Easy Care Species Or What Not Sure

HI Everyone,
My brother gave me an old 55 gallon aquarium. I let it setup outside for 5 days full of water, and no leaks. I cleaned it up, and disinfected with a 10% bleach solution. Build a stand, and have it setting out in my wash room building. It is climate controlled, with ac etc.

What I want is an easy care fish, or something aquatic that is rather large but not too large for the 55.
Easy to care for, but interesting to keep. I just want a one species and one of a kind with no tank mates. I want to keep this simple as I can.

Right now it is during our hot time of the year, but seasons do change, if that makes a difference.
Temperature in the tank itself will probably between 75 to 85f with a ph 7.6 and soft water.

Any Suggestions?

Thanks Everyone....

 

Pea puffers? Betta sorority? Angelfish? I'm not sure, maybe some type of turtle?

 

You could do a Shelly tank, that’d be a lot of fun and you can start with a small number then let them expand the colony themselves. Another option would be to get a cichlid pair. Maybe fairy cichlids or jewels, both beautiful and should work in a pair only 55g.

 

I wouldn't do a sorority if you're a beginner. I'm not a beginner and I wouldn't try it myself. As you have soft water you should consider tetras, a couple of largeish school and cories would be sweet. But for really easy fish I recommend barbs. There are many types and I find them to be very hardy. And danios, they're quite bullet proof.
Cycle the tank first. A fishless cycle is quite boring but gives you time to think about what you want. And it sure beats panicky water changes late at night ...

 

You could do a Shelly tank, that’d be a lot of fun and you can start with a small number then let them expand the colony themselves. Another option would be to get a cichlid pair. Maybe fairy cichlids or jewels, both beautiful and should work in a pair only 55g.

Can you please explain to me what a Shelly tank is.

Because your kinda scaring me here, because my daughter's name is Shelly and I don't want to put her in there to start colony........j/k

Really what is a Shelly Tank?

I was considering cichlids, but wanted to get other options, never know, because so many people here on fishlore keep so many different species of animals.

Thank You so much for helping me with this......

I wouldn't do a sorority if you're a beginner. I'm not a beginner and I wouldn't try it myself. As you have soft water you should consider tetras, a couple of largeish school and cories would be sweet. But for really easy fish I recommend barbs. There are many types and I find them to be very hardy. And danios, they're quite bullet proof.
Cycle the tank first. A fishless cycle is quite boring but gives you time to think about what you want. And it sure beats panicky water changes late at night ...

Yeah I will cycle first for sure, I have already two other tanks setup that are cycled. So I will take some bacteria media out of one of them.

 

Oh, I missed the one-of-a-kind part. Cichlids then but they are kinda specialist so you need to read up.

 

Oh lol, no not a tank for your daughter. Although if she ever gets into to much trouble it could be a substitute for the corner! Just kidding lol

A Shelly tank is a tank with sand and plent of shells were the inhabitants are shell dwelling cichlids. I believe the more common or the shell dwellers to use is neolprolagus brevis. I’ve considered doing this myself in a smaller tank as from my understanding it’s quite a fun tank to have. I believe there are several types of shell dwellers and in a tank that size you’ll likely have more options than the typical person who does a Shelly tank.

 

Oh lol, no not a tank for your daughter. Although if she ever gets into to much trouble it could be a substitute for the corner! Just kidding lol

A Shelly tank is a tank with sand and plent of shells were the inhabitants are shell dwelling cichlids. I believe the more common or the shell dwellers to use is neolprolagus brevis. I’ve considered doing this myself in a smaller tank as from my understanding it’s quite a fun tank to have. I believe there are several types of shell dwellers and in a tank that size you’ll likely have more options than the typical person who does a Shelly tank.

Look up Rachel O'leary on youtube. She has videos of them!

 

Pea puffers? Betta sorority? Angelfish? I'm not sure, maybe some type of turtle?

No turtles, but pea puffer sounds interesting.

Thanks

 

The hardiest setup you could possibly do is 2 fancy goldfish and 2 or 3 dojo loaches. Obviously you can miss out the loaches if you want a species only tank. However if you can't lower the temperature below 70f this wouldn't work too well.

