55 Gallon - What fish should I get?

[Ninjouzata]

Hello! I'm very new to fishkeeping as I've only had two bettas (in different, and I'm sad to say, bowls). I had not done any research when I got them so I know better now, though still sad I caused two beautiful fish to die.

I'm getting a 55 gallon for my birthday and would like to know what fish might be good for me. I've checked the fish section of Petco and Petsmart to try and get an idea of the level of experience needed and what size tanks they require, sorry if the info is wrong. Obviously I wouldn't be keeping all of these in the same tank but I'd like to know of ones any of you think I could take care of with proper information and equipment, or any combination of them that can fit in the 55gal.

Not sure if it would effect what fish I should keep now but in the far future(8-10 years), I'd like to get a Black Ghost Knifefish. Wanted that to be known incase it effects that, like maybe certain fish would be good for me to get experience with to prepare myself for the future.

Here is my list so far of fish I'm interested in: [Beginner] Clown Loach, Kuhli Loach, Golden Dojo Loach, Angelicus Botia (is this also a loach?), Ryukin Goldfish, Fantail Goldfish, Moors Goldfish, Corydoras [Intermediate] Striped Peacock Eel, Fire eel, Betta [Advanced] African Brown Knife.

Thanks for your help

 

[FishDad]

Welcome. You've got quite a few options infront of you. Firstly, stay away from goldfish of any type. They just never really work out in aquariums. Secondly, do you know what type of equipment you will be getting? Such as heaters, filters, bubblers.

Also I have found, if its a show tank like for the living room, that settling on a theme helps. Figure out the decor first, like do you want to do rocks and sand, or river rock and drift wood, planted, many different options. Then you can decide what type of fish will look best with you set up.

Hope that helps.

 

[exhumed07]

I just stocked my new 55. its a dirted planted community tank. I just posted my new stocking for that tank in the general section. also my signature has my 55 cichlid tank. there are so many types of fish u can put in that tank. first thing u need to think about is do u want color? oddity? movement? combination of all of that? once u decide that then u start thinking size of fish. do u want small medium or large fish? once u figure all of that out it will narrow down what u can get that fit what u are looking for. that's my process of stocking a tank. hope some of this helps u decide what to get. also I am a big advocate of going to small or just local fish stores rather then petco or petsmart if possible. true those stores tend to be cheaper but id rather spend more money on things in a place that needs respects and appreciates my business then a big box store. but that's me and my recommendation.

 

[exhumed07]

Fish dad also makes good points I did not hit on.

 

[FishDad]

I am a big advocate of going to small or just local fish stores rather then petco or petsmart if possible. true those stores tend to be cheaper but id rather spend more money on things in a place that needs respects and appreciates my business then a big box store. but that's me and my recommendation.

Couldn't agree more. Plus lfs can really offer you some in person advice. Do not, I repeat do not take advice from the chain store. They will always tell you the wrong thing if given the chance. They just don't train properly.

 

[Ninjouzata]

@Fishdad
May I ask why they don't work out in aquariums? I know they are rather dirty but couldn't I just make sure I have a good filtration system and do water changes as needed? Unfortunately no right now I don't know what equipment the tank is coming with, my father is getting it for me from our family members and they are not at the house right now so I can't get the information from them. I will though asap and will post it here!

I would like to get a bubbler as it seems most fish like them and I'm particularly fond of the dragon one where the bubbles come out of its mouth. The tank is going to be kept in our bonus room where me and my fiance spend most of our time so it doesn't have to be like a show tank, though I would like it to look pretty and clear if possible. I agree figuring out a theme would help but I figured I would build the theme around the type of fish, maybe? Like if I get a betta or the goldfish I would be using oriental decorations. Not sure what type of theme I'd have for the others though.

Again with the rocks or sand would depend on my fish as I think corys prefer sand, right? And plants, again, I heard that goldfish will eat the plants but corys and bettas love them. There is so much to think about! Thank you for your response~

@exhumed That's why I'm getting help, there are so many options and they're all so beautiful..I'm not very into cichlids but I like your 20g tank, loaches are cute and I think cherry shrimp look really pretty. I like pretty much all of those that you described, odd, like your upsidedown catfish. Color, like from bettas or goldfish. Movement..well I enjoy seeing anything swim around in the tank ^^' I prefer the fish to be the size of a betta or larger.

