50 Us Gallon

[emmettbaby]

Okay so I have been on here a little while but need stocking help for a new tank. My current tank is a 10 us gallon and am soon going to be getting a 50 us gallon.

It will have silaca play SAND substrate with FAKE plants and will go through a fishless cycle.

I have been doing a lot of research and am trying to get fish at all tank levels (though mostly I have picked ones at the bottom). I want to know if these fish are compatible, how many I should get and if IN THE LONG TERM they will be fine in a 50 gallon. I also want suggestions of fish.

What I want: COMMUNITY fish only! I find most fish pretty, but color would be nice. I have tried to pick fish that get between 1 and 3 inches (plecos can be larger).

*Please note that the water around my house is HARD. My pH in my current tank stays around 7.0



Clown Pleco
Slate Cory
Panda Cory
Elegant Cory
Peacock Goby - I'm not sure if this one will work, some sites say yes, others say no
Glowfish
Scissortail Rasboras - moving from my 10 gallon because I think they'll outgrow it
Guppies


PLEASE help! I don't want to get fish and have them fight or die (or both)!

oh and does anyone know any US stores/auctions/breeders etc. that I could buy from? I have no idea about any of this since I've always bought from my LFS, but they don't have these species and I'm unsure if they can get them.

 

[waterdrop]

50G is a pretty nice size. Unlike a lot of the tanks we try to work with people on that are maybe 20 gallons smaller or so, it would allow you to think about a set of somewhat larger fish, maybe even some that would be a little too aggressive in smaller tanks. But that's just one direction and from what you've said so far it sounds like perhaps you would just enjoy using the extra 20G of room to build a nicer size traditional community.

Cories become a much more wonderful species when grouped in large enough groups that they relax and play 8? 10?.. those sort of numbers. I'll leave it to the corie experts to comment more on whether the different types you've listed might view each other as part of the group or whether you'd need numbers in the individual types. Pandas can be really nice looking but I think I remember they are more delicate in some way, so hopefully someone will clarify that.

Gouramis would be a good type of fish for you to investigate. They would fall close to the size fish you are aiming for, some bigger, some smaller. A fair number of them are too aggressive in my opinion for a gentler mixed community (these would be 3-Spot, Blue, Gold, Opaline, Kissing.) Somewhat less aggressive are Pearl and Dwarf gouramis. Least likely to be aggressive are Honey and Sparkling, though I think sparkling are kind of small, I've never had that type. Gouramis also are unusual in that they can have individual personalities that are not predictable when you buy them.. just something to help you understand them as that's rather unusual in the tropical fish world. Gouramis can be grouped in various smaller number groupings, varies by type but is not like schooling fish at all.

Barbs are generally pretty fast fish the need a bigger tank like a 50G and a lot of the types are pretty aggressive. Tiger Barbs are the worst and Rosy Barbs are close behind as are a number of other color variations. Cherry Barbs are the exception, smaller and not aggressive. Barbs need to be in groups like schooling fish, perhaps min 6 in most cases. Having them in a large enough group can do away with many things that are described as aggressive behavior.

Tetras will need to be checked out as to whether your hard water will be ok. Many are from south america and prefer soft, acid water like the Amazon has. But there may be some that would work out and as this is a large and wonderful group of fish, it will be worth some of the tedium of looking through the species sites.

Minnow types are also a great possibility in a 50G. Unlike smaller tanks that would be restricted to Zebra Danios, Pearl Danios and some others, a 50G could have a grouping of Giant Danios. These are high speed danios with bluish and yellowish patterns that would put movement in the middle areas, unlike the smaller danios who would be more at the top a lot of the time (although all fish sometimes settle down and explore the whole tank at various times of the day.)

It is very good that you are starting your stocking research early. There's a lot to it. Its good to make frequent exploration trips to various LFSs and take notes. Keep giving the members your preferences rather than trying to get them to come up with the fish, that works better (they'll be better at pointing out problems.) Do lots of background homework, studying both here and other sites with species info. Be prepared that there are lots of species out there that experienced fishkeepers will tell you are not very available or very keepable. The one to two months of the fishless cycle is just about the perfect time in which to develop a good stocking plan and to get the all-important hands-on feel for the Nitrogen Cycle and the "biofilter" that runs it. That is the very core of good baseline hobby knowledge in freshwater fishkeeping. Good luck and I'll hope to see you around. Many others here are much better than me with the stocking topic!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[emmettbaby]

Thanks so much waterdrop! I've heard some about gouramis and will definitely look into them! I forgot to add that I am also wanting to have a large school of Glowfish so I put that in my list in the original post. I'll also need a reliable site to buy fish from since my LFS has some variety but not of my species. I also don't agree with their "rating system" they have for fish so the store is ultimately unreliable.

For example: They told my mother (who impulse buys the pretty fish) that a yellow, black and white cichlid and an electric yellow would be fine together in a 20 gallon. Yeah, that first cichlid was an Melanochromis auratus which is like the most aggressive cichlid and chased the electric yellow until they both starved. They also said spotted green puffers are freshwater fish when they are brackish if not marine. The only good thing I've gotten from there are my cories... which they said were julii.... wrong again.

