questions on stocking a 55 gallon - gourami, tetra ???

[credenza]

:hi:

I am totally new to keeping fish. However I have a read enough on the subject to have successfully completed a fishless cycle in a 55 gallon without any trouble. I have a few plants and rocks. Now I am at the point of starting to add some fish slowly. I was thinking of stocking plan that consisted of dwarf gouramis, rummy nose tetras and a few algae eaters.

I would welcome any suggestions that have worked with similar fish or suggestions to liven it up or even changes/additions.

Also if I can go with dwarf gouramis as my first fish? If so how many? (1-2-3?) I'd like my fishes to not be larger than about 3" adult size. (Do gouramis tend to kinda hang around in one spot? I saw them doing this at the LFS)

Thanks for your time.
:)

[Leopardess]

HI,

Firstly, if you did a fishless cycle, you should be able to add all of your fish in at once. If you add them slowly, you will lose some of the cycle and there will only be enough benefical bacteria for the fish you have in the tank, which means you would have to add them very slowly at that point. One of the biggest advantages of fishless cycling (besides not harming any fish!) IS that you can add them all at once.

Also, rummy nose tetras are one of the more delicate fish species.They need near perfect water conditions and do not tolerate any type of stress well. I would not suggest them to a beginner, but that's just me.

As for dwarf gouramis, you could probably keep three in a 55g - provided that there is a lot of cover for them. If it were me, I'd probably get either just one, or three. With two, you could end up with one dominant one who beats up on the more submissive one. Gouramis are very territorial towards each other. Yes, they kind of hang out in one spot sometimes - pretty much all labrynth fish are on the lazy side.

I would suggest otos for your algae. I would also recommend getting 4 or 5 corydoras species to help keep the tank clean and to add some activity towards the bottom of the tank. And they're adorable too.

Do you want one big school of fish? Because, unless you're planning on one big school of rummynoses, you've still got a bit of space left.

PS - what are your water parameters? Like pH, kH/gH, etc. and do you know for sure if your rocks are fish-safe?

[snakeskinner]

as you've probably read already, the variable rule of thumb is 1" of fish per gallon. This all depends on how well filtered and maintained the tank is. Also, certain fish need larger areas. Example, the 1" rule wouldn't apply by saying you could put a 10" oscar in a 10 gallon tank since it couldn't move. The smaller the fish, the more you can probably get away with in a smaller area. Most gourami's tend to be a bit of a bully not not purely aggressive. My wife has 3 dwarfs in a 10 gallon. they were all bought separately at different stores and introduced at different times. 2 of them tend to push eachother around but not real aggressively. The only other fish in the tank is a pair of Congo tetras and so far they've left them alone. I also have a single gold gourami (about 3" right now) in a 36 gallon tank along with some giant danio's, serpae tetras and tiger barbs. the gourami doesn't really bother them but when I dropped a pair of otto's (algae eaters) into the tank, the gourami started nipping at them. It's been a week or so since the otto's were introduced and the gourami has lost interest. I wouldn't want to say for sure one way or another if the gourami's would bother the rummynoses. I think if you bought a few gourami's, they'd stay to themselves in the 55 gallon. Just make sure you have plenty of hiding spaces for the smaller fish. Gourami's can however be fin nippers so betta's and guppy's would be out of the question in my opinion. Dwarf's probably won't eat the smaller fish like the tetras but they could become bullies if they are trying to occupy the same area. I think having 3 or 4 would calm down their aggressiveness towards other fish if there was a bully in the group. How many you get really depends on how many other fish you want. You could probably put a dozen or more easily by themselves depending on filtration. the blue gourami's are supposed to be a little less hardy than the others from what I'm told. good luck, Kyle

[LMOUTHBASS]

i keep some gourami and woul like to share my experience with them -
you may get bored with them after a while theyare sort of lazy
i woul like to reccomend one that i find beautiful, peaceful and interesting though - if you can find it - the moonlight gourami!!!
AWESOME fish i have 1 it's a male i am looking for a female currently - males have red - orangish feel fins and bootm finnage while females are yellowish - the rest of the body is a very attractive shiny pearl silver color (think of the silver surfer)
any how it is such a great fish to have - eats all kinds of food - peacefull as anything and a nice gourami optin stays active - however they are on the bigger side when adults i think they can get about 6 inches mine's about 5 now - but check out their pics if your not familiar with them
you can't go wrong!!!:D

[credenza]

Thanks guys !! That was quick :)

As suggested, I'd probably go with 3 smaller gouramis and the otos and the corydoras to take advantage of my fishless cycle.

