# opinions for fish in a 55 planted tank



## saulat (Aug 7, 2009)

I started my tank several months ago and it has evolved into a 55 gallon densely planted tank. It is in need or pruning as well as rearranging, I very well may have put too many plants into it. I was very impressed with a tank at a LFS that contained different Rainbows, Rummynose tetra, some type of barb (think they said desani), a bright yellow bristlenose pleco, and some various other fish. I think there was a horse faced loach, I saw at least one cardinal or neon tetra, and a few others were in there. 

When I put my tank together it was done without a straight forward plan and I ended up with a community tank with several types fish. I have 2 clown loaches, 2 panda corys, 2 spotted corys, 2-4 brown corys, a few kuhli loaches, a few black kuhli loaches, 4 silver hatchet fish, 1 twig catfish, 2 rainbow sharks, 7 SAEs, 2 male and 4 female orange and black swordtails with a few fry, a few cherry shrimp and Caradina japonica or blue algae eating shrimp. I also dose fertilizer I mix, have 112 watts from 4 T5 bulbs, and pressurized CO2. I do a 50% water change every Sunday. 

I am thinking I want to copy what they have in their tank to a certain extent, maybe keeping my Khulis Corys, twig catfish, and shrimp. I am planning on uprooting all the plants and rearranging and pruning sometime soon and would like to catch the other fish and trade them in at the LFS. They have led me astray before and there rainbows are like 11 or 12 bucks a piece so I wanted to ask on here first. Are these fish fairly safe to keep together, I hear serpeas are nippier tetras and not sure if my shrimp are safe around all these guys. I mainly want to go for some irredescent colors and brighter colors to enhance the beauty of my tank. Any suggestions would be appreciated. This store has the best selection and plants are one thing but I am a little hesitant on ordering live fish in the mail especially as the weather gets colder.

One thought I had is to remove the male swordtails and just wait until the fish grow old and die and just replace them with tetras and rainbows, maybe toss in a pleco that won't get too large and uproot my plants.

A quick pick of my tank, my tank more recently, and the stores tank.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Your plan sounds good, and I'd definitely swap out those bigger fish, like you said.

Which kind of Rainbows are you thinking about? They'd have to be some of the really small ones in order to work out with the shrimp in the tank.


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## saulat (Aug 7, 2009)

Just had a baby or I'd have gotten back sooner. I am not sure what type my LFS has but they seem relatively expensive so I may go with aquabid. Catch some of my fish and then trade them in for whatever tetras I decide on. I really like my shrimp but I never see them so I almost don't care, unless of course buying some more would help. I am not sure they are worth it either unless I can breed them to maintain a population and I have only the one tank. I know at least one type of rainbow I saw at the LFS had like an orange back. I think I would like to stick to the medium and smaller species so I can have more of them. Not sure what species but aesthetically I am thinking more of the 1st and 3rd pics in this post.

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/photography/13562-canon-350d-50-mm-f2-5-a-6.html

As a side note I am in love with my dwarf red lily plant. Even without it flowering it grows so quickly and has such a neat color to it with nice full leaves.


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

saulat said:


> Just had a baby or I'd have gotten back sooner.


CONGRATUALTIONS!! Boy or girl? How big? :razz:

Anyway, I like the school of SAE's. As to the serpae tetras, I had bad luck with them once. I started with a school of 7, and they continually picked-off and killed the weakest fish in the group intil only 2 were left. They never bothered other fish, though (but I didn't have shrimp then either).

-Dave


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

If you're interested in dwarf r'bows, I breed Melanotaenia parva (they're orange red and get about 3-4".) Not as small as Pseudomugil species, but a blast to keep in a good sized tank.

as far as your posted link:
species 1 is Melanotaenia bosemani
2 is Glossolepis incisus
3 looks like a M. trifasciata

www.rainbowfish.info for more info.

GL! (Go with r'bows!)


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## saulat (Aug 7, 2009)

Thanks, she is a girl. Just over 20 inches and 7.06 pounds. 

My cousin dislikes tetras thinks they are like little piranha which I guess there is a resemblance.

I think I like the look of the M. bosemani maybe with the M. duboulayi. Do you know if any of the species will school together?


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

Wow, you're cousin is a very good guesser! Tetras and Piranha are both Characins. 

As for R'bows schooling, I wouldn't call it that. They are a little large and robust to do so naturally. Schooling is a behavior used to confuse and avoid predation. Small fish, and thus more edible to a wider range of predators, will do it. Bow's don't really have that kind of problem. They will, however, form a feeding pack. When you walk near the tank you can practically hear them saying "You know you want to feed us... just give us some food!" Even smaller r'bows like the Psuedomugil won't really do much of anything close to a school. Considering fish do it if they think they're going to possibly be eaten, I think that's a good thing not to do in captivity. A little stressful being in "flight" mode 24/7.


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## saulat (Aug 7, 2009)

Picked up some Rainbows today from Petland. They had them on sale for 5.99 so I thought I couldn't go wrong. Here are some pics. 

Not sure why but I can't upload one of them so I'll take another later and post it. No idea what species they are except the half yellow one I figure is a bosemani.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

Blue with red outline = praecox
black stripe down lateral line = trifasciata (im pretty sure)
1/2 orange = bosmani

nice 'rbows for a petland. beware some places get in hybrids, so fyi. since it doesnt sound like you're going to breed them, it's no big deal.


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## saulat (Aug 7, 2009)

The bosmani is chasing the other rainbows and hatchet fish around, is this normal? I didnt think they were aggressive at all. Hopefully he acclimates better.


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## Six (May 29, 2006)

just being a rainbow... lol. perhaps add more cover for the hatchet for the time being. a female bosemani may help too... 

id say he's acclimating the best, haha. this isnt aggressive behavior persay, more like active behavior. he's not trying to hurt or kill, just dominate. bosemanis are also a large species of r'bow. he's going to dominate a tank. just make sure the other fish have somewhere to go to get outta his way.


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## saulat (Aug 7, 2009)

Yeah, they do. All of them are doing pretty well and about to do my weekly maintenance. Think I am going to use a trap at some point and remove the sword tails and add in some more rainbows, very happy with the so far. There was one that wasn't identified and his color has improved like I thought it would. I got a super busy week with school so probably be a while though 'sigh'.


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