On the bright side, they have made me want to be more knowledgeable about fish.

The only thing I would be worried about with tetras is if my tank got ich. The treatments would be different so i would have to separate the fish. I have been told that tetras could be aggressive or fin nippers. I'm definitely getting cories of some sort (or more than one sort) and atleast one pleco and I don't want the them to be picked on. But I will investigate since I'm sure there are degrees to these traits.

 

[fish_tank0311]

Angel Fish! Love em. Hmm what else. Ummmm. You could get a school of barbs. i have a school of golden barbs in my 4 foot. hope that helps. you could get some more inspiration from my signature down below.

 

[emmettbaby]

Aren't angel fish aggressive though? One of my friends also suggested angels so I'll look into them. They are really pretty and I'm not going to get anything that would eat their fins so I don't have to worry about that. I read on here somewhere that if angels are bought as babies and brought up around peaceful fish, the angels won't bother them. I don't know how true this is though... as with just about everything, it's yes or no, just-gotta-learn-by-experience type deal. We'll see.

 

[meguro]

50 jellybean blood parrots

 

[OldMan47]

Please be serious Meguro. A new fish keeper may well not recognize that you are joking. At 10 cm each fish that would make for a gross overload of the tank. Even 50 guppies would be a fairly heavy load, although one that could be supported by proper tank care.
It is always best to keep single species of corydoras in large numbers rather than trying to mix several species. I do have a cory focused tank that has 13 C hastatus and another 6 of yet another species but each species has enough friends that they are playful. I also have a pair of young swordtails in the tank for breeding purposes.

 

[emmettbaby]

Uhhhuh... When people suggest a large number of one species, I kinda figure they're joking. Even if they really weren't joking, I want a community tank instead of a species tank. I had a tank with just one oscar (died in an ice storm), didn't enjoy that.

And, yeah, I don't know of many cory species that will shoal together so I figured I would get at least 7 of the two-three most compatible species.

 

[drobbyb]

Well, the thing about community fish is that most of the species do better in large groups. I understand your desire to keep many species and be as diverse as possible, but do so to an extent that is not detrimental to your fish. The true behavior of some species is not seen until they are in a larger group...usually larger than their minimum numbers.

If you are going to keep many different species, more than minimum numbers will allow, stick to the ones that are happy in smaller numbers. Some species that do well in smaller numbers include gouramis, swordtails, guppies, and many more.

A note on the angelfish: whether or not they are aggressive depends on the individual. Some angels are very docile, while others are very aggressive. There is no way to tell which ones are going to be aggressive however, often having both types coming from the same spawning. They also get pretty large, and will take up quite a bit of tank space once mature.

Community tanks can be some of the most beautiful tank setups out there and they can take great skill to pull off. It's a balancing act with communities. Not all of your fish will have the same nutritional requirements for example, and sometimes it can be difficult to ensure that the proper species gets their required nutrition. Luckily you are in the planning stages and are doing your homework. I have a feeling that whatever you decide to keep, you will do it well.

 

[David12]

why just up grade to a 50 gallon up grade to a 100 gallon which would be 400 littres 6 foot kept anything in that

 

[emmettbaby]

I would but i can't find one where i live. I'm sure someone could order one. I'll see It would give me more room to make shoals larger if nothing else. It would take me days just to fill it with sand though (I'm OCD about how clean my sand is. It took me 7 hours to clean enough sand to fill my 10 gallon one inch). I would also have to see if I could fit it in my basement to where it's not in constant sunlight from the poorly placed windows. My largest concern is the price. It'll cost me about $300 USD just to get my 55 g tank running and that's excluding the water bill...

 

[emmettbaby]

Anyone else have any input or should I post in another section?

 

[waterdrop]

I know its frustrating. The members just have to kind of have things to push against. A lot of people have small tanks and want fish that can't live in small ones so that gives the members something to push against. Your 50G is pretty roomy so it takes some of that away and opens up the choices a lot wider. But you still have to get down to some personal likes and plants and then let the members try to shoot holes in the plan. That's what they do best, lol. If you leave it wide open then you just begin hearing about their personal likes... like how much I like harlequins for instance .. now a nice dozen of them going in and out of the plants...

~~waterdrop~~

 

[emmettbaby]

I get what you mean okay so I was creeping around the forums today and added two more possibilities to my list: Platies and Mollies... But I think I'm going to start going into certain forums and posting questions about specific species since I have pretty much decided that I won't get any OTHER species besides the ones listed (plus the two today) I will keep checking on this thread, but once it goes off the front list, I'll let it go. Thanks much for your help you all, especially u waterdrop!

 

[waterdrop]

I'm sure you've noticed that there are a few tried and true freshwater sorts of groupings. There are "livebearer" tanks that general work well with high mineral content and no fish that are particularly aggressive. There are "cichlid" tanks that can get quite technical with territories and breeding behaviors to be thought about. There are "south american" directed tanks that have fish that like soft, acid water. Then there are various community displays that sometimes take a base from one of these and carefully add a few fish that might not so solidly belong to such a grouping yet should work ok.

~~waterdrop~~