Stocking my hippy 55 gallon commune

S

smasonkc

AC Members
May 28, 2007
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Well, I think my 55 gallon is fully cycled (0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate, pH 8.4--sparsley planted and readings held even after the addition of 10 neon tetra) so I am trying to work out the kinks in my stocking plan. I would like to end up with a nice community that basically gets along. I realize fish will be fish but I don't want to make any stupid stocking errors that results in massive kill off by a preadator/bully. I also would like some diversity in general body shapes (ie not all types of tetras) and if possible some inverabrates-- but not just as lunch on the run. I would also like to find fish species that are fairly hardy-- I plan to make sure the tank is good but it is nice to have a buffer in case my daughter accidently helps feed them or whatever happens. Finally I need to be able to find then at petsmart or petco since there isn't a mom-n-pop type store that sells fish less than an hour away and I can't afford to add shipping to the bill. We have limited funds so this tank will grow SLOWLY.

So far I have:
2M/4F Mickey mouse platys
9 neon tetras (1 died in transport)
1 ghost shrimp-- unless contraband snacking has occured again
2 Moneywort/1 anacharis-- I don't care if these get eaten

So here are some things I'm considering:
1m/3F blue platys

1dwarf gourami or 1 pair betta (obviously male/female) or 4-6 fancy guppies

6-8 corydoras (If I can get different color variations to make up the group--how many would i need to get at a time?--these can be expensive) OR a bristleneose catfish

2 Zebra pleco (research says they stay small)-- my husband really wants some kind of pleco since he loves how they hang on the glass
Or 4-6 dwarf Otocinclus (not the oto's and corydoras both...)

2 pair swordtails OR 2 dwarf/chain loach (research says 2" max size)

1-2 snails mystery whatever color is fine

Some type of shrimp??? I had 5 ghost shrimp-- now only 1 so this may not be possible. How many would I need to make them able to withstand predation?

I know all this would be too much but these are the kinds of fish I really like so if anyone had alternative options I would be very interested.

Thanks a bunch!!!!!!
Elizabeth
 
with that plant load and bio load i think you should have some nitrates showing up.

there are other plecos that stay small and look like zebra plecos. they are very costly. need warmer temps and high flow. i would think about another pleco.

with a 6-8 cory group i would stick with one type of them.

i wouldnt go with a pair of bettas.

get more places to hide. maybe some java moss and try cherry shrimp.
 
check out cherry barbs and rasbora, both very fun. otos are awesome mini cats... I'd get a school of them before I'd get any other cat... but that's just me and I'm a noob!

I also saw these great tiny botia at the LFS today, stayed tight together, about 1.25 inches, silver and black... very very cool. I don't know what they were called technically.
 
Nix the male/female betta.

I'd skip the pleco and take the cory to 10-12.
 
Zebra plecs run over $100.

But clown plecos, hypancistrus contradens, rubberlips, and bristle nose all stay small. They all have different diets though and require research to provide well for them.
 
smasonkc said:
Well, I think my 55 gallon is fully cycled (0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 nitrate, pH 8.4--sparsley planted and readings held even after the addition of 10 neon tetra) so I am trying to work out the kinks in my stocking plan. I would like to end up with a nice community that basically gets along. I realize fish will be fish but I don't want to make any stupid stocking errors that results in massive kill off by a preadator/bully. I also would like some diversity in general body shapes (ie not all types of tetras) and if possible some inverabrates-- but not just as lunch on the run. I would also like to find fish species that are fairly hardy-- I plan to make sure the tank is good but it is nice to have a buffer in case my daughter accidently helps feed them or whatever happens. Finally I need to be able to find then at petsmart or petco since there isn't a mom-n-pop type store that sells fish less than an hour away and I can't afford to add shipping to the bill. We have limited funds so this tank will grow SLOWLY.

So far I have:
2M/4F Mickey mouse platys
9 neon tetras (1 died in transport)
1 ghost shrimp-- unless contraband snacking has occured again
2 Moneywort/1 anacharis-- I don't care if these get eaten

So here are some things I'm considering:
1m/3F blue platys

1dwarf gourami or 1 pair betta (obviously male/female) or 4-6 fancy guppies

6-8 corydoras (If I can get different color variations to make up the group--how many would i need to get at a time?--these can be expensive) OR a bristleneose catfish

2 Zebra pleco (research says they stay small)-- my husband really wants some kind of pleco since he loves how they hang on the glass
Or 4-6 dwarf Otocinclus (not the oto's and corydoras both...)

2 pair swordtails OR 2 dwarf/chain loach (research says 2" max size)

1-2 snails mystery whatever color is fine

Some type of shrimp??? I had 5 ghost shrimp-- now only 1 so this may not be possible. How many would I need to make them able to withstand predation?

I know all this would be too much but these are the kinds of fish I really like so if anyone had alternative options I would be very interested.

Thanks a bunch!!!!!!
Elizabeth
Click to expand...

You should have atleast some nitrates showing up.

Neons arnt very hardy (hardiness was traded for color) and Ghost Shrimp are just plain delicate.

