New 55 gal tank

aj2998 · 09-09-2006, 04:26 PM

Hello, I'm new to this forum. I just started cycling my 55 gallon so it will be a while yet before I'm ready for the fish. I was wondering about types of fish to put in the tank. I was thinking of gorumie's, guppies, a pleco or other algae eaters, molly's, other suggestions? I'm also thinking of doing just a chiclid tank - still not quite sure yet. What is your experience with these or other fish you can suggest.

Thanks
Amanda

ahill3780 · 09-09-2006, 04:51 PM

Welcome to FishTankForums!

55 gallon is an excellent choice to start with for your system, congrats on a choice well made!

As you will soon learn if you stick around here for long, I am not extensively experienced in freshwater tanks. I have kept them though, and I help my brother keep his 75 gallon planted community in order.

IME, Guppies and Mollies are great for beginners to the hobby. These guys are Livebearers and will give birth to fry easily in almost any tank. Raising baby fry is a great way to introduce new people to the hobby. Its a fun experience to watch and be a part of. These guys are omnivores and should be fed a mix of both flake based foods as well as meaty foods. Doing so should promote healthy growth and increased coloring, along with healthier fry IMO.

Cichlids are beautiful fish, and some of the more exotic FW fish IMO. They are, however, aggressive and do best kept as a species only community tank. They are carnivorous fish and should be fed a suitable diet in order for them to stay healthy and keep their colors vibrant.

Plecos get big in the tank so don't get more than 1 if you decide to get any. Algae eaters are also not totally reliant upon algae as a foodsource and their diet should be supplemented with a variety of different foods. Others here in the forums can give you several ideas of what should work for you.

I don't know much about Gouramis (sp?) though I guess I should ask someone to fill us both in since my brother has one.

Loman · 09-09-2006, 04:57 PM

Amanda,
Welcome to the forum.

It sounds like you know this from the post but Chichilds are typically kept in a tank dedicated to that species. Personally I would be hesitant to put graumies and guppies together due to the size difference. Especially kissing graumies can tend to harm other fish that are not of a comparable size. In a 55 gallon tank you probably could get away with mixing them so long as you keep the numbers overall fairly reasonable. You mentioned Molly's which I think are great fish. I personally always lie to have a few zebra danios. They are not what I would consider aggressive but they move a lot and cause the other fish to move as well.I had a 75 gallon freshwater tank for many years and the challenge I noticed was that many of the medium sized fish would tend to grow more than the smaller fish so the size difference in size seems to increase. For example I had several small angles to start with that where eventually 4 to 5 inches in diameter. My pleco became huge but never bothered anyone. I also had a couple sharks that grew significantly in that tank. When I first started out I could probably of had small fish like guppies and/or neon tetras but over time the fish grew to a point where they would not be advisable in my opinion.

aj2998 · 09-09-2006, 06:57 PM

Thanks for taking the time for relpying. I think you are right about the size difference - gorumies and angles can get quite big. I keep going back and forth between the FW community tank and the chiclid species tank. I think I would like a variety of fish so at this point I'm leaning towards the FW community tank. Also I was browsing my LFS and came across frogs. What is your experience with these guys and would a pleco bother them?

Loman · 09-09-2006, 10:22 PM

Aj,
I had a huge pleco in my 75 gallon at the end (in fact it was the last fish in the tank). He grew a good deal while I had him but I had some fairly small fish initially in that tank and then slowly moved to a bigger set of fish. The Pleco was never a problem with any fish and also was never really picked on either. I think they are a great fish

aj2998 · 09-09-2006, 10:35 PM

Thanks for you help I have herd plecos are REALLY passive but I know they scan the bottom and I just didn't want a sleeping frog sucked up by mistake!

Tommy Gun · 09-24-2006, 05:30 PM

I have, until recently, kept both a 55 gallon community tank and a cichlid tank. Both are awesome and so I wouldnt want to sway you either way. However there are somethings to think about.

