I have a 29 gallon tank that when the fish get too big for it, we are definitely moving up to a 55 gallon. We just have to save for that tank and right now, our fish are very small.
Today happened very fast, lol. My boyfriend basically said screw it and bought 5 african chiclids. They are super babies... about the size of my finger nail. They actually are doing really well with all the fish. There is only one of the chiclids that harass the serepae. In the mean time, we set up a completely separate smaller tank incase or when there is an issue between the chiclids, the loach, the serepae or the rainbow shark. I think my boyfriend just got tired of people telling him "no you can't put this fish with that fish and stay away from those really pretty colorful ones," even though that's all he wanted. It's been about 12 hours and everyone has their own cave, shell, or pot and they are all "on guard" but active. Swimming, eating, and NOT eating each other. So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping the time they decide to become more aggressive is a few months away so that we can get them all their own tank.
On another note, I keep hearing about water chemistry but I thought freshwater was freshwater. You treat it with the right amount of prime and then you salt it with aquarium salt and let it filter. Should I really be that concerned if none of the fish seem unhappy physically about the water chemistry? I mean, they seem active. The only one not active is the rainbow shark because its been sleeping all day and just came out to investigate the world now.