Can I add these fish to my 55 gallon?

[hanzilla]

Ok so,
I used to have a 10 gallon tank for a few years, but I recently (like 3 months ago now) got a 55 gallon. It started out with 5 Harlequin rasboras (plan to get 5 more) + 1 bristlenose pleco + 4 Kuhli loaches (all these from my 10 gal). Then I went to my LFS and bought 12 Longfin zebra danios (love them they're super active and made everyone else less shy) + 12 serpae tetras + 1 Albino rainbow shark. These lot have been chilling for about a month now and I think it's time for a few new fish.
Basically I'm planning on getting one pair of dwarf cichlids in the future (probably apisto but I'm not sure yet whether they're compatible with the tetras) - but right now I need to know whether I can put Boesmani/Lake kutubu rainbows (probs 3 or 4?) and/or Swordtails (5ish?) with the fish I just listed.
Oh yeah there's also a lot of plants in the tank that seem to be growing well and I have a natural coloured sand substrate + some cool rocks that I made a cave out of + other ornaments
THANKS

 

[Circus]

What are your ph and water hardness?
I would not suggest putting the rainbow shark and the Dwarf cichlids together, as both are territorial bottome dwellers.

 

[hanzilla]

Ph is around 7 and water is soft. It's a shame about the cichlids but what about the rainbows? Any other recommendations for medium sized fish, because currently most of the fish are similarly sized so I wanted some variation

 

[Madisonkeug]

Ph is around 7 and water is soft. It's a shame about the cichlids but what about the rainbows? Any other recommendations for medium sized fish, because currently most of the fish are similarly sized so I wanted some variation

You could add a Gourami into the mix, dwarf gouramis are semi aggressive but pretty slow moving and would rather flare up and chase rather than nip at other fish. Grow about 2.5 inch but they’re wider and would go well with your smaller fish in my experience! They come in all sorts of colours too and you could put two but they’re territorial so unless there’s a lot of plants (including floating ones) and good hiding places they might chase each other around a bit. Hard to find females as the breeders like to keep them and they’re less colourful but if you can do 2x F : 1x M would be better

 

[Slaphppy7]

The serpae can be nippy and aggressive, I wouldn't add anything until you see how they do with the new LF zebras...

 

[CaT209]

It depends on the size of the fish you want. The rainbows should be fine they look really good fully grown out.. you could also do one golden, opaline or three spot gourami they will get over 4 inches full grown and are fine on their own in a community tank.
You have a few options for a 4 to 6 inch centerpiece community fish to stand out with all smaller ones already in there..

 

[Byron]

Some of the current fish you have will exclude some you indicate wanting. The Serpae Tetras...these are notorious fin nippers, and while a group of 12 can reduce this tendency, and in this large a tank the same (less chance of nipping), you cannot tempt fate with long-fin sedate fish. Cichlids and gourami are both out because of the Serpae. The LF danios may or may not be targeted...they are fast swimmers and might out-distance the Serpae, or the Serpae might manage too "sneak up" on them. Time will tell.

Water is said to be soft in terms of hardness, so while that opens more possibilities, it excludes swordtails which are livebearers and all livebearers require moderate hardness or harder water [we aree assuming soft water but the actual GH would confirm]. The Melanotaenia boesemani require water similar to the livebearers, moderately hard minimum. Melanotaenia lacustris (Lake Kutubu Rainbowfish) is the same.

 

[hanzilla]

ok I just did a test and the pH=7, hardness= 125. Idk if this is adequate but all the fish's colours are out and they look happy. The serpae used to fin nip the others sometimes before but since I've put the Danios in they don't bully anyone- I mostly see them playing around with the different plants. I've got elodia densa, Amazon swords, brazillian pennyworts and a bushy looking one I couldn't find the name of.

 

[Byron]

The GH of 125 ppm (equates to 7 dGH) is soft water, so all the fish species now in the tank are fine. It was/is those species previously mentioned as intended that will not manage here. But there are a lot of others suited to the water...tetras, danios, barbs.

 

[hanzilla]

Ok so do you have any recommendations for medium sized colourful centrepiece fish that would go well in these water conditions (mid dwellers)

 

[Madisonkeug]

Some of the current fish you have will exclude some you indicate wanting. The Serpae Tetras...these are notorious fin nippers, and while a group of 12 can reduce this tendency, and in this large a tank the same (less chance of nipping), you cannot tempt fate with long-fin sedate fish. Cichlids and gourami are both out because of the Serpae. The LF danios may or may not be targeted...they are fast swimmers and might out-distance the Serpae, or the Serpae might manage too "sneak up" on them. Time will tell.

Water is said to be soft in terms of hardness, so while that opens more possibilities, it excludes swordtails which are livebearers and all livebearers require moderate hardness or harder water [we aree assuming soft water but the actual GH would confirm]. The Melanotaenia boesemani require water similar to the livebearers, moderately hard minimum. Melanotaenia lacustris (Lake Kutubu Rainbowfish) is the same.

I have three dwarf gourami with a school of these tetras in a tank at my old house and they did fine as long as you have a big school they won’t be as nippy and the dwarf gourami don’t have any super long flowing fins really

 

[Colin_T]

Rainbowfish shouldn't be kept with Harlequin Rasboras because of the size difference, speed of the rainbows, water chemistry requirements, and the feeding habits of the rainbows. The bigger rainbows like Melanotaenia boesemani and M. lacustris will eat all the food and might even try to eat the harlequins. The rainbows also do best in hard water, whereas the harlequins come form soft water. The rainbows can move very fast and this might stress the more sedate harlequins.

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You could try a Geophagus cichlid, severum or Cichlasoma sajica or C. spilurum in the tank but you would have to watch the serpae tetras and rainbow shark. A female rainbow shark should be ok but male might get agro if the cichlids move too close to his territory, which could be the entire tank. Male rainbow sharks have a black edge to the anal (bottom) fin.

If you get rid of the serpae tetras and rainbow shark, you could have flame tetras and different catfish, as well as some Apistogramma cichlids and maybe some small gouramis. The danios might upset the gouramis but in a big tank it's less of an issue.

 

[hanzilla]

I gave the serpaes to a friend who started a new tank, now do I have more options? I like electric blue rams but I still need a larger sized fish to create some diversity. I like gourami's but idk angels might be better