What fish should I get?

[fuzionbeanz]

So yeah, I have this 55 gallon tank I got for free. I've had it for over 6 weeks with no problem. We had to move it, though, because I was moving. I had an angelfish and a pleco in it. Now, it's just the pleco. The angelfish didn't make the move -- poor sensitive fishy. This, however, has opened me up to something I've wanted to do for a while, expand the tanks inhabitants.

I'm really not sure what I want to do with the tank yet in terms of plants, rocks, or even fish mixture. I like color and active fish. I like lighting effects. I kinda dig the live plants. I'd like to maybe do a large rock or two also. I saw one tank with a couple of raised platforms on the sides and thought that would be cool.

Any other thoughts or suggestions? If you had a fairly empty 55 gallon, what would you put in it?

I'm really totally open to thoughts, concepts, and ideas. I kinda like being in this position, too.

We also have a 15 gallon tank that's completely empty that, depending on what I decide to do, will become the baby fish tank (if I decide to breed), or just a small tank for a few territorial fish together. But I'm more interested in the 55 gallon for now.

Thanks in advance! I've found a lot of reading material and am excited to begin to journey once more.

Oh yeah, my family had guppies and mollys before and we successfully bred both for multiple generations. We also had a pleco that survived forever and some tetras that survived as well. So I'm not a total fish n00b, thankfully.

[cocoa_pleco]

how about the pleco, 25-30 cardinal tetras, and 2-3 rams?

[Ellen4God]

Everyone, meet my friend! I told him this was a GREAT site!

I don't really have any suggestions or anything right now - just thought I'd leave a comment saying you were a friend. :)

[Nick89]

You could have a pair of Severums, black belt cichlids are cool. But it depends. Maybe a pair of green terrors? I like cichlids, so thats why i named a few if i had an extra 55g. Right now i have 1 oscar in my 55.

[fuzionbeanz]

One thing I did forget to mention is I want to stay away from tetras. I like the bigger fish. Especially with a 55 gallon. Plus bigger fish are just fun and can be extremely funny at times. :19:

Thanks for the suggestion though. It is a consideration I'll take.

[cocoa_pleco]

you could try a jack dempsey then, but make sure the pleco doesnt get abused

if you wanted more docile fish try a pair of severums

[ILuvMyGoldBarb]

Personally I'd go with the Green Terrors. They are a beauty. If you want some thing aggressive you could check out Uarus

[fuzionbeanz]

Oh yeah, I'd prefer some of the semi-aggs. I don't really dig the fully aggs, eating lesser fish isn't nice. lol. Great ideas with the severums and green terrors. I looked at some pics and am highly intrigued by what I could do with them and some good plant life.

[cocoa_pleco]

or how about dwarf cichlids? like apistos, rams, and kribs? they do well in planted tanks

[Nick89]

Well thats the thing with cichlids.. you really don't know what their attitude will be like. 1 can be really nice, the other can be really mean.. My old severum couldn't have any tank mates. Especially with the South American cichlids. But i think a pair of gold or green severums would be nice. They get fairly big 8-10".

[fuzionbeanz]

Actually, the more I look into the gold severums and the green terrors, the more I'm becoming sold on the idea of a tank with a couple of each. If they get too agg towards each other, then I'll shift things around and get a new tank -- thank goodness for a dad who wants this to work as much as me! Lol. I also would like suggestions on doing rocks and plantlife right. Any ideas/thoughts/suggestions?

[Nick89]

You could possibly get 1 Green terror, 1 severum, and possibly another 1 or 2 smaller sized cichlids. Just be sure to add some hiding spots like using ceramic pots, or the fake logs at pet stores they have that the fish can go in. I have the ceramic pots and they look cool.

[fuzionbeanz]

I'm thinking maybe 1 green terror, 1 gold severum, 1 salvini cichlid, and 1 blood parrot. kind of a nice full mix. if it doesn't work out, i'll shift around as needed. I do like the idea of the ceramic pots. I'd heard of it, but never thought of trying it. I need to definitely get some big rocks/caves and some plants. It's practically empty for a tank. Lol.

[Tigerbarb]

You could get a few chunks of rock and add some african cichlids, or if the pleco ever passed you could get an oscar for it.
You could also make it a semi-aggressive community tank.
Another idea is to make it a miniature pond, with a pond-like theme and a goldfish or two in it.

[Nick89]

If you do get ceramic pots, be sure they aren't glazed. And be sure they aren't clay. But you get the ceramic ones, then boil them in water for 20 mins each. But yeah that sounds like a nice mix of fish. What you plan on having for filtration?

[fuzionbeanz]

I'm not totally sure, any suggestions? I'm really enjoying being able to start this tank from pretty much scratch. It definitely gives me more ownership than I had before.