Otherwise plecos are very hardy but might not stand out.

Platies are another very tough fish. A whole load of females with different colours would look great imo. I've got 6 in my 63 gallon. They shouldn't be kept above 77f long term.

If you are not set on having a fish then an axolotl or 2 would be great. They also need pretty cool water though, ideally below 68f.

 

The hardiest setup you could possibly do is 2 fancy goldfish and 2 or 3 dojo loaches. Obviously you can miss out the loaches if you want a species only tank. However if you can't lower the temperature below 70f this wouldn't work too well.

Otherwise plecos are very hardy but might not stand out.

Platies are another very tough fish. A whole load of females with different colours would look great imo. I've got 6 in my 63 gallon. They shouldn't be kept above 77f long term.

If you are not set on having a fish then an axolotl or 2 would be great. They also need pretty cool water though, ideally below 68f.

The axolotl looks really interesting, but to bad, because the temperature will be too high. I would have to so something special to control the temp for them and I don't want to get that complicated, same with goldfish. I live in Texas where we have short winters and long hot summers.

Plecos maybe, but their temp requirements maybe to low also for the tank.

But I was thinking something like a Jack Dempsey they seem to be able to tolerate higher water temp. But not sure if a 55 is too small for this fish.

 

There are warmer water plecos such as clown plecos and zebra plecos that would work.

Maybe you could get a chiller?

 

Goldfish can still do really well in higher temps, though I would keep 78-80 as the absolute maximum, but fans blowing over the top may keep it low enough.
How wide is the tank? Some species like orandas can reach 12", so a 12" tank isn't the best...
Or you could do a giant cherry shrimp colony.
Or a single betta.

 

There are warmer water plecos such as clown plecos and zebra plecos that would work.

Maybe you could get a chiller?

Goldfish can still do really well in higher temps, though I would keep 78-80 as the absolute maximum, but fans blowing over the top may keep it low enough.
How wide is the tank? Some species like orandas can reach 12", so a 12" tank isn't the best...
Or you could do a giant cherry shrimp colony.
Or a single betta.

I know you guys are really trying to help me here, but again chillers, fans and stuff like that is going somewhere where I don't want to go. Maybe I am asking the impossible but I wanted to keep this simple with one fish and simple, simple.

As I study this more, I am coming into the fact that even a 55 is not big enough for the larger cichlids, like Oscar or Jack Dempsey.

I must also think along the lines of a fish easy to buy in my area. Maybe Convict cichlid, I could do a couple of these with a Pleco that can take the high temp.
Maybe a couple of Angels.

Thinking about this in advance of getting the tank ready, which will be at least a month. I want to take this time to do my research.

Thanks Guys for the suggestion......

 

TexasDomer might be helpful here, lives in Texas and from the little time that I've spend here seems to be a fairly knowledgeable fishkeeper.

Edited to add: Maybe a Spanish Moss tank?

 

You could do a couple of Firemouth Cichlids. They have a wide temperature range that fits right around your temperatures. Seriously Fish shows their range to 68 - 90 degrees. They fit well in a 55 gallon with a maximum size of about five inches and are usually easily available.

 

You could do a couple of Firemouth Cichlids. They have a wide temperature range that fits right around your temperatures. Seriously Fish shows their range to 68 - 90 degrees. They fit well in a 55 gallon with a maximum size of about five inches and are usually easily available.

Good Suggestion, I looked at it and will do more in detail, but it does look like a good fish for what I want.

Since I already have a large bag of pool filter sand that is what I will use in this tank, and then do potted plants as suggested in one of the articles I just read.

I really like the looks of this fish and the size is about right for the 55.

Thanks WadeEH....

 

Good Suggestion, I looked at it and will do more in detail, but it does look like a good fish for what I want.

Since I already have a large bag of pool filter sand that is what I will use in this tank, and then do potted plants as suggested in one of the articles I just read.

I really like the looks of this fish and the size is about right for the 55.

Thanks WadeEH....

No Problem. Glad I could help.