@both Indeed I will not be purchasing the fish from petco or petsmart! I just used them to have a list of fish since they have them listed on their website. If I get a betta I want it to be a halfmoon and was considering getting one from aquabid, or looking around in Atlanta for some fish stores that care about their fish.

Sorry if my responses are a bit all over the place, I'm not good at forming thoughts and even worse at writing them down. o.o

 

[Thyra]

Welcome to the forum! First off this is not a cheap hobby. When I got on this forum and realized I should have my betta in something other than a bowl by the time I was finished I had invested $50 in a 2.5 gallon set up. Secondly, you really shouldn't mix goldfish and tropicals. Gold fish are cold water. Tropicals need temps about 76 - 80F. One thing that helps when buying fish at either of the big box stores is if you ask the person who is helping you if they have aquariums at home. That may indicate they know something about fish. Also, consider those stores have a guarantee on their there fish - ask them to be sure its the same as here - but Petsmart is 14 days and Petco is 30 days. You need a liquid test kit for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate - we mostly use API brand, but there may be others and that is the very first thing you should buy - it will cost between $25 - $35. If you look on line for decor and the test kit (Oh, and you will also need something to dechlorinate your water if you are not on a well) and other things you need (bubble wands, tubing, airpumps heater) and get an order together there are several places that ship free with an order over $49. Almost every thing is cheaper on line - even Petsmart and Petco. (fish and plants are excluded from the shipping - the shipping charges are always more). So, even before you get the tank, it will pay you to do some online "window" shopping because you will get an idea of who has what for what price. I, personally would not buy an expensive betta until you have a stable tank. There are plenty of beautiful veintails for $3.99 out there and their finnage seems to flourish in a community tank. (Remember though, one male betta to a tank ) Platies should not be ignored and they are usually cheap and if you are patient and shop they come in a whole spectrum of colors from almost red to green, yellow & black and iridescent blue. When you give us more of you ideas or have questions we will all add to it. One other thing - be absolutely sure that tank is level both front and back BEFORE you put anything into it and is on something very sturdy - with substrate it will weigh over 550#!

 

[Thyra]

Wow!! That is probably the longest post I ever made. Hope I didn't over do it with details you already knew. It is hard to tell when someone is new at the hobby just what they already know.

 

[Ninjouzata]

@Thyra Thankyou! I understand it's going to cost a bit but it's my birthday so..hehe No worries, I was not intending to put goldfish with the tropical fish, I just want opinions on which I should get. Yep once my dad returns from his trip we'll be going out to get a kit so we can test our tap water so I can tell you guys. We already have aquasafe I believe it's called but if we need more we will certainly pick some up. We'll most certainly make sure the tank is level before adding any fish, and should have plenty of time to figure all this out since I'm going to be doing a fishless cycle. It's also coming with a stand, which I will make sure isn't some rinky dink little thing lol. That's a good idea, definitely will ask any storesperson trying to help me if they have fish at home That was pretty long! Sorry for such a short response to it. Thanks again ^.^

 

[FishDad]

Make sure you post pictures of the set up when you get it going, and let us know what fish your going to get. Good luck!

 

[exhumed07]

one issue with goldfish is not just that they are dirty but they have a huge bioload, they give off alot of ammonia out of thier gills. and they can easily outgrow a 55 gallon tank. they are large fish. or can get large. and since cichlids are out that norrows it down to the standard small tropicals. alot of cool ones. everything from dragon fish to banjo catfish for the kinda odd, then u got neons and guppies and rasboras for schooling colorful fish for a very small example. what i did today was i had a list of fish i knew for a fact that i wanted and took it to my lfs and while there i looked for fish that interested me and wrote them down. then i asked the owner if he would recomend putting these fish in with the ones i wanted. he turned me away from puffers cause they tend to be fin nippers. that is a thing u can do. but the trip cost a bit. also my signature is not accurate anymore. the fish in the 20 are now in my new 55 gallon and the brichardi tank is now empty, the sunfish in the 30 is currently in the 20 but will be going into the empty 30 and the 30 he was in i had to take down to make room for the new 55 and the 20 gallon is going to become an experimentation tank again. hopefully that all made sense lol

 

[Ninjouzata]