Community tanks are nice and breeding does make a great past time. My experience with a 55 gallon molly/platty tank was good for a long time, until I couldnt keep up with the breeding. I couldnt get rid of the fry fast enough and when I moved into my new house, I took the tank down. Four mollies and 2 platties ended up being hundreds of each. This is not to say it is a bad tank, but it does take some added time and effort. If you want to keep the fry, you will need a fry tank (I had a 10 gallon that I cloned from the first tank) or one of those little tanks that will hang on the tank side. The only problem I found was that when I had fry, I usually wasnt there to catch em before they were eaten. You can increase the fry's chances by having a lot of plants or hiding places (in this case fake plants count).

You can also get plecos that do not get huge like common ones. I have a bristlenose pleco and at over a year old it is only 5 or 6 inches long. Plecos are not the only option either and can be messy. I would find amazingly long strings of waste in my tank that were equally amazingly hard to vaccum up. I have tried a chineese algea eater as well and they are cleaner but get large and can be aggressive. Siameese algea eaters and flying foxes are good as well, but I cannot comment on them since I have not dealt with they yet. Snails are a good option, but they can breed super fast and in huge numbers (some speicies) and a tank can be over run quickly. I have ONE apple snail that is getting huge, but it is great at cleaning the glass and hard to get spots on decorations.

Cichlids are also great fish and they definately qualify as 'colorful'. There are very spacific combinations you should keep together though, but in my experience, if you stick to one lake or area, you can make a cichlid tank work pretty easily. Community tanks also have vertain compatability issues as well.

I will go 'against the grain' here a little though and say that it is sometimes ok to mix cichlids with community fish. If you read my signature, I have cichlids and tiger barbs together. I use the tiger barbs as 'dither' fish to distract the more aggressive cichlids and thus keep the tank calmer and more active at the same time.

I would suggest that you do the opposite of me and research the types of fish you are interested in. I know that in the cichlid world, most times if you are looking at one fish and find it wont work with another one you want, there are similar fish that may be better. This is the reason that I joined forums like these, to find out what I was doing wrong and what I was doing right. Most times you can get really accurate and good information.

P.S. I do not think you would be able to 'suck up' a sleeping frog with a python. If you watch close enough you should be able to save it.

Jay · 09-24-2006, 06:19 PM

I really like that

Tiger barbs with cichlids

Quote:

I will go 'against the grain' here a little though and say that it is sometimes OK to mix cichlids with community fish. If you read my signature, I have cichlids and tiger barbs together. I use the tiger barbs as 'dither' fish to distract the more aggressive cichlids and thus keep the tank calmer and more active at the same time.

Not against my grain.

Clearly I am a little more interested in plants, but my 75 community is populated with specimen pairs or groups. Spawning and breeding rarely happens or is encouraged. The guppy tank, however, is another story

Jay

aj2998 · 09-24-2006, 08:55 PM

Well I've been researching online and I think I narrowed it down to clown loaches, cory catfish, dawarf gourmies, bala catfish, and maybe a few mollies. My tank is still cycling so there is plenty of time to change my mind (again!)

Tommy Gun · 09-24-2006, 09:02 PM

Clown loaches are going to do better in groups, I have heard anything from as little as three to as many as five as a minimun recomendation. I had four for a while and they did fine. They are somewhat shy, but that is another story....

My point was going to be that you seem to have quite a few bottom feeding fish, especially if any of those are going to require groups along with the loaches. IMO, this creates a situation in which you are going to almost have to overfeed in order to ensure no one is starving down there. My 55 gallon tank, with the cichlids and tiger barbs, only has a BN pleco and four clown loaches until recently (loaches were getting way to big) and it was working well (to add a point, both the barbs and loaches were used as 'dither fish' from above and below. it worked awesomely)

My last point is that clown loaches are nice, but they do get big, real big and even though it takes them a long time to get there, you will eventually have to think of how to rehome them. I read somewhere that they get big enough to be considered fine dining in some areas of the world.

I dont want to squash any of your ideas, but just wanted to give you some more to think about. you may want to look at only a couple bottom feeding type fish and then go for middle of the tank fish and even some top of the tank fish. This is what I learned to stick to and it has helped alot.