[Nick89]

You could get a few chunks of rock and add some african cichlids, or if the pleco ever passed you could get an oscar for it.
You could also make it a semi-aggressive community tank.
Another idea is to make it a miniature pond, with a pond-like theme and a goldfish or two in it.


Ok few problems with this. 1, the person wanted larger semi-aggressive fish. Africans are smaller aggressive fish. I'm pretty sure the person wants more than 1 fish in the 55, so an oscar isn't a good choice as it can be the only fish in the tank. And goldfish arent really semi-aggressive. But as for filtration i think the best is a canister filter. If you have the money then the fluval 405 is good for the 55, its more efficient filtering with canisters, the rena xp3 is good, or the xp4 which might be a little more than whats needed. I think the rena xp3 or the fluval 405 would be a good choice.

[Halelorf]

You could a oscar if you wanted a big fish. As for filtration my 55 gallon goldfish tank has a rena xp3 that setup very fast and has worked awesome. It's super quiet in my room, I sleep 5 feet away from it and i'm a light sleeper.

[fuzionbeanz]

With that mix (the cichlid one we've talked about already), I think I would need a heater, right? Would a ETH 300 In-Line Heater 300W be sufficient for the size tank, or should I look into something else?

[Halelorf]

I use visitherm heaters in all of my tanks and they are very reliable and fairly cheap too.

[Nick89]

Yes but the person said they wanted more than 1 fish.. 1 oscar in a 55g is the limit really. And as for a heater yes, most tropical fish need the water to be around 76-80F degrees . Visi-therm heaters are very good. I run 1, 250 watts on my 55g.

[fuzionbeanz]

Thanks for the heater recommendation. And water pump recommendation to tie in with the canister filter?

Also, any live plant-life recommendation? I'm going to do a little live plant-life and some fake stuff along with a couple ceramic pots(good suggestion and idea, sox, thnx.) and a couple of larger rocks with holes.

As for lighting, I think I'm going to stick with flourescents, but had the idea to do some lighting at the bottom of the tank up towards the top. Is this even achievable?

[Nick89]

No problem, the ceramic pots look really good in a tank i think. And i would definitely get something to create movement on the surface, maybe a bubble bar or 2? Im not really sure about live plants, as i havent had any before. And the light im not sure on either.

[cocoa_pleco]

you can do lighting from the bottom to top with submersible lights but they probably wont sustain growth, on stock lights some java fern, java moss, and other low light plants work well

[fuzionbeanz]

Thanks for all the help. I'm going to begin acquiring the mechanical pieces one by one and then once I've stabilized the tank, I'll look into getting the severum, green terror, blood parrot, and salvini cichlid...and maybe one other smaller cichlid or pleco.

I'm also going to scope out the live plant life a bit, although I like the idea of the java fern and maybe another low light plant.

I'm going to do the submersible lights, maybe just one in a corner angled outward so it only hits the top edge of the tank and because the light will spread out it shouldn't be a direct hit on the plantlife.

I'm going to pick up two good sized rocks to place together with some room between in the middle of the tank.

I'm going to pick up some small and medium sized ceramic pots(not clay and not glazed) from pottery mart and do the boil method. The medium ones I'll crack and split in ways that create unique decoration and unique hiding places.

And I like the bubble bars idea. I may do one or two depending on how things shake up with the rest of everything.

I hope to have the tank set up minus the fish by the end of May (hey, I'm a patient guy and it'll be worth doing it the right way even if it takes a while).

Any other suggestions, thoughts, ideas, etc?

I appreciate all your help, and once I start building the tank, I'll post pics at each stage. You all rock!

[Nick89]

Well you might not have to boil the ceramic pots. Maybe using just hot water and make sure its clean would be ok.

[fuzionbeanz]

Ok, well, I picked up my fish the other day. Here's what I ended up getting:

2 Green Terrors (Already show the little spots of iridescence. Can't wait till these two grow bigger)
1 Turquoise Severum (Not sure if this is really a green severum, won't know till he acclimates to the new environment)
1 Blood Parrot (Beautiful fish that will only grow more beautiful as he gets older)

And finally...

1 Tiger Oscar (He has BEAUTIFUL markings on him in the typical orange color, and I can't wait for him to grow bigger)


Now, I know, most people won't take the chance on an Oscar with the others, but so far they are playing nice. The Tiger Oscar is the least tempremental. The Blood Parrot is officially the most territorial (and also the biggest chicken of the camera).

And my Pleco is pretty big now. Up to about 8 inches or so.

I'm glad to finally settle some stuff in and enjoy the tank's newfound beauty.