55 Gal Stock

[Frobins]

Hey all, so I recently set up my 55 gallon planted (El and ferts) and was looking into differnent stocking options. I have boiled it down to a couple different options my main one, being congo tetras and some sort of rainbowfish (I absolutely love the way the two fish look). I wanted to put the following in the tank,
6x Boesemani Rainbows
8x Congo Tetras
10x Kuhli Loaches or some kind of Bottom feeder
How does it look?

 

[fishorama]

It looks way overstocked to me. Your bottom fish look fine...but all those midwater dwellers, NO!

Pick either rainbows OR Congos. 8 congos might work, 2 or 3 males & the rest females...OR maybe 2 males & the rest female rainbows, maybe 3 females, NOT both species. I have not kept big rainbows, but they are large fish! Plan on Bos. rainbows getting to 5 inches or so. Congos 3+ inches.

A 55g "seems" large but it's a 1ft x 4 ft tank. It's all about surface area & floor space. I'd say you could have even more kuhlis with only 1 species of midwater fish in moderate numbers.

Think again...

 

[Sploke]

I would go with either the rainbows or the congos, if you want kind of a centerpiece group of larger fish, and maybe add a school of smaller fish like harlequin rasboras or cardinal tetras to fill in the tank some.