55g community tank

[luke-ns]

hello there, im in the middle of setting up a new 55g community tank and iv just completed my fishless cycle for 3 weeks.
im hoping to have a planted tank with nice peaceful fish. The question in hand is what fish should i stock it with? open to all suggestions.
cheers.

[mizzoutank]

Question 1:
Are you open to shipping fish?
If not, take a stroll at your LFS and list what is available so we can give suggestions off that

[luke-ns]

i have 3 LFS and they all have a huge selection esp when you combine them together, i would like schooling fish maybe but not too small as to limit what other fish can go with.. im thinking rams, barbs, neons maybe hatchets at the top and br or corys at the bottom? Its more the amount of fish i should put in the school and i want a few schools witout over stocking it?
asking a lot i know lol.

[mizzoutank]

A few schools will be tough. 55g is a good amount of space, but you'll be amazed at what one massive school could look like.

10 cory's at the bottom
1 Bn pleco.
3 bolivian rams (as they are much hardier than the other species with the same personality)
20 neons
10 of your favorite tetra (but no barbs. they don't mix well with others...generally keep those as entire barb tanks)

ideally, it'd be great as a neon tank and just use them as a massive school. if you remove the other tetra #, i think with proper filtration and pwc, you can pull off 40neons.

[talldutchie]

Yeah.. but if OP lives in an area where he has liquid rock on tap he's going to see serious losses in this group. Also I really would not recommend cories without knowing what's on the tank bottom.

[Amelia]

I really like Mizzou's stocking suggestion. I would suggest Harlequin Rasbora if you want to go with a second group of mid-top water schoolers. I have them and they are beautiful. I would probably vote Cardinals instead of Neons too.

As an alternative to cories, I might suggest 10 Dwarf Chain Loaches. They are more expensive than cories but totally worth the extra price. I have 8 and they dash all around the tank in a little group, sometimes romping around the bottom and sometimes schooling out in the open with my tetras for short periods of time. They are ALWAYS on the move and add a small burst of activity to my otherwise very slow and placid community tank. I have owned cories in the past as my go-to bottom-dweller but I would never own them again after my Dwarf Chains. They are one of the few fish which actually "play", and you will never have to worry about having a snail problem with your chains on the case. Easily my favourite community fish.

So I suggest:
10 Dwarf Chain Loaches
1 BN pleco.
3 bolivian rams
20 Cardinals
10 Harlequin Rasbora

Of course, as dutchie has pointed out, this stocking is dependent on the OPs pH.

[luke-ns]

i can range my ph anything from 6.5 to 7.2 depending on which tap i use, upstairs more acidic as its not mains water or downstairs which is mains and is 7.0/7.2 then water is treated obv.

As for substrate i have gravel currently but if sand is better i also have sand that i had in the tank before the gravel still.

[luke-ns]

i love both the idea from mizzoutank and ameliaaahx the only problem i don't know a lot about Dwarf Chain Loaches so id have to do a little research as for cardinals over neon's, look similar but cardinals are slightly bigger? does this mean less in a school? i like the idea of corrys, however my brother has 4 corrys and they breed like crazy so i dont fancy a tank over run with them if that seems fair lol. Keep your opinions coming :)
cheers.

[Amelia]

http://www.loaches.com/species-index...ia-sidthimunki

Some info on Dwarf Chains. You can also google them yourself. I'm sure you're capable of doing some of your own research.

Yes cardinals are a little bigger than neons, and they also have more red. 15 would be good.

Cories don't usually breed that much... are you sure you're not thinking of mollies, platys or guppies?

[luke-ns]

Thanks for the info :)
cardinals seem a good choice then, i might even go for a pure barbs tank, i like tiger barbs but iv had them before and they're awful nippy with other fish.
defo cories as they laid eggs and were bottom dwellers, not exactly easily mixed up with mollies and such lol
dwarf chains dont seem that easy to come across as iv never seen them before in my LFS's i may have to look online for some :)