# HI, new member going to LFS today..SOMEONE PLEASE RESPOND!



## aquaagua (Mar 20, 2007)

I have a 55gal. tank (thats been up and running for a long time now) that as of right now has about 5 red eye tetra and 7 or so platy. I am definitley moving the platy out of this tank and as for the red eyes I was thinking about getting a large school of these (12-18 of them) but now I'm not too sure because they fin-nip and also because of the theme I'm going for. Now I'm thinking about the following fish (not all to be put in the tank, just these are what I might like as options):

1 Angelfish
2 Pearl Gouramis (anyone know how many will get along with 
each other in a tank by the way?)
Congos
Long-fin danios
Long-fin (golden) rosy barbs
Long-fin white skirts
2 Kissing Gourami
Silver Dollars
Some kind of South American cichlid 
OR i could make it a goldfish tank but not too sure about that

AGAIN I DON'T WANT ALL OF THESE FISH IN THE SAME TANK, THESE ARE JUST MY OPTIONS 

So as you can see I'm going for the long flowing fins whimsical kind of look, with a castle in the tank and flowing green vine plants along with anchored green plants (all fake by the way)

If I did go with the red eye tetra instead how many should I have (somewhere in between 12-18 though because they school great I think).
Also what other fish would look good with red eye tetra (keeping in mind the color scheme of the tank decor which is basically blue, green, gray)


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## Falina (Feb 25, 2007)

Hey, and welcome!

I'd advise against the silver dollars - they get pretty huge! I'm not entirely sure how big kissing gourami get but they get pretty big. I'd probably advise againest them also.

The tetras will be much less nippy in a large group so I don't think fin nipping would be as much of a problem if you have 12-18 of them.

For SA cics, how about keyholes or rams or apistos?

HTH


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## leifthebunny (Mar 13, 2007)

I've got pearl gouramis with angelfish, though I'd recommend avoiding apistos with the gouramis or other fast moving fish as apistos are easy to spook from the movement. Rams should be fine though.


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## aquaagua (Mar 20, 2007)

Thanks. I don't want apistos or rams (mostly because I have hard water here, ph 7.5+) though I was thinking something like a rainbow cichlid, blue acara, keyhole, severum. 

Ok Silver Dollars and Kissing Gourami are out. 

Oh also added to the options are green tiger barbs. These would be fine in a large group in the same tank as long-finned fish? Seems risky to me!

I want mostly (or all) hardy fish and fairly inexpensive, seems like prices have gone up $4-$7 for common type freshwater fish (fish that grow to only 2-3in.) Thats alot of money when trying to build a school so the schooling fish will definitely need to be like a .99 sale haha.

Here's a (bad) pic of the tank to get ideas of what might look good in it


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## comando489 (Jul 6, 2007)

go with a cichlid tank! they are the best and you can have like 30 of them in one tank!


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## comando489 (Jul 6, 2007)

aquaagua said:


> I want mostly (or all) hardy fish and fairly inexpensive, seems like prices have gone up $4-$7 for common type freshwater fish (fish that grow to only 2-3in.) Thats alot of money when trying to build a school so the schooling fish will definitely need to be like a .99 sale haha.


all of my cichlids are doing very well, i think that i have only had one loss and that was because the poor guy was so small.

my chiclids range from $4-$17. i just got some more today. 

GO WITH [email protected]

edit: and when i buy them they are already like 4-5 inches and they get a lot bigger!


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## leifthebunny (Mar 13, 2007)

aquaagua said:


> Thanks. I don't want apistos or rams (mostly because I have hard water here, ph 7.5+) though I was thinking something like a rainbow cichlid, blue acara, keyhole, severum.


Hard water can be dealt with by adding driftwood.


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## aquaagua (Mar 20, 2007)

*Leaving for the LFS SOON and still no idea what fish to get!*

Hmmm well I was thinking more of trying to find one cichlid (other than the angel that I might get) that will be my "centerpiece" fish. I don't want a mumba (spelling?) cichlid tank. And $4-$17 per fish is even worse than $4-$7 per fish haha. Trying to keep the cost DOWN not up haha. 