Just to confirm: After I completed the fishless cycle and was ready to add fish, I stopped addition of ammonia yesterday. However when, I yesterday replaced about 75-80% of the water, there was a slight increase in the ammonia levels to abt 0.5 ppm. So I decided to wait 1 more day to let things settle in the tank with the changed water before I added fish.

This morning the ammonia and nitrite is 0. Nitrates are negligible too. The pH is 7.6. I do not remember the GH at the moment but its on the hard side. I had purchased the rocks from the LFS for freshwater tanks, so I assume it must be safe.

A couple of questions :

Should I be concerned that since I have not added ammonia for 2 days, the useful bacteria might have died off, limited my stocking abilities? I plan to get some fish this evening.

If I keep away from rummy nose tetras, what are some other compatible and interesting options to go with the gouramis, otos and corydoras catfish? I am not keen on crowding my tank also this is going to be my only tank for a while, I would not like to breed any fish.

Thanks again. :)

[credenza]

Its me again :

I would also like some suggestions for some of the more livelier fish for the 55g

[fishdude]

i dont think the one inch per gallon rule is correct

heres a little (not realy little :p) formula for finding out how many fish can be in your tank.

take the surface area of your tank( length times width), then divide that number by twelve for tropical freshwater, and that is the max inches of fish you can safely have in your tank.

The reason that the inche of fish to gallon formula doesnt work is because surface area determines the amount of oxygen that dissolves in the water.


so for example. My ten gallon tank has a length of 20 in, and a width of 10. So multiply 20 and 10 and you get 200, divide that by twelve and you get 16.999999999 rounded out thats about seventeen inches.

all freshwater fish need about 12 sq in of space
all coldwater need27 sq in
and all marine need 47 sq in

sertain fish though, like anabantids(gouramis and siamese fighter fish) can live in low oxygen conditions. The reason for this is that they have an auxillary breathing organ called a labyrinth. thats why siamese fighters can live in small cups and such.

[PumaWard]

Instead of rummynoses you could try something like glowlights or neons which pretty much max out at 1.5 inches, you could also try something like Harlequin (sp?) rasboras.

As for as not feeding the bacteria for two days, I would put some ammonia in tonight to the point where you get a fairly high reading, say 2ppm. Wait until tomorrow and if your ammonia is at 0ppm your probably good to go. There's a chance that quite a bit of bacteria have died off, but putting ammonia in and waiting is the only way to be certain.

[credenza]

Are glowlight or neon tetras hardy enough for a beginner? or should I wait to have some experience before i add them?

Thanks again to everyone ! This is a great forum !! :)

[Leopardess]

neons can be delicate when you first get them - or you can luck out and get a "hardy" batch. Glowlights are little bit more hardy. Personally, I'd get a big school of each. They look amazing when together because they provide contrast to one another. Also, they might even school together - mine do occasionally.

Also, scissortail rasboras have a shape similar to the rummy noses - though they do not have the color. They are more silver/clear/irridescent, but can develop a very pretty sheen to them when healthy/older.

Cherry barbs have a lot of color too, and stay pretty small. You'd want to try and get more females than males but it shouldn't be too hard...the females are nowhere near as brightly colored.

You can also think about danios. Sometimes, danios (and fish like them) are a little on the spastic side and can irrirate the slow gouramis, but mine don't seem to care. These fish are very active. I like the long finned variety, specifically the 'gold' and 'leopard' ones.

[Leopardess]

Oh, also, if you like the red of the rummy noses, glowlights would be a good choice:) I forgot to include a picture of some of mine for you. As you can see, one of them is albino. This picture does them no justice, either. They are so brilliant and metallic in person. (the ones you get at the store usually look like crap until you get them home and acclimated):

[credenza]

I think I now have a fairly good idea of what I would like to stock. A lingering doubt however is that ...
as it has been suggested that some of the bacteria might hv died off (I hv not added ammonia yesterday and today), are my options ...

1. To stock slowly starting with 2-3 fish if I were adding them today

OR

2. To resume the fishless cycle for a day or two and then add fish?

Thanks!

[credenza]

--

[snakeskinner]

harlequins would be a good choice but many consider them plain. I like the two I have, they are half silver, half black and don't bother anyone. I plan to get some more to get a descent school. I have one that is about twice the size of any I've ever seen in a fish store. they hang around kind of like a tetra but they're not scared of the larger fish. Kyle

[demon_surfer]

i would just act as if you forgot to put the ammonia in for a day. add some and let it sit over night and see if it goes. if it doesnt then just pick up the cycle again. you probably have enough established that it wont take you long to fix any damage done.