# Fish for my 55 gal.



## yellowfox (Nov 14, 2006)

Gold/red hony gourami 
neon
lepard danio
1-2 pleco of a small verity
any suggestion on numbers for each of theis fish in a newly planted tank, after its dun cycling? what order should they be added ?


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

I would start with either a small school of neons, 6 to 9 and or 2 bristlenose plecos. If you go with the Plecos, you will get ahead start with keeping the algae to a minimum. If you start with the plecos, don't feed them, just let them graze, but make sure you have a pc of soft driftwood in the tank, they eat that too, and it helps them with their digestion. I like the albino bristlenose, and the long fin, I know a local (Phoenix, AZ) breeder who sells them (long fin) for $7, PM me if you can't find them locally.

In a 55, I think you would be o.k. to add both the neons (keep it to 6) and the plecos, as long as your filtration is good, and you have a well planted tank, not heavily stocked, but well planted.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I agree that it would be the best to add the smallest fish first so they get to know the tank before anyone else comes in. In a 55, you could probably easily go with 15 - 20 Neons to make a nice school. They have such a small body mass that they wouldn't add much to your bio load at all.

You could also probably have one honey gourami, a small Pleco or two (like a bristlenose, rubbernose or pecoltia) and a half a dozen of the danios.

Let us know how it goes.


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## p3purr (Nov 6, 2006)

7 or so Harlequin Rasbora or maybe a school of Glowlite tetra would be good.
Patricia


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## yellowfox (Nov 14, 2006)

has anyone bought fish from fish2u ?


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## bristles (Mar 7, 2006)

If the tank has no fish in it, I like to use danios as the fist occupants as they are tuff as nails and if the cycle is not complete they will not die easily. after a few weeks I would add the pleco's (I like ancistrus best in a planted tank) so they can get started on the algae maintenance. then after another week or so I would add the school of neons (no less than 12 as they feel less stress in a larger group), neons sometimes can be sensitive to water conditions and adding them right from the start could possibly put them at risk. Then after the neons have settled in for a week or so I would add the gourami as the it will most likely be the most dominant fish on your list. There are many different opinions on tank stocking & these are just mine. So have fun with your tank & post a photo of it if you can.


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## yellowfox (Nov 14, 2006)

Here is my tank , needs more light. but all the plants are growing good except the moss and the red plant is turning green( but still growing great). won't be getting fish till around Christmas or after. So hopefully it will be dun cycling by thin.The gourami I want to get is the smallest about 1 inch it is yellow and red. fist2u.com is the only place I have found them so far


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## goalcreas (Nov 20, 2006)

I really like your wood, this is a nice set up, I think your choice to wait on fish that long might not be necessary. 
How are you cycling the tank now, are you dosing Amonia, or just adding some food to the tank, you need something in there to get the cycle started.
Unless your worried about money and the holidays, you should go ahead and get some fish in there, the plants will help with the bio matter while the tank is getting fully cycled. Keep in mind it willl need to adjust every time you put fish in, so waiting until it is fully cycled, is not really an option unless you are dosing the tank some way.

for sure, don't wait until after the holidays and then put all the fish in though, that would be too much for the tank.


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## bigtroutz (Nov 17, 2006)

If you have access to another established tank (yours or a friends) you can add mulm or sponge filter squeezings into the tank to speed up development of the tank's nitrogen cycle. You will need some source of ammonia (eg a few hardy fish or household plain ammonia) for the bacteria to feed on though. If you can do this, there is no need to wait to add a few fish and you can fully stock the tank in less than 10 days or so. 

I added plain household ammonia (no detergents) and added sponge filter squeezings after adding the ammonia and again when the nitrite spiked and this seemed to be very effective. The nitrite level dropped to zero only 2 days after adding the last squeezings.

My planted tank was cycled in about a week using this method. Doing the cycle without mulm or squeezings can take up to 2 months.

I would add algae feeders like otos, SAE, or plecos as soon as the algae appears. Diatoms (brown algae) seem to bloom in new tanks early on and otos just munch the stuff. Platys and mollies are fairly good about eating filamentous green algae if you dont feed them too much and they are cheap fish (add males only if you don't want alot of fry).

Check ammonia and nitrite levels before adding Otos; they should be close to zero. Most pleco species are pretty hardy though but i would wait until the cycle is almost done.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

yellowfox said:


> has anyone bought fish from fish2u ?


Yes I have, and have always been very impressed with the quality of the fish I've received from them.