I'm just torn right now between :

1- Tank of red eyes and green tiger barbs
2- Tank of one angel, 2 pearl gourami, and something(s) else on the list (anybody think the green tiger barbs would do ok with the angel, gouramis, and some long-finned fish..if the tigers were keep in a large group of maybe 8?)


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

comando489 said:


> go with a cichlid tank! they are the best and you can have like 30 of them in one tank!


What cichlid? For a 55g, only 2-3 pairs of rams, 2 colonies of apistos or a pair of either blue acaras or gold sevs will fit. 30 is too many for a small space.


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## leifthebunny (Mar 13, 2007)

I like option #2, but if you do barbs, I'd recommend long finned rosy barbs.


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## aquaagua (Mar 20, 2007)

Ok I'll probably regret buying the fish I got today but we'll see.

I decided to keep my red eye tetra and I bought some buenos aires (spelling?) tetra to go with them. 

I realllly wanted to get long fin danios they had but I was worried that an angelfish would eat them but the LFS guy said the danios would be too quick for the angel...I think not. 

I had my eyes also on a long-fin rosy barb but it was the only one in the tank. Those definitely would have been my choice but I'm too impatient to wait for the next shipment haha. 

Hmm I also saw a green severum I liked and I saw the kissing gourami (for a very good price) which I managed to hold myself back from buying.

Now the problem is I have two kinds of gray fish, hmmmm now what? (Not that I'm going to add anymore anytime soon but what would you add later?) Angel, gouramis, SA cichlid, or what?
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## aquaagua (Mar 20, 2007)

comments anyone?


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## tophat665 (Sep 30, 2006)

No longfinned fish, and that includes all gouramis and Angels, with Red-Eyes. Pad your Red Eve School out to 15 or 20, and get a shoal or regular rosy barbs. Then put in 5 Yoyo loaches. You will not be sorry with that approach.

Alternately, if you have hard water, and you don't want to mess around with driftwood, keep some of the platies, still pad out your red-eye school, and get some Firemouths and a syno cat of some sort. (Never been too clear on a good hardwater catfish, but some sort of bottom feeder is key IMNSHO to a well balanced tank.)


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## aquaagua (Mar 20, 2007)

20 red eyes plus rosy barbs? wouldn't that be considered overstocked?

How many red eyes would you put with 6-8 buenos aires tetra and 1-2 severums (or in place of the severums could I have 2 convicts in witht the tetra?)


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

aquaagua said:


> 20 red eyes plus rosy barbs? wouldn't that be considered overstocked?
> 
> How many red eyes would you put with 6-8 buenos aires tetra and 1-2 severums (or in place of the severums could I have 2 convicts in witht the tetra?)


Not in our book. Most tetras contributed very little bioload in comparison with most other fish. Your 55g will actually fit even more than 50 neons but not where sevs are concerned.

No convict cichlids in your tank! They breed like rabbits and at spawning stage, they will very likely wreak havoc and kill their tankmates. They're already nasty enough without even spawning.


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## tophat665 (Sep 30, 2006)

aquaagua said:


> 20 red eyes plus rosy barbs? wouldn't that be considered overstocked?
> 
> How many red eyes would you put with 6-8 buenos aires tetra and 1-2 severums (or in place of the severums could I have 2 convicts in witht the tetra?)


The problem is that the real key to maximizing carrying capacity is plants. Plants+Buenos Aires Tetras = Fat Buenos Aires tetras and no plants. So let's figure this in terms of bioload capacity in Gallons:  A 55 gallon tank, not planted, has 55 available gallons of bioload. Severums get up to 8", 2 of them are 16, double that for being big fish, and then round up to 35. So that leaves you with 20 gallons of carrying capacity. BA Tetras get up to 3", so 6 of them will take up just about 20 gallons of capacity (Lower bioload because they're standard shaped tetras, higher because they're both herbivorous = more poop and aggressive for tetras, so 1"/gallon works). That leaves you with zilch. Skipping the BAs and sticking with the Red-Eyes, you could go with 10 to 15 red eyes with a pair of Sevs in a 55. 

Personally, if I were going to keep a pair of big Cichlids in a 55, I'd skip the tetras and put in three hoplo cats.


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