Bishop169

I moved into my new place a few weeks ago and during the move 95% of my fish didn’t make it and half my plants. I was dumb and let my friend add the fish back to the tank I thought he new better he has a nice tank set up….

Any way I have a 55gal right know there is a pleco 3 blue ram cichlids left and a kulie loache from my original set up.
The other day I hit the LFS for some ideas and they had Shellie’s so I grabbed 2 females and a male and asked for a couple of extra shells and got another male that was hiding in one. So I have 4 Shellie’s.

The issue is I have all bottom dwellers. I would like to stick with dwarf cichlids maybe a cockatoo but I think these are bottom fish too…

Can you guys think of something that would fit nicely that are middle top swimmers?

ATKINSON

An Angel pair would look nice with some hatchet fish for the top. Also you should add another 3+ kuhli loaches as they like to be in groups. And if the pleco is a common pleco you might want to take him back as they get massive.You could also have a gourami as a center peice fish. I find my flame dwarf gourami male interesting but only one male per tank. Enjoy

Bishop169

Sorry its a BN pleco. yea my kulie I'm going to have to get him some friends I had two browns and two striped only the one brown made it...

I'm a little worried i had bad luck with last angels i had they fought a lot and took big bites out of one another and killed one of my favorite blue rams..
They're beautiful fish and i know people who had better luck with them. I would like to keep the tank in the cichlid family.

My last tank was a mix of lots of fish I would like to stick to more of a theme make the tank look more put together rather then thrown together

alicem

I know this isn't what you are asking about but...
Your shellies (I'm assuming they are African cichlids?) may be very hard on your blue rams and everyone else in the tank.
(I won't get into how very different the water parameters they require to thrive are. It is your tank, afterall.)
Be ready to remove the shellies once they start spawning.
Depending on which species of shell dweller, they should do fine in a 20G tank by themselves.
Best of luck,
alicem

alicem

Is the theme "cichlid" tank?
Shellies are African cichlids (do best in hard/high pH water)
Blue rams are South American cichids (do best in soft/neutral pH water)
Angels are South American cichlids (water like blue rams)
Apistos or cockatoo dwarf cichilds are South American

Think about this for a minute and plan for fish with similar water and food requirements...

If you themed it "South/Central America" you could have the blue rams and (if you are willing to try again) only one angel as the centerpiece fish.
Then add schools/shoals or two of other SA type tetra fish.
For example schools of 6 diamond tetra (moenkhausia pittieri) and 6 lemon tetra (hyphessobrycon pulchripinnis)
both are SA and would fill your tank adding some movement.

Another option is to frame your tank around your water's pH, GH and KH.
What is your water like in your new home?

hth,
alicem