I hope it's alright for me to continue posting in here. I have a better idea of what type of fish I want now but still have some questions and would like more opinions. I also have some pictures, we have the tank up but havn't started the cycling process I don't think? It's still clearing up from putting in the gravel (we sort of..forgot to rinse it. LOL) That is of the tank right now..and here are some close ups of the filter thingydos..I'm not 100% sure what we have, going by what I've been able to google they look like AquaTech 30-60s.They seem to be different going by the coverings.. And here is an attempted picture at the..substrate? [CaribSea FloraMax Planted Aquarium Substrate - Black] Here is the link to it. I know you guys said that corys need sand and I don't think this counts..but from what I've found they may do okay on this? Loaches too hopefully? http://www.petsmart....NotAvailInUS/No Also was wondering if loaches and corys are okay in the same tank? I was thinking maybe just one golden gourami as my little stand out guy and then some other fish that I can have a lot of. I was wanting swordtails but I don't think I can have many of them in there if I'm keeping the corys and loaches happy (I was hoping for 6 corys and 6 loaches, or more depending on what other fish and amount of those fish I get). If I were to still get swordtails I would want them to all be male cause, well, I like their sword tail. If I kept them in a big enough group and had no females around to fight for would they still fight? Since I'm thinking those probably won't work maybe like someone said, some female bettas? How many of those could I have with all the other stuff (not the swordtails, these are what I'd get instead)? I've tried using aqadvisor but I'm still not 100% on how to read it. If I'm reading it correctly and I'm correct on the type of filters I have then it didn't get angry with me until I got up to 10 albino corys, 10 kuhli loaches, 1 golden gourami, and 29 female bettas. This sounds really awesome but I'm fairly certain I must be reading it wrong Some ideas on other fish that look nice in big groups would be nice and any responses to this are greatly appreciate. Thank you so much for all your help!

 

[Thyra]

You definitely must be reading it wrong! lol Serpaes are one of my favorite and are really great in a group - active and colorful. Female bettas are a little more difficult - They are rather territorial and I think it would work best if you introduces them all at once, but to get colorful females you have to be selective and therefore its hard to find more than a couple at a time - it doesn't always work either. Neon tetras or cardinals in a large group are awesome. There are a lot of different colored platies available - blue, orange, red, yellow & black, and iridescent green. BTW - do you understand cycling - just running the tank is not cycling. Ask questions. And welcome to the forum!!

 

[Ninjouzata]

I figured as much! I was hoping someone could help me figure out how to read it or know how to do it and put in the fish I want and tell me what I can get ^^' Yeah, that's something I was worrying about..I read that moving around the decorations would help because the already established females would think they were being put into a new place. I'm not big on the neon tetras but platys look pretty! Cardinals faces scare me a little but they do look rather pretty. I somewhat understand it..I said that we havn't begun cycling ^^' but I'm sort of unsure of that cause we're actually running it with used filters since we got all this from a family member so I thought maybe it sort of is? My brain hurts. I'm concentrating right now on it getting less cloudy and I'd like to know the type of fish that I will eventually get for it once we do get it cycled. Thank you!!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

For schooling fish, if you can go to a local store and browse some of the tetras / rasboras / danios, and see which ones catch your eye, that's usually a good place to start. Keep in mind that a lot of the smaller tetras don't really have a personality per se, so what makes them interesting is having the group in the tank. Depends on what your preference is - interesting individual fish behavior (like the gourami), or a tranquil tank to watch, or both. Having a gourami or another larger fish in there will also often act to keep the tetras more in a school, to keep that schooling effect - otherwise, they kinda spread out throughout the tank once they are comfortable, and you don't get schooling except during water changes and similar.

Consider smaller rainbow fish also - like the neon blue dwarf (praecox) rainbows, or threadfins. A little more personality than a lot of tetras. These make good schooling fish, especially with the darker substrate you have. Actually, most of the schooling fish have bolder colors when they are over a darker substrate.

Cories should be fine on any substrate that isn't sharp and may harm their barbels. Also kuhli loaches are absolutely awesome and so cool to watch. If possible, since your substrate is quite dark, aim for the normally colored (black and orange) kuhlis rather than all black ones. Cories do fine with pretty much anything that doesn't eat them, so they will be fine with loaches.

