Schmidty

Hello everyone!

Thank you all for the great wealth of information on this site!

I started this hobby with a ten gallon tank as a kid. Since I finally settled down after finishing school, I decided to get back into the hobby. My wife and I went out and bought a 55 gallon tank last night and set it all up. It's just sitting there with fake plants and water in it, but because of the wisdom on this site, I will not be getting any fish for a bit yet. I'm going to go set up my ten gallon tank later today as a quarantine/alternate tank. I'm loving fish life right now!

Any ideas about what I should put in my tank? I am thinking (long term here) about a community tank and even some live plants. I always loved swordfish and plattys. I also like schooling fish like neon tetras. Any help on how many and what kinds is much appreciated. Also, I would welcome any new ideas, since I do want to expand my knowledge in the hobby. Thanks again for all your help and knowledge!
--Schmidty

COBettaCouple

welcome to fishlore!

a 55g is a great tank to have a few good size schools. Platys and Neons would be good with a school of at least 3 for Platys and 6 for Neons. Swordtails would be good to have at least 3 of as well. The Platys and Swordtails should be all males unless you want to have fry. Figure 2 gallons for each platy, 1.5 gallons for each neon and up to 5 gallons for each swordtail (depending on what kind of swordtails).

A school of Otos and a school of Corys would go great in that tank and help with keeping it clean. For that tank, I'd get a school of 4-6 of each. The more of them that you have, the more fun it is to watch them. Allow 2 gallons for each Cory or Oto.

I think you could work it out to have schools of all 5 of these fish and not overtax the bioload of your tank.

sgould

Welcome to the site!

swords3711

good choice
thats what i have
plattys and swords are excellent fish
swords arent extremely hardy but once theyve gotten established they are great fish and very easy to care for
after about a month they are well established
plattys are excellent fish overall
they come in a variety of colors, they are quite cheap and they are very hardy
for tets look into head and tail light tets or as i got them "gold" tets
they are a bright silver especially when you first turn on the light, they are almost blinding they are so bright
i have four and i haven't lost one yet
the young ones actually have a red tint to their tail
the other fish you might want to look into are variatus and mollies
variatus are a variation of a platy with almost a sword body without the tail spike
they are quite cheap and extremely hardy
unfortunately ive only been able to discover two types although they are quite beautiful
-red tail black variatus have a yellow body and red tail with a black patch that extends from the gills to the tail
the females sometimes dont have the red tail but have more
black to them
ive also seen some that have orange bodies instead of the yellow
and some that have scales that are a blue tint
-marigold variatus are a little more simple then the red tails cuz they dont have the black midsection
the females are more of a bronze but ht emales are usually a bright yellow with a red tail
as for mollies, there are black aka midnight mollies, yellow-sometimes orange, silver, and marble mollies
midnight mollies-coal black
yellow mollies-yellow with white bellies sometimes orange
silver- solid white
marble- black and white speckled mollies
males have tall sail fins and some females have greater finnage on the bottom half of their body

sorry i wrote so much
its not often that i have someone asking about livebearers
let me know what fish you got
either repost on this page, or send me a private message
ill try to post some pics later of some of the fish that i stated above

swords3711

delete some of the messages in your inbow so you can allow private messages

Schmidty

Better to just give you my email address:

irlindycarseriesfan@yahoo.com

I was very big into livebearers when I had my 10 gallon in grade school. I'm just now getting back into the whole deal, so obviously livebearers is where I'm thinking of starting!

Internet question now: Why do I only have space for one message in my inbox?!? Isn't that a little small?

swords3711

my email is eaglesfan3711@yahoo.com
as for your inbox, the higher ranking you are, the more space you get for your inbox
like i am a fish helper so i have an inbow with a space of 500 messages
the more posts you have, the higher your rank
i have had a community tank since may and i know a ton about live bearers
if you have any questions just let me know

susitna-flower

Welcome to fish lore Schmidty & Mrs. Schmidty,

I love the livebearers also, but would encourage you to look around for just the right fish. One that I like to suggest are Congo Tetras, they are a little larger than most tetras, but good community fish and good in a small school of 3-5.
How are you going to cycle your tank. Are you going fishless?

