55 gallon fish--what to get

[dbacksrat]

If all goes well in my first tank and the fish dont die, I am considering getting a 55 gallon tank. Could I put 2 kissing gouramis, one jack dempsey, one (possibly two) oscars, and a pleco in? I haven't run the figures yet to determine if I am overcrowding...Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...Thanks in advance!

 

[DarthV]

One word - NO.

A single oscar would need a 72gal for life... 2 in a 90. So oscars are out. I'm not sure how gouramis would survice with a dempey. You could probably do a dempsey and a couple male convicts though.

 

[Fatboy]

I agree 110% with DarthV. Whatever u do don't go the oscar route. Like Darth said they require a lot of space and create a lot of waste. Not to mention u will greatly reduce the types of fish u can put in a tank with an Oscar. I'm quite sure that kissing gouramis like to be in pairs but I could be wrong on that. Apparently they get quite large too. U should probably stick to 2 or 3 species that can get along together. All too often I see people people putting the wrong types of fish together and ending up with more problems than anything else. It just happened to my friend who had 4 tiger barbs with a few T barbs and a bala shark. The only thing left of his fish are the T barbs and one of the tigers. Ive made the same mistake myself enough times in the past and I have finally learned to do my research before buying any fish. Theres always space requirement/compatability/same species aggression to take into account when starting a new tank and deciding what fish 2 get. Good Luck and choose wisely.

 

[420Loach]

i think you could do the pl*co and the jack dempsy. i also wanted an oscar for my 55 gal, but i chose the JD instead( becasue of space and filtration reasons). hes great! ever since he started eating his colors have come out brilliantly!

the gouramis might work, but you dont have enough space, kissing gouramis get big. i put one of my gold gouramis in the tank with the JD( the first was tearing up the other gourami). the JD is a little bigger then the gourami, but he hasnt laid a fin on him yet, and they eat side by side. in fact i think the gourami taught my JD to look on the surface for food, because he would never come out of his cave. when i fed the gourami, and the JD saw him eating, he came up to get his share!

strange bedfellows...

 

[mike the zealot]

*nods head in agreement*