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## yellowfox (Nov 14, 2006)

Im waiting on a better test kit for my water. Some how i got ammonia in my tank already ,its gone down now but my nitrite and nitrate are still bouncing up and down.my water is very soft gh 75, kh 0-40 ,ph 6.8 with the co2 . nitrite is 3.0 , nitrate is 20 ppm ammonia is 3.0. I just using a cheep jungle brand test kit the dip stick kind. Im changing 25% -50% water 2 or 3 times a week. I used some top soil made of potash sand and bark. that might have some thing to do with the tests too.:fish2:


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## caymandiver75 (Sep 7, 2006)

I also have a 55 gallon. Not the easiest to work with as a planted tank, but since it's my first I'm not going to complain. I have about 15 neons, 3 cardinal neons, 2 black neons, 4 platy's, clown loach, 1 pracox rainbow and they are all doing well. I also started off with my tank cycling with a few platy's and a zebra danio and as much as I'd like to remove the Danio..I just can't catch him. I think he adds stress to the other fish as he likes to chase them around.


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## yellowfox (Nov 14, 2006)

Well ? I got my first fish for my tank. 2 rubber pleco's ( incase I loos one ). they alredy cleaned off the top of one of my decrations last night. I also got 10 ghost shrimp . I have a fealing the plecos are going to eat them. but Ill never be able to tell as the shrimp are all but imposable to see. I can only find 3 at any given time. could only find 5 right after i turnd them loos in the tank. every one seems happy this morning.:-\" we will have to wate and see what hapens.


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## caymandiver75 (Sep 7, 2006)

yellowfox said:


> Well ? I got my first fish for my tank. 2 rubber pleco's ( incase I loos one ). they alredy cleaned off the top of one of my decrations last night. I also got 10 ghost shrimp . I have a fealing the plecos are going to eat them. but Ill never be able to tell as the shrimp are all but imposable to see. I can only find 3 at any given time. could only find 5 right after i turnd them loos in the tank. every one seems happy this morning.:-\" we will have to wate and see what hapens.


I have a few ghost shrimp too and I have a feeling my clown loach is eating them. He also has an appetite for snails.


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## yellowfox (Nov 14, 2006)

I found 8 of my shrimp at lunch so I think ther still in there. though I may have to get some thing to eat snails soon . I am finding eggs every were. and Im shore that what ever fish i get for that will eat my shrimp. oh well.
caymandiver75 why is 55 g tank hard to work with ? Im finding my to be a bit small to work with. my plant are already spreading fast. and because I didn't know what and how the first set of plants grow I now need to rearrange my tank to get the most out of some of my plant . and that is some thing Im not looking forward to.


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## caymandiver75 (Sep 7, 2006)

yellowfox said:


> I found 8 of my shrimp at lunch so I think ther still in there. though I may have to get some thing to eat snails soon . I am finding eggs every were. and Im shore that what ever fish i get for that will eat my shrimp. oh well.
> caymandiver75 why is 55 g tank hard to work with ? Im finding my to be a bit small to work with. my plant are already spreading fast. and because I didn't know what and how the first set of plants grow I now need to rearrange my tank to get the most out of some of my plant . and that is some thing Im not looking forward to.


Well like you I too for the longest time found it hard to deal with the plants spreading so quickly. This is my 1st planted tank and I had no idea which plants would grow quickest, where to put them, etc. Thing about the 55 gallon is that it doesn't have enough depth. 13 inches is just too narrow.

BTW..Get a clown loach for the snails. You will love him!


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## yellowfox (Nov 14, 2006)

Well I lost one shrimp yesterday but all the other ones I find look bigger then when I got them. My tank is almost spotless. so Im feeding my new pets now .Every one seems happy and the pleco's aren't interested in the shrimp at this time but Im going to have to find something to eat the snails . 
yea the 55 is defiantly to narrow. but I like most of the plants I have except the Java ferns . I have a rotala said it was giant red but now it looks just like the picture of the variegated on plant finder, I love its new color, some val of some kind id get it planted in the right place( back left corner ). some chain swords I planted in the back right corner I need to move to middle were I have most of the Java ferns (between the fake drift wood). some pearl grass I need to thin and spread out in the front of the tank were the rest of the Java fern is . and the light green plant have know idea what it is ( was an extra that was given to me for buying the the other plants) But it makes a nice contrast against the rotala. and the last thing i have is the moss its ether Xmas or Java . all most died off but is coming back with a vengeance now it seems to be flowering sends out long thin branches with what looks like a little green flower in th forks.


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