My favorite tank is a small fish tank, it has Neon Rainbows, Rainbow Platties, Liberty Mollys, Cherry shrimp, MTS snails, 6 Magenta Apple snails, Otoes, 2 bristlenose plecoes, all in a planted 55 gal. The substrait is white, which shows off the reds and purble of the snails. These fish seem to co-exist with the shrimp as they are to small to pester them.

Have fun with your tanks, and WELCOME back!

jack11

I would definantly agree i just got home from the lfs where i saw about 12 congo tetra in a beautiful tank and they looked brilliant, their finnage is really impressive.

Jack

Schmidty

Right now I am cycling my tank without any fish. However, the temptation is getting stronger and stronger to just get a couple of fish. The big tank looks so empty right now just sitting there. On top of that, it seems like everyone's opinion differs as to how long the cycling takes. Now, I will admit, I didn't get a test kit However, the tank has been set up and sitting for a few days. I have been "feeding" the empty tank to speed it up a little.
Thanks for the suggestions! I will look into the Congo Tetras!

Richard

Welcome to Fishlore.. and believe me when I tell you having an aquarium or two(or several, for those of us who have MTS) is perfect therapy after a hard day in the 'salt mines'!

As far as your considering a Neon/Swordtail/Platty mix for your 55gal. I can tell you based only on my experiences trying the same mix a couple of times that as per COBettaCouple's advice, stick to an all male mix in Swordtails /Platties because the battles that are fought between males trying to establish their 'Alpha' status in terms of breeding any females, can be a bit much for Neons who seem to be a lot more prone to stress related ailments.

Since like you, I find Neons and Cardinals to be beautiful fish, a possible option might be for you guys to find space for a 10 gal. tank exclusively for a school of between 6 and 7 of them, so they can sort out their own pecking order without having to contend with the battles between bigger species.. Neons and Cardinals love darker substrates when housed with bigger tankmates but are ok with lighter colors when by themselves.

Good luck with your eventual choice and rest assured there'll always be someone with some kind of experience and advice to offer that'll help you keep your fish healthy.

COBettaCouple

yea, it's tempting to put fish in there, but doing it fishless makes it easier since you don't have to worry about the ammonia & nitrites & nitrates getting toxicly high.

i would recommend the API master freshwater testing kit and 'feeding' the tank every 12 hours or you could end up going backwards in cycling.

Schmidty

Well, I purchased a couple of test kits. Ammonia, Nitrates and Nitrites all seem to be in very acceptable states. I bought 4 platies. 1 male, three females. Unfortunately, one was DOA or shortly after I put her in the tank (it could have been aliens, they say we have them out here in North Dakota). I believe it was due to the stress of the transfers. I live one hour away from Petsmart, so the length of the trip might have affected her. Anyway, I called Petsmart and I am due to get a replacement. So while I am a little sad that I lost my first fish so early, I am glad that it won't be a total loss. I hope that doesn't sound heartless.
Totally We got our first flurries here this morning. Not enough to stick to the ground, but enough to remind me winter is on its way! Uggh! I love smileys, but dislike winter very much!
--Schmidty

COBettaCouple

if you're not already using Prime, I'd recommend treating the water with that to help your other fish make it through the cycling. we're sorry that you lost the 1.

Schmidty

Just so no one accuses me of being a fish killer, I did buy test kits for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites. All the levels seem to be really low. I did also put some sort of bacterial supplement in the water (can't remember what it's called). The other three fish are doing just fine, so I am blaming her death on the long drive home (a little over an hour) and the stress of the whole ordeal!
Thankfully Petsmart will replace her. I never knew that was possible when I was younger. I bet we threw a lot of money away on dead fish, when we should have been reimbursed!
Thanks a ton for all the info and chatting! See you tomorrow!

COBettaCouple

anything over 0 on ammonia and nitrites is toxic to fish, just the more of those 2, the more toxic the water. The prime helps by locking the toxins to protect the fish in addition to removing heavy metals and adding slime coat enhancer as well.