Need to choose fish for 54 gallon from this list...can you help?

A school of congo tetras is a sight to behold. But to start out cycling your tank, you cant go wrong with either zebra danios or swordatils. After its done cycling, cory cats and cherry barbs are nice to have as well.
(What other kinds of tetras did they have?)
Fishless cycling works too:

I have a 36g corner tank -- and had the same aspirations for my tank as you seem to have. I settled on doing a fishless cycle (and am thrilled that I did -- it went very well and no dead fish) and then stocked it with neon tetras, glowlite tetras, and two different types of cory cats. I'm sure that many of the experts on here will think that it is such a noobie tank -- and it certainly is!! And I certainly am!! I was going for easy, well-known, and a little color!

My one word of caution to you is about the zebra danios -- I had a small tank that I made all my mistakes on before getting the larger one. I used the danios to cycle after losing a few fish -- and they are definitely hardy and got me through the cycle. They are VERY active fish -- almost insanely active! I found that they were very poor tank mates for my tetras and corys -- the corys hid all the time -- the tetras just never kept their color and kinda shied away from the danios. The peaceful/semi-aggressive/aggressive natures of fish are generally pretty well known and published at the fish stores -- but the active/calm attribute is less often discussed, IME. I think it's very important to consider this attribute when planning out your stock. Now I have the danios in their own tank -- and the tetras/corys are in the big tank -- and all are very happy and much more enjoyable too!

get bio-spira.

and add a large school of tetra (i'd suggest maybe 20 cardinal tetra) immediately, put your pleco in, and get a show-fish... a paradise fish, an angel, i dunno. something you like that probably won't eat tetra. there you go, plant a few low/mid light plants, put in lots of ornate rock, instant tank.

Dwarf Frog

I had a dwarf frog in my 2 gal. triangle aquarium with a Betta. It was fine except I NEVER saw that thing eat. It freaked me out so much I wanted to hold the thing down and force feed it. It also got out of the covered tank and I found it "hopping" across the carpet.
I wouldn't ever get another dwarf frog, even though they do look cute at the store.

kimberlynns said:

Do your two different types of tetras each school with their own or do they school all together? Sounds pretty!

Kim

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The seven neons never part -- they are always together. The eight glowlites come and go in their school -- mostly they are split into two groups -- either 4/4 or 5/3 -- sometimes its two groups with one straggler -- he's the smallest one -- my little girl named him "pip" which is short for pipsqueak! The only time they all school together is when the current is strongest and they're eating -- they all school in the one front corner which is in the midst of the flake path. While my tank may be close to the inch/gallon rule, there with all my small fish, there is all sorts of open space and my snail and maintenance keep things very clean. The fish seem very happy -- watched 4 of the glowlites playing today -- I thought 3 were ganging up on Pip -- but as I watched, the three would swim high in the tank amongst the lilypads -- and when Pip would turn a corner, they'd dive in on him and chase him around a bit -- then return to the top. It was quite fun -- and VERY satisfying that I've been able to maintain a decent environment for them.

Danios are generally not good for the average community tank. Even if they don't get nippy, their constant (and I do mean CONSTANT) high-speed tours of the tank will at the very least keep your fish hugging the bottom of the tank and hiding in your plants/decorations.

I had a group of 6 in my 55g with my honey gouramies and angels and those fish never got above 5 or 6 inches from the bottom of the tank unless they were hiding out in my 12+ inch amazon sword. Unless the other fish were amongst the leaves of the sword plant, they rarely ventured towards the surface. The danios were constantly zipping around the mid-upper levels during the day. At night, they were constantly zipping along the bottom. On top of that, they were nipping my angels' fins.

I returned the danios, added salt to the tank and everyone is healthy, happy and free-swimming.

They're great for cycling a tank. But, unless you have other fast-moving schooling fish in the tank that can give some attitude back to the danios, don't include them in your final tank plans.