Poll: What's a good fish for ...

[Backdraft Bagel]

           Ok, so my Discus adventure was a discus nightmare. $250 worth of fish later and I'm down to one that won't eat, one that is stunted and one that has deformed fins. Weak. I think that I will stock my aquarium with a differnt type of fish. I'd like some suggestions from yous guys.

     Here's the info
     
     It's a heavily planted aquarium with open swim space as well. Driftwood and a few small chunks of petrified wood adorn the bottom, which is natural river gravel. The aquarium is already home to a sweet school of rummy nose tetras, which must coexist with whatever I stock in there next. There is also a small shoal of leopard corydoras and some amano shrimp. I'm not opposed to relocating the corydoras, as I have room for them elsewhere. But the rummy nose have to stay. I am looking for a peaceful fish that will not prey on the rummy nose or disturb plants. It'd be cool if it was not as fussy and tempermental as discus, but looked somewhat attractive - sorta the main attraction of the aquarium. Oh, it's a 55g with a HOT magnum 250 filter. The water quality is great, everything is stable and A-O-K, so I'm not scared of fish that require clean water. I would just like to avoid fussy, timid, weirdball fish like discus. King of the Aquarium. PFFFT!

Any suggestions for a good centerpeice fish to stock?

 

[Franky099]

Gouramis!

 

[treewhale]

I agree, various Gouramis are suitable.  Not fussy, large and graceful enough to be eye-catching, peaceful, beautiful.

All in all not a bad type of fish for a community tank.  

 

[privatecitizenx]

Gouramis will make an excellent choice...some words of caution though.

Most gouramis are omnivorous.  Depending on the type that you get, the gouramis might tear up your more delicate plants.  In my opinion, a great gourami setup in your situation would be to get about 6 sunset gouramis, and a couple of the more elaborately-colored dwarf gouramis.  The sunsets are peaceful, playful, and beautiful fish and they should be entertaining all by themselves.  Mine even school occasionally.  Plus, the dwarfs are a peaceful fish that will add a splash of color.  Both are hardy fish, both seem to leave the plants alone for the most part (though they will hide and play in them) and should make a rewarding experience after having to work with discus fish.  (plus they both cost way less than discus)

One more thing....I have seen fire dwarfs and sunset gouramis mislabeled in local fish stores.  An easy way to tell the difference is the sunsets are a uniform deep orange.

 

[Vyache]

Clown loaches have a bit of a tendency to get ich, but acclimate well too most water conditions. I think they are a great centerpiece fish. A school of these will provide hours of entertainment. Try to get some big ones as centerpiece and smaller ones to round the tank out. I've got clown loaches, bala sharks and dwarf gouramies in my main tank. I don't have any little fish like rummy nose, but thats just because I've got a pictus cat in there too.

 

[sraiss8210]

i don't know that much about fish, but i too agree with gouramis.  i love pearl gouramis and neon blue dwarf gouramis.   *twirlysmiley*