55 Gallon Stocking Questions

[robertherrington]

I have a potential list of fish that I may wish to add to my 55 Gallon. I just need to know if I'm playing with fire, and if so, id like some stocking suggestions.

55G
2 green terrors
1 blood parrot
4 convicts

 

[KittyKat]

What dimensions is the tank? The volume itself does not really matter, for stocking of territorial fish, it is the length that does.

When I had my green terrors, the pair was given to me in a 3 ft, 55 gallon tank and both fish were stunted. If you are talking about a tank that is 6 ft long by 16 inches front to back by 1 ft tall, then your idea might work, but I'd still want more space front-to-back. In a tank shorter than 6 ft, I would never want to mix two green terrors with anything, as the anything is likely to get killed off.

If your tank is only 3 ft long, then you will be able to have a pair of convicts, and that would be pretty much it from the bigger cichlid list.

Big cichlids need their space, so they really can only be kept well in larger tanks.

 

[robertherrington]

Tank is 48“L. That being the case im not quite sure what other Options I may have

 

[crazyforcordoras]

2 covicts will pair off and run the tank. I would not put one green terror in that tank, they are very aggressive. Maybe you could do an African Cichlid tank, you could have tons of cichlids, and they are very atrractive.




C

 

[KittyKat]

If I am absolutely honest, I would want a 6 ft tank for green terrors, but would then keep them with other fish too. They do grow up to 12", after all.

A 4 fter like that should be fine for 2 or 4 convicts (do some research on numbers) with some schoolers (larger tetras, medium rasboras/barbs, etc.) and plecos (or maybe even Corys). If it were my tank, I'd stock it with the following:
* 1 pair of blue Acaras (look similar to green terrors, but grow up to 7" instead of 12") - I'd make sure to get a ("proven") pair, or would get 6 juveniles and return 4 when they paired off
* 15+ 3" tetras of one species
* 5 mixed plecos that grow up to 6-8"

That would actually be a pretty neat almost-biotope.

 

[dbanner]

A friend of mine had a pair of green terrors, a flowerhorn and 2 jewels in a rio 300 for a little over 6 years before he sold the tank and stock. But saying that a rio 300 is wider and higher than your tank so I wouldn't advise getting them for yours. The terrors spawned a few times and they guard their fry with their lives. Awesome to watch

He know has regular updates on the fish, all are still live and well and the terrors still having fry