55 Gallon Aquarium.

[Konan]

As someone who's largest tank is only a 10 gallon betta aquarium, getting a 55 gallon is pretty exciting! I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for what to stock if I wanted a tropical community tank.
Some fish that I like, but definitely do not have to be in the aquarium because I don't think they're all compatible:
-Platys/mollies
-Honey gouramis
-Angel fish
-Cories
-Guppies
(Any fish that would be compatible and the number to have would be really useful!)

 

[THRESHER]

Congrats on the new tank! I would forego the mollies/guppies as they breed like rabbits and you'll be overrun with fry.

 

[Fanatic]

You can do livebearing fish, but there will be a lot of fry, and some people do not like dealing with them, but some do!
I like big tetras, like buenos aires, or congo tetras, they would look good with angelfish or any type of dwarf cichlid.

 

[Hunter1]

All of your ideas will work, livebearer issues have been addressed.

But you have no schooling fish.

Just a personal preference but in that size of a tank, I would put a school of a dozen cardinal tetras or harlequin rasporas.

 

[Islandvic]

Guppies are doable if you LFS has the option for all males.

I have Platys and were able to get the employee to net the males, so no fry problems.

I agree with Hunter1's suggestion about schooling fish.

Definitely add some type of tetra like others have mentioned.

Other tetras include the Black Neon Tetra and the Serpae Tetra.

 

[Konan]

All of your ideas will work, livebearer issues have been addressed.

But you have no schooling fish.

Just a personal preference but in that size of a tank, I would put a school of a dozen cardinal tetras or harlequin rasporas.

I was so excited about the other fish that I completely forgot about schooling ones. Cardinals sound like they'd fit in well with the mix!
Does anyone have any ideas of how many of each fish to stock?

Update: I've read a lot that angels can get aggressive with other fish, especially when they reach spawning age. I'm a bit hesitant to add them to a community tank, now.
Has anyone dealt with this before? Will they be okay if raised with other fish from a young age, or will they still turn aggressive once they mature?
I'm also torn between honey gouramis or angels.. how do people do this?! Such hard decisions.

 

[Aquaman9101]

Update: I've read a lot that angels can get aggressive with other fish, especially when they reach spawning age. I'm a bit hesitant to add them to a community tank, now.
Has anyone dealt with this before? Will they be okay if raised with other fish from a young age, or will they still turn aggressive once they mature?
I'm also torn between honey gouramis or angels.. how do people do this?! Such hard decisions.

I have a fair bit of experience w/ angels and I must say that it depends on the individual. You can have angels who live up to their name (like my latest, Papyrus) or have those who are absolute meatheads who harass anything it thinks it can conquer (with mixed results). IME the younger you raise the angel with other creatures the better. It also depends on your water quality; cleanliness is close to godliness. While this doesn't mean your angels interactions with other fish are set in stone (adaptive techniques are out there), it doesn't mean they can easily stop being a wuss or hyper-aggressive.

I don't have any experience with HGs, so I can't put my five cents in there, but I've heard they're one of the few anataboids who get along well with other anataboids, but this is only what I've heard.

 

[Konan]

Ahhh.. this is so hard! Angels are very close to coming off of the list, since I worry about them turning aggressive. And gouramis are close, too, since I heard some of them can be little jerks and some will eat live plants.
That leaves platies, cories, cardinal/neon tetras, and I was also thinking about kuhlI loaches. Anything else that would mix in well with these guys?

 

[Aquaman9101]

Ahhh.. this is so hard! Angels are very close to coming off of the list, since I worry about them turning aggressive. And gouramis are close, too, since I heard some of them can be little jerks and some will eat live plants.
That leaves platies, cories, cardinal/neon tetras, and I was also thinking about kuhlI loaches. Anything else that would mix in well with these guys?

If you don't mind fry and hybridizaation, swordtails would be good. The swordtazils msy breed w/ the platies, created fertile hybrids. You coukd then (if your store allows it) pawn off some fry for credit. Don't worry about purity, as most "swordtails" and "platies" are actually mixed-bloods. However, if you don't want to breed (the other fish will most likely eat the fry in any case), I could recommend DGs, silvertip tetras, guppies, and mollies.

Also, with your selection of fish, please note that i) not all cories haave the same heat threshhold, with sterbais aand the like having higher temp. tolerances and ii) neons will require lower temps than cards, but spp. can live w/ the listed fish and iii) kuhlI loaches are underwater worms qith spines near the eyes, wriggling themselves to filters and have been known to escape the tank. They also like sand so they can burrow, but aquarium pebble substate makes them easjer to catch.

 

[Hunter1]

Even in a 55 I would go with either an angel or a gourami.

My wife has a huge angel in her 47bf. There are 1/2 dozen guppies, 7-8 harlequin rasporas, a couple of other tetras-I think head and tail light, 1 neon, some corys and a pleco.

No issues.

I have pearl gouramis in 2 tanks, 29 and 36.

No issues.

My tanks are heavily planted, hers isn’t.

The only aggression I ever saw was with other gouramis.

Big fan of pearl gouramis so i’ll recommend them obverse dwarfs. They don’t get the dreaded BG disease and are pretty. Almost as sociable as an angel to their owner.

PS: I recommended the cardinals instead of neons because they are more tempature compatible with your other stock than neons.

 

[Becknewt24]

Ahhh.. this is so hard! Angels are very close to coming off of the list, since I worry about them turning aggressive. And gouramis are close, too, since I heard some of them can be little jerks and some will eat live plants.
That leaves platies, cories, cardinal/neon tetras, and I was also thinking about kuhlI loaches. Anything else that would mix in well with these guys?

Angelfish can work in communities, and gouramI are awesome community fish as well. Honey gouramI in particular are some of the most peaceful community fish.