Do I want too many fish?

[elderberry99]

I am trying to plan out the new 55 gallon freshwater tank that will be in next week. I have been out of it a while and am not sure if I am overdoing the amount of fish I want in it.
Here is the list. Please tell me if you think I am going with too many or not.
4 Marble Angels
2 Cory Cats
1 Plecostomus
2 Kuhlii Loach
2 African Butterfly
2 Zebra Danios or Pearl Danios
3 Red Velvet Swordtails. 1 male and 2 female.
That will be 16 total fish.

 

[tom91970]

Personally I would go with more kuhlies. They are pretty cool to watch in a larger group.

 

[Orion]

Nah, not to many fish. Personaly I might go with some syno cats, like Synodontis multipunctatus, rather than cory cats. They do get bigger, but they are much more active and I always enjoyed watching them bustle around my tank. They have as much personality as any cichlid.

 

[Fuzz16]

the african butterflies may fight so keep an eye out for that

and more kuhliis the betterm it makes them more comfortable to come out more often

if yo go wit corys yo want at least 5, they are shoaling fish and will hang out together. same wit the danios.

and what kinda pleco were yo thinking of gettin? avoid the common and find one that stays smaller. bristlenose or a clown pleco seems to be common and cheap and they stay small

 

[TabMorte]

THe loaches should be kept in groups of 3.

Instead of cories though I would consider a group of 4 + YoYo loaches. They do the same job sorta but they're WAY more active day and night and absolutely adorable.

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Agree with everyone. List looks pretty good. Might boost your numbers by just a couple fish on things like Khulis and Zebra danios.

Personally i'd dump the pleco, personal preference really but they don't seem to do much good, only produce a lot of wastes. Poop factory.

 

[elderberry99]

Okay, I just updated the list somewhat. Here it is again.
Angelfish-4
Kuhlii Loach-4
African Butterfly-2
Zebra Danios-4
Swordtail-1M-2F
Yoyo Loaches-4

 

[TabMorte]

The cories should be in a group of 4 at least. If you have the Kuhliis and Yoyos you won't need them though. I would take them out of the plan completely personally (I love mine but I find the yoyos just SO much more active and intresting).

The Danios should be in a group of 5+ to school. Just FYI.

 

[elderberry99]

Ok, how is that for the final lineup. I did an edit on the list and removed the Corys.

 

[Orion]

Looks good.

Personal opinion, go for 6 yoyo loaches I've got 4 in my 75 and love watching them, those guys are nuts, and they do like to hang around each other, but I'm not sure I'd call them a school.

 

[TabMorte]

I think they're a shoal. I have 4 baby ones in my 30 and they're adorable. The whole tank has been more active since I added them.

 

[elderberry99]

I am afraid that if I go with any more fish then what I have listed, I may be overloading the tank. If all goes well, maybe down the road I will want to add one or two more.

 

[anabanman]

plants?

What plants are you gonna put in there?

 

[Lotus]

I am afraid that if I go with any more fish then what I have listed, I may be overloading the tank. If all goes well, maybe down the road I will want to add one or two more.

That sounds reasonable. Your original stocking plan sounds fine in terms of quantity of fish. It's better to err on the side of low stocking, as overstocking brings many potential problems.

It's possible you'll run into problems with the angels. I've tended to keep one pair to a tank, as they will start to fight when they start to sexually mature.

 

[elderberry99]

I am only going to have the artifical plants in the tank, no live ones at all.
I was originally only going to have two Angels, but the shop has a special on them if you buy 5 or more. It is no big deal to drop back to 2 or 3 Angels.
I have had them many times before, and never encountered any problems with the Angels. I was worried that I was going too many any way, so I will drop back on them as well for now. I do not want to be in any hurry.
Does anyone use a GFCI for hooking up their connections? I have never bothered before with them. I have always just used a power strip mounted under the cabinet making sure that all lines connected to it had the large loop so water did not travel on the lines into the power strip.

 

[roark fishies]

Wouldn't the angels eventually get big enough to eat those small danios?

 

[elderberry99]

roark fishies,
I have had some of these im my other community tank with no problems.
I was able to pull up a list of compatable fish for the community tank, and all these fish were on that list.

 

[Fuzz16]

angels couldnt catch a danio to eat them ha

and i would keep an eye on the stores angels. i know around here they die off pretty fast and are always sick. their really inbred these days

 

[Lotus]

I found that angels I bought from chain stores (Petco/Petsmart) were very sickly. Ones I got either from the LFS or other hobbyists were much hardier. They always need careful acclimation, as they don't take to different water parameters/temperature swings too well. They will often die from shock within 24 hours if you don't drip acclimate.

 

[roark fishies]

Another tip on buying angels that I read somewhere: if you see red color in their eyes they are more likely to be hardy. As they get bred down they lose that red in their eyes. I don't know how true that is so you may want to research that a little more.