Centerpiece fish for 55 gal. need ideas

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furin121

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Mar 11, 2009
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Hey guys and gals. First post here so please be gentle. :)

I have a 55 gallon tank (fairly new) that currently houses 6 tiger barbs and 4 green tiger barbs. All of them are still babies of between 1/2" and an inch. I plan on picking up a small school, maybe 8-10, of some form of tetra or danio to go with them. And also plan to get one of the smaller pleco species (that stay around 4-5" max). Now, my question is, what would be a good centerpiece fish or pair of fish? I really like the cichlids and had considered either some rams or a pair of Acei. I would like something a little bigger than the barbs but not so big / agressive that it would kill the barbs or the tetra.

Any suggestions? The tiger barbs are already there but the tetra can be swapped for something else if you have a good stocking suggestion.

details on the tank:
roughly 48" x 13" x 19"

few plants (plastic) on each end of the tank

2 pieces of driftwood kind of off to each side (one on left, one on right)

can / will add some stones if needed for the fish

standard aquarium gravel (2 25lb bags of black gravel, 1 10 lb bag of white). top of the gravel looks kind of like cookies and creame :)

Pengiun 350 HOB filter (I believe that's the one, for like a 75 gal tank?)

regular old heater (think 250 watts? again, whatever wattage it is is adaquate for the tank as I overbought on the filter and heater).
 
I did almost the exact same thing with gravel in my 20 gallon, it looks very nice.

Sorry no recommendations... Newbie myself, still cycling the my 20 gallon at that.
 
About a month, cycled mainly by putting the filters for the new tank in my second tank for about a week and then moved over mixed with 6 tigers for a couple of weeks and 10 tigers since then. I'm in no hurry to get this done and i'll probably be a week or two at the soonest before I add anything else. The water test good right now though but I tend to be a bit on the cautious side.
 
Sounds good!

I'm not a fan of Tiger barbs, so I don't really have any suggestions(experience) for fish to put with them. Except more of'em.

I'm sure you'll get a few ideas soon. This is a very active forum.
 
Yeah, from what I've seen tiger barbs are one of those "love'em or hate'em" type fish. Personally they just make me happy :). I thought of going with more and having a species only tank, but I wanted some variance in size to help with eye appeal and really want a focal point that is (obviously) different from the other tank mates.
 
a nice pair of german blue rams would do great in there
 
Yeah, the rams are something I'm considering. The only problem is that I was hoping for something a little bigger to really bring that / those fish out as the main attraction and from what I understand the rams will be about the same size as the barbs. I could be wrong on this as I've never seen a full grown ram in person (LFS only has small ones about an inch or so). That's why I had looked at the Acei but I'm not sure how they would fare with the barbs and if they would be hostile toward smaller fish. The ideal would be something in the 4-6" range. But, if all else fails I will go with the rams.

Thanks for the suggestion.

edit: I also have been considering 3 silver dollars.. but not sure if they would like being just a threesome and also not sure how that would affect the rest of the stocking. And my wife is not a big fan (though she gives me the "it's your tank, put what you want in it" response when i ask her about it). :)
 
Last edited:
furin121 said:
(though she gives me the "it's your tank, put what you want in it" response when i ask her about it). :)
Click to expand...

If there was a wikpidi thing for that...

Man said it: Sure, whatever makes you happy.

Woman said it: No; Not Happy; You don't love me anymore; I have a head-ache!
 
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