suggestions?

[s7jstep1]

hello. this is my first post here so hopefully I don't ask anything too stupid lol. I recently lost my adult Oscar of 5 years to a faulty heater that stuck on. now I have a 55 gallon tank with nothing in it. I have decided I would like to change it up a little. first thing I did was ditch the gravel bottom and went with a sand substrate. I love the look of it. much more realistic. now I'm trying to decide what to put in the tank. I want something a little different that you don't see in just any tank. that was why I liked my Oscars so much. they were a good conversation piece.

I was thinking I would like to put a soft shell turtle in there but I would like more than just the turtle. I was told that some larger cichlids would be okay. my girlfriend wants me to get the freshwater puffer fish. I also like things like crabs and lobsters and stuff like that. my dilemma is that I don't know what is compatible with each other if any at all. I'm just looking for some suggestions to help medecide what I want to put in the tank. so many decisions but only 1 tank lol

 

[FishDad]

I think it depends a lot on where the tank is located. For instance if it is in your living room then you want to be aesthetically pleasing. So if that's the case you need to figure out what sort of scene you want to create... river, African, minimalist. Once you decide your scene, then in a 55g, I believe you should have one particular show fish surrounded by accent fish.

Sand does look nice, I used to have it in all my tanks but I am now ardently against it as it will reek havoc on your filters. If you are insistent upon sand then keep you intakes up as high as you can. Keep in mind you WILL be buying replacement impellers.

Sand and rocks, I think look really nice with African cichlids in particular. Plus it recreates their natural habitat. In a 55g you can stock them nicely... easily a dozen or so as long as they are the more common breeds that stay around six inches. I'm really not a big fan of livebreeders like mollies, platies or some of the other typical tropicals when it comes to bigger tanks. They just get lost in the shuffle, nothing pops out at you.

Something else to think about its where the fish swim, for instance my sons' tank is a 55g river scene with a blue crawfish on the bottom, a baby electric blue Dempsey for the middle and green glow tiger barbs for the top. It fills out nicely.

...just some things to take into consideration.

 

[Rotaripsnoc]

Welcome to the forums, and i'm sorry to hear about your Oscar, I have a 60 gal with a small Tiger Oscar whom I'm quite attached to, he has a unique personality.

Sand substrate, did you use an Argonite based sand ( what's used for saltwater ) or a Silicate based sand ( playground ), if you're unsure, Argonite will bubble in vinegar, where Silicate will not. Silicate sand will slowly break down and release silicate acid, and other trace minerals into your tank, which will enable brown algae to grow more readily as it feeds on it also, it'll also raise the hardness of your water slighly, where as Argonite based sands will soften your water over time.

Most puffers require a min of 30 gal per fish due to how territorial they are, also they grow teeth which must be kept trimmed, usually by eating invertebrates. There is one dwarf puffer I believe that is freshwater and then the mbu puffer, the rest are Brackish to my knowledge, requiring a SG of 1.005 or so to be healthy. A note on the MBU, they can grow to 26" in length and require a very large tank to be healthy. Puffers are however the humming birds of the water, they rarely stop moving, they are intelligent, and they will recognize half a dozen different people with ease. You do need to remove uneaten food especially snails and crabs or it will foul the water. They usually max out around 1.5-3" in size, and will eat anything crunchy in the tank, and test the crunch of the other fish's fins.

I would be hesitant with a soft-shell turtle, my understanding is they strictly carnivores, and they can outgrow a 55 gal tank in a hurry. The same goes for crayfish, they can be aggressive, and will gladly eat any fish they can catch, there are no fully aquatic freshwater crabs, they need to be able to leave the water and dry off.

Discus are similar to an Oscar in temperament they are both members of the Cichlid family. Beyond that, Discus are larger than puffers, but every bit as intelligent, they are all pretty much the same shape grow to be 3-6" in diameter, their colors vary greatly, they grow reasonably quickly, and need at least 6 in a tank to not be stressed out. Unlike an Oscar they do require soft water to breed, and they are a lot more sensitive to water conditions. Most discus owners use a reverse osmosis filter to clean the water, then add trace chemicals back to their tank. If you go with Discus, and RO, you'll be collecting water all week in order to perform water changes, as RO units are measured in gallons produced per day.

FishDad has a beautiful Cichlid tank, and his new Electric Blue Jack Dempsy is a great fish, and grows to about the same shape and size of an Oscar as an adult, but is a cobalt blue \ black vs black and orange or white. Cichlids typically come from 2 lakes, and while both are reasonably aggressive, I've seen lots of sites that state they should not be mixed in the same tank, like your Oscar, anything that fit's in their mouths will become food in a matter of time.



Hope that helps some,

Rotaripsnoc

 

[FreshyFresh]

Just to add to the above suggestions....

Do you have a lot available locally? Many LFSs will order something specific for you if you don't want to go the mail-order route. My point being cool/odd stuff will be hard to find or actually see in a tank.

Like said, sand looks great but can cause hardware issues, especially if you've got fish that stir it up regularly (cichlids).

I've got two center piece fish in my 55, a pearl gourami and a koi angle. The rest are 4 female bettas, 4 zebra danios, 2 platys, one molly (all females) and 3 siamese algae eaters. Kind of an odd mix, but looks great and has quite the personality.

Did your heater electrocute the oscur or did it overheat the tank? What was the wattage? I've had heaters stick on before, so for that reason I go almost undersized for wattage.

I really like 55's. They're big and sturdy, but don't take up too much space, plus hardware is easy to find for them.

 

[exhumed07]

Alot of good suggestions have been made so far. my suggestion would be african cichlids. it would be an active tank, and only salt water rivals them for color. they do like to be slightly over crowded though so over sized filtration is always a good idea with them. another idea would to go with a dirted planted tank.