Amanda

I just bought a 55 gallon tank for $30 - BARGAIN (craigslist.com). I also got a stand, filter (Whisper 30 - 60), and heater. I know that I still need to set up & let it cycle - but I'm trying to get some ideas on what I want to put in the tank eventually. I already have a male betta, a rubbernose pleco & an apple snail in an established 5 gallon tank. They will all be going in the new 55 gallon. I want an active - flashy tank. Any suggestions?

fishrule101

55 tank for 30 bucks thats awesome and a deal of a lifetime!! Anyways go SW the fish and choises are endless. The rewards will really pay off. For live stock I would say more snails. The one snail must be so lonley. How about some neon tetras?? There active and flashly.

sirdarksol

I would suggest leaving the betta in the 5g. Bettas generally don't do well in community tanks, and they greatly limit what fish can go in (if it has "fin-nipper" in the description, it can't go in with a betta. Since "active and flashy" almost always go hand-in-hand with "fin-nipper," you'd be looking at problems )

The mollies I have had tend to be pretty active; you could have a molly tank. A 55g would also provide a ton of room for guppies or tetras, which can be a really cool sight. Angelfish are very interesting fish. African cichlids are absolutely gorgeous fish, but have pretty specific water requirements.
These are just a few ideas. If you narrow things down, we can help more. Otherwise, we'll really just be dictating what you've got in your tank, which will be interesting to us, but may leave you with a tank that you don't consider to be "perfect" (which is what we're really aiming for here, since you're the one who will be living with the decision )

Edit: I've got to disagree on the "more snails" statement, unless you want many, many more snails. Some snails, like malaysian trumpet snails, never really overpopulate the tank. Others, like apple snails, can reproduce to the point that they have a severely negative impact on the tank's bioload.

Lucy

Hi Amanda Welcome to Fish Lore

Congrats on the great deal and fishless cycling.
I'm not very good at stocking suggestions but
I would like to suggest that you leave the betta in the 5g, he'd do better by himself rather than have a lot of active fish around him.

One of our members in particular loves to help with stocking, he'll be gone for a fews days, but you have lots of time.

Good luck and don't forget to post pics, we love them!

FishKing

If you want an active peaceful tank I would suggest schooling tetras such as harliquen rasbora or cardinal tetra. I would put about three different species of them and maybe some guppies also.

steveangela1

I have to spread the african cichlid word... they are super active fish! They are never boring, w/ a 55g you can go w/ the smaller malawi cichlids, and can put about 12 in one tank and I would move the pleco out of the 5g, they put out a huge biowaste plus they need the larger tank to grow out in. I just got an oto catfish for my betta yesterday, they are perfect for the smaller tanks.

BTW as a person who has many snails, apple, and pond. I really do not think that adding snails is a good idea.

sirdarksol

Have a bit of a snail problem, do you?

I actually like my pond snails, but they don't grow as big as apple snails.

Amanda

Everyone tell me what THEIR PERFECT 55 gallon (freshwater) tank would be. I'm curious to hear.

steveangela1

I loved the apple snails until they started laying eggs, and having to clean that gunk off of the top of the tank almost every other day I gagged the whole time.... Then I bought some plants and they were infested w/ pond snail eggs, so my 10g was covered w/ them in no time, when I finally got rid of them I said never again for snails.

My perfect 55g would be a SA community tank w/ some blue rams in it.. but that is my opinion, I always suggest african cichlids because of their color plus there are over 1500 malawi species.... I don't see every not having malawi cichlids (but I have enjoyed breeding them lately, if its just to see the fry grow)

sirdarksol

My perfect freshwater 55g (numbers are referring to the 1" per gallon guideline)

6 otos (cleaner crew) we'll give them 1.5 inches apiece for 9 inches (9)
14 Neons, a mix of regular and black, at 1.5 inches apiece is 21 inches (30)
Six Glassfish, at 2 inches apiece, for 12 inches (42)
A pair of blue gourami, at 6 inches apiece, for 12 inches (54)
Ecocomplete substrate, with stone/driftwood as decoration
Hemianthus Callinthrodes, Christmas Moss,and some dwarf onion.
Cherry Red Shrimp Colony (no bioload)
Malaysian Trumpet Snails (no bioload)
The gourami really will take more bioload than their length, as they have greater mass, but the plants will help make up for this a bit.

COBettaCouple

Welcome to Fishlore.

I'd agree on the Betta in his own tank and you might want to look at african cichlids. www.cichlid-forum.com has profiles that you can browse. They're colorful fish with lots of personality.

steveangela1

If you do get into african cichlids one thing for sure, look at the max adult size when buying them, yes you want to 'overcrowd' the tank, however when they start getting 4-5 inches long for me I am wanting to put them in a bigger tank, most of my cichlds are at least 3.5+ in size, and we are going to at least a 75g tank for them, the "dwarfs" or smaller ones will go to the 58g tank, like the cynatilapia afras, labs... I also have 2 large filters on that tank, one eheim up to 60g, and a hob penguin 250. The thing that has me constantly doing water changes, etc is the ehiem is getting nasty at least once a month from the heavy population of large cichlids.
I just bought an eheim 80g for the 58g tank, I am hoping that will help. I am prob going w/ a fluval for the 75g tank or 90 when we get it.
Just remember overcrowding needs loads of filitration plus you also need to do reg water changes (I do 2 a week)

Most cichlids are okay in a 55g, thats just my opinion.

sirdarksol

It seems that cichlids are out, as it has been stated that the betta will be going into the big tank (different thread). From what I've heard, the mildest of African cichlids would tear a betta apart.

platy ben

i have a 60G tank, which is cycling, will be finished tomorrow . it has one sucking loach in at the moment but tomorro im going to get a pair of convict cichlids to breed in there.

the whole cichlid thing- get as many as possible because if you have one or 2 they are very terrtorial and aggresive sometmes so its best to have a small group of atleast 5.

koi angelfish are nice.

Amanda

Alright everyone - the betta is OUT, lol. I'm buying a 10 gallon & dividing it for my 2 little betta boys. I went to look at fidh today to get ideas - here is a list of fish I thought were interesting. Can everyone give me some feedback on if/how I can make these fish a part of my community tank:
x-ray tetra, ghost catfish, black mollies, upside-down catfish, dwarf/pearl gourami, bala shark, female bettas, corys, and they had some sort of eel that I liked. I love dragon gobies but these are brackish water fish, correct?

Shawnie

congrats on the new find!!!!! such a GREAT steal! cant wait to see it stocked!!



You would be the first, im pretty sure, that can tell the exact date of a cycle completion how do you do it??

Coffey5030

I read somewhere (probably in these forums) that snails help transmit disease. I think it said something about some bacteria or parasite only being able to reproduce if there are snails. Any truth to this? I too am interested in purchasing some to help keep the tank clean. On that same note, do shrimp help at all?

Amanda

Would angelfish be a good add to the previous list of fish that I posted? I thought that maybe they'd keep the fry under control from the mollies & tetras.