise fish.

How many angelfish were you planning to put in there? I'd be worried about them being aggressive towards the rams, which are fairly sensitive fish. You could have either angels or rams with the gouramis no problem, but I'd be worried about having both. Paradise fish are obnoxious, most of them are about as nice (to each other and other fish) as bettas. Sometimes you can get away with it, sometimes you can't. I wouldn't put them with gouramis personally as they are in the same family.

Swordtails would be okay with everything except the paradise fish, which really are aggressive. You can keep them in individual 5 gallon tanks quite comfortably, and it's easier because they don't need heaters (they are coldwater fish but will tolerate tropical temperatures happily.)

 

[Davo86]

IMO if you lose the Paradise fish then you should be ok with 2 Angels, 2 Rams, 3 Pearls and a few swords.

IME Male Paradise fish always become too aggressive

 

[drobbyb]

I've seen them pecking out the eyes of other fish. Truly nasty attitudes.

 

[Queen Bee]

Too bad paradise are so nasty. They are beautiful, but I don't want the other fish being nibbled at.

I thought of having 2 angel fish, 1 male & 2 female ram, then round out the tank with gourami and a few swordtail for colour .

Thanks for the advice and input!

 

[meguro]

1 male & 2 female ram

You could change that to 1m2f cockatoo apisto, that is if you meant blue ram instead of bolivian. They're generally more hardier/resilient to blue rams and are fine with a lower temperature (~26C instead of 28C).

Have a look at some corydoras, ancistrus and loach species too. And you could probably fit in a shoal (6-10) of a smaller fish if you liked.

My suggestion would be:
1m2f cockatoo apistos
2 angelfish
2 gourami
1m2f swordtails
5 botia kubotai or 7 sterbai cory
1 common bristlenose
12 cardinels or 8 praecox

There are tons of fish to choose from.