I bet aqadvisor thought the bioload was fine with those (which it might well be in a 55g tank). But 29 female bettas, while it would look pretty, would surely reduce in number over time as the weakest keeps getting picked on and the dominant ones create territories and don't want to share. You could probably do something like 3-5 female bettas in there, since there is a lot of space for territories - just make sure that there are at least a few more hiding spots than bettas. Really it is a big enough space that you could probably do a pair of female bettas - usually just a pair will fight, but they should be able to set up separate territories on either side of the tank. If it were me, I would probably do 1-3 female bettas, since there's a good chance you'll get more chasing with more bettas, and the tank is just more peaceful to watch if the fish themselves are peacefully coexisting.

 

[Ninjouzata]

We've gone to multiple stores. Most of them just aren't pretty to me, but I'm a fairly picky person. The zebra danios look kind of cute.. I'm glad that the gourami will help keep them schooling! Oh the threadfins look pretty I'm not sure if my substrate is sharp or not, so hoping someone here may have seen the one that I have before and be able to tell me ^^' I REALLY want loaches, and yes I was wanting the black and orange ones rather than the black ones anyway, just not sure where to find them..we're going to look at a few fish places in Atlanta, hopefully they'll have more of a selection than petland, petsmart, and petco. So the cories and loaches will be okay together..is the gourami going to bother them?

Yeah, the advisor didn't tell me I was overstocked until about that many of them. I suppose I won't be getting female bettas then if a lot of them are going to get beat up Could I go with your 1-3 females idea and still have the schooling fish? Also are my filters okay or is it a bad brand? Went back to the advisor site and it says I can't keep the threadfins with the golden gourami. So confusing Thank you and hope to hear from you again soon!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

You could do a few female bettas and the schooling fish. They should be fine unless you get a particularly nippy type of schooling fish (like tiger barbs). Female bettas are pretty peaceful except for other female bettas (and that varies fish to fish, but they tend towards being territorial).

Not sure why threadfins would be a problem with a gourami - gouramis and bettas are in the same family, so you would want to keep an eye on that combo. But threadfins aren't really going to interact with the gourami, and gold gouramis aren't going to go after threadfins - doubt they could catch them anyways, threadfins are pretty quick and gouramis aren't built for speed.

I've had an opaline gourami (same as gold but different color), along with cories and kuhli loaches. No issues. They all pick at the sinking foods together. Otherwise, the gouramis stick more towards the top areas of the tank, and the cories spend the majority of time at the bottom and just shoot up to the top occasionally then right back down. Most kuhli loaches will almost exclusively stay at the substrate level, but some like to "make the rounds" along an edge of the tank - I had one that would swim in circles up and down along one pane of glass. Most of mine hung out on the substrate, a few would hide in caves, some out in the open most of the time. In a group, you will see them more than just one or two.

I'm not familiar with that brand - but, one hang on back filter is pretty much like another as far as their functionality. The main difference in them tends to be how loud they are and how much water they move, how long the pump/impeller lasts, and the exact shape of what type of filter cartridge they use. So long as it's working and not annoyingly loud to you, and you can find the kind of filter media you want to fit in there, it'll work fine. If it is a cheapo one, the pump will not last as long and you can decide then whether you want to get the same thing again or a different brand. But in the meantime, since it appears to be working fine, no need to change anything.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Alrighty! Thankyou Iunno, it just gave me a warning that the gourami would go after them. The threadfins seem a bit pricey compared to zebra danios so I think I will end up with the danios or platys ^^' I will keep my eye on the gourami and female bettas then. Ahaha! Loaches sound so adorable. Oh okay! I will probably try to find a more quiet one once it goes but for now it seems fine. Going by all this..how many of each of the fish do you think I could have? Thank you for responding so much

 

[CAPSLOCK]

Going with your earlier list:
6-8 albino corys
6-8 kuhli loaches - although they get to about 4", they are so slender they don't really take up that much bioload.
1 golden gourami
1-2 female bettas (plus the gourami, - that will mean you'll need to have at least 4-5 hiding spots / areas to make territory).
20? Zebra danios. You can mix and match these with the other very similar danios (like leopard danios, long finned zebra danios). Just depends on what floats your boat

In a planted tank, you will likely find you want to have some sort of algae eater, like otos - several of these would be fine, but wait until you have algae growing for them to munch on. Or you could do the larger siamese algae eater (not chinese - those guys get mean).