Platys get 2.5", one guy says his is almost 4", and 6 is enough, let alone 10, do you realize that with 6 your going to have hundreds of babys every couple weeks? Stick with 1 male 2 females, you could stay with all 6, but that would cancel out many other fish.

..."or 1 pair betta (Male/Female obviously)"...

Males kill females, they also hate guppys and gouramis, and 1 of mine hates anything that moves, including my finger and some metal feeding tweezers. Females, however, IME are fine with anything.

4-6 guppys?? with 6, thats a maximum of 300 babys every couple weeks, if you got 2 males 4 females! I'd say more like 1 male 2 females.

Corydoras?? expensive?! If you call 5$ expensive. I'd say atleast 8, and the bristlenose pleco aswell, thus uneaten food for corys, algae for the pleco.

Why not corys and otos? thats bottom food & algae.

Zebra plecos, in a book I read, were under the "180$+" list, so if Corys are expensive, you may aswell ship the Zebra Pleco idea to the oposite side of existance.

2 pairs of swordtails?! They get 4-5" each!! And they breed like crazy!! Skip the swordtails!!

Aslong as the loaches only get 2-3", I'd get atleast 3.

MTS, no problem.

As for invertebrates, look for dwarf crayfish or other kinds of shrimp, if you find other kinds, show them to us and ask.

Its probably overstocked even with my reductions, so I'll make you a stocking list that I would use, and take back/cancel the unused ones:

__________________________________

4 Platys (2 males, 2 females)

2 female bettas

3 guppys (2 males, 2 females)

2 Swordtails (1 male, 1 female)

8 Cherry Barbs or Danios (both hardy, Danios hardier)

8 Corys (Peppered & Bronze hardiest, Albino a bit less)

2 Bristlenose Plecos ~OR~ 3-4 Otos

3-4 small loaches, such as Kuhlies (tiger stripes, 3.5" max)

2+ MTS

10 and under shrimp (consult them with us first)


P.S: Get some Java Moss or Java Fern, aswell as some pond snails. Do not worry, they will not breed like crazy aslong as you do not overfeed, and they help algae.

P.P.S: You seem to be confused with Plecos, Corys, and Otos. Here is a small list of what they eat:

Plecos: algae, uneaten food, veggies

Otos (kind of pleco): algae, veggies

Corys: all uneaten food, veggies
 
I have been testing every other day and have watched the nitrates steadily drop from 30 to 20 to 10 and then off the scale (starts at 10). The drop started after I added the plants. I had been fighting nitrites but they suddenly started dropping and are now consistently 0. Ammonia has been zero since I added the fish-- I did a fishless cycle but accidently cut it short so nitrites loving bacteria weren't built up enough to deal with a load so water changes were frequent but the ammonia loving bacteria were able to keep up.

I am nixing the zebra pleco-- I had a book which described different fish and gave suggestions-- obviously with no regard to price!! I thought barbs were aggressive-- is that just tiger barbs?

Why not the betta pair? Growing up we had a nice community tank that had a betta pair as the star of the show. They were never successful at breeding but they tried several times...

Thanks a bunch!! I really appreciate the suggestions of alternatives to zebra plecos! Tom really wants a pleco and I am not getting a giant fish even if it starts small!

Elizabeth
 
Keep us updated on the progress!
 
Will the platy babies actually survive? In the 5 years we had a community tank only one baby actually survived to adulthood and for quite some time my mom actually tried to save them. The water quality was good but they were always picked off before they even had a chance. We had the same problem with guppies that is why I didn't factor in the babies. They always ended up part of the food chain.

Thanks for the heads up on swordtail's length! We had ours for years and finally gave the tank set-up and all to a friend and they were never that big.

Thanks for the eating differences in the bottom feeders too. The book I had broke the fish up by level in the tank not by food so I didn't realize otos were a KIND of pleco-- I thought it was a different group. Are bristlenose fairly hardy? We didn't want both corys and otos because what I read was they both needed large groups to be happy. Was our information right? That would be a big chunk of our bioload all as bottom feeders. It may not be apparent but I was trying to find a combination of algae eater and bottom feeder that didn't put a large population on the bottom.

Kuhulie loaches look neat-- will they kill the snails? I don't mind them eating the pond snails but I don't want them taking out the mystery snails--I know the size difference should help but I have seen some small fish take out some big guys (basically the fish equivlant of eating the elephant one bite at a time).

We are trying to get a good variety while considering the needs of the fish (schooling vs non schooling...)

Are dwarf crayfish a threat to everything else? I read crayfish eat fish. No matter what else if you have any crayfish they will find a way to eat the fish-- that makes for expensive snacks. Was this an exaggeration? I know the internet is the font of all types of knowledge-right and wrong so I would be happy to be wrong- I had initially thought of dwarf crayfish as an option since they are really cool looking and maybe big enough to not get picked apart by the fish.

I wonder if we just got the only pair of friendly bettas in the world growing up. We actually had guppies in there too!! They were never any problem and they really did build a bubble nest in the corner of the tank-- we had to find a way to direct waterflow away from them so it didn't disrupt thier work. I just assumed everyone did that since our LFS-- a mom-n-pop one that has since gone under-- only sold them as pairs!

Thanks a bunch ya'll
Elizabeth
 
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