55 Gallon Community tank, compatibility check.

Hello, this is my first post here. I have a 55 gallon aquarium that currently has my eastern painted turtle (female, 6" shell length) along with 2 common plecos and a school of feeder minnows. I've kept turtles for many years but haven't had fish since I was a kid, and that was just a few goldfish in the standard 10 gallon. I'm looking to transform my tank into a community tank with some interesting fish. Here is what I have had in mind:

5-6 Cardinal Tetras
1 Rainbow Shark
3 Red lined torpedo barbs
1 Firemouth Cichlid
and possibly 5-6 Zebra danios

Are all of these fish compatible with one another? I have already investigated the water temp pH and water hardness requirements of each and from that perspective they all seem to have a common middle ground. I understand that rainbow sharks cant have more than 1 in a tank, and to have plenty of hiding spots, etc. My current filter is a Sunsun 525GPH 5 stage canister filter (with UV sterilizer) so I assume I am covered on the added bioload of these fish, although feel free to correct me if i'm wrong.

The other question is do you think this would be overstocking the tank? I'm ofcourse going to be adding these guys in groups so I can monitor change over time. I might add that although I have my turtle in this tank it is filled to the top with an above tank basking area. I have an understanding that these fish need plants as part of their diet, and so i'm willing to get some plants to fulfill that requirement (although nearly all turtles are savages with aquatic plants, my turtle seems to leave them alone so no problem there)

Thanks for any and all help.

calivivarium1 said:

So your turtle is staying in the tank?

Click to expand...

Yes. I have a feeling someone is going to mention the obvious which is "your turtle is going to eat the fish" which may be true, although my plecos have been fine since they were brought home from the store (they were just over 1 inch)

anyone?

Upon further though, I'm going to skip the danios and terra and just go with the rainbow, firemouth and Denison barbs. I understand your concerns here, so ill answer a few questions/ clear some things up.

The tank has an above tank basking dock for my turtle so she can have maximum swimming room, meaning there is 55 gallons of water in the tank. The reason behind my selections was aslo because of their size, as my turtle is full grown at 6 inches, the rainbow shark and ciclid get to be the same size with the barbs not much shorter, but also very agile and quick.

I suppose this thread has gone off topic as what I was looking for answers was would these fish get along together fine with a couple of plecos in there too. As it Is my turtle stopped chasing the feeder minnows I have in the tank realizing that they are too fast. The barbs and rainbow shark would be both more intelligent and fasted than the minnows. I'm certain in watching my turtles behaviour around the plecos that she wouldn't try for bigger fish. The plecos are about 2-3" now and the turtle acknowledges them, but does not harrass them/ nip at fins.

I suppose if I put the fish in there and let's say against what I have viewed so far the turtle is eyeing up one of the new fish, I can remove turtle from the aquarium immediately, and setup a second tank for the fish until they can grow large enough.