Fish For A 55 Gallon?

[tightrope10]

I'm not sure what fish are good together, so I was wondering if anyone could post a list of fish combinations for a 55 gallon?
Thanks!

 

[snake007]

Tell us what you like and the kind of setup you want and we'll be able to know which fish to recommend a bit better.

 

[Fishy friend2]

do you prefer larger colorfull, solitary fish, small colorful schooling fish. bottom dwellers, one large centerpiece fish. or a mix of all of these as snake said, it would be better is you told us more about you setup, filteration, and whether or not if it is planted. we can give you more, accurate info about the fish you can keep if we have a little info about your setup

 

[tightrope10]

I would like a planted (tropical) tank, with lots of bright schooling fish, and if possible, silver hatchetfish to go with. I don't mind not having them though.

 

[zuulan]

Lots of Cardinal tetras then?

 

[fluttermoth]

In my 55g I have;

18 marbled hatchets (the marbleds are hardier than the silvers, IME)
42 false neons
12 glass catfish (they're quite delicate though, and not colourful, so you'd probably want to skip those!)
2 BNs
a royal whiptail catfish

You could swap the false neons for whatever tetra you like best, or even split that number into two shoals if you wanted to (although I think larger shoals of one species looks better). If you have a sand substate you could have some corydoras instead of the glass cats; 6 or 8 would be a good number, as cories are chunkier and produce more waster per fish than the glass cats.

I do have a massive external filter, do 50/60% water changes weekly and built up the stock very gradually over a couple of years though, so you might need to adjust the numbers down slightly for your system.

 

[Fishy friend2]

What about 12-13 kuhlis instead of 12 glass cats, as they are hardier and colorful

 

[fluttermoth]

Yes, as long as there's a sand substrate, kuhils should do well.

 

[tightrope10]

Wow! Fast replies, thanks for the great suggestions. I'd prefer not to have any sucker-mouth fish. is there anything else colorful that could go on the ground?

 

[Fishy friend2]

kuhli's really arent 'suckermouth' fish at all. here is a pic of them

 

[snake007]

Nice K's.

 

[Fishy friend2]

thank you, im getting 2 more tomorrow

 

[Crossfire]

thank you, im getting 2 more tomorrow

How exciting! Better show some pics!

IMO, you should go something like fluttermoth said:

18 marbled hatchets
42 (tetras of some sort)
12 Kuhli Loaches
50+ Either amano or cherry shrimp, they don't contribute to the bioload, eat alage, keep your tank clean, and look cool
Maybe some gouramis? Or perhaps a beautiful dwarf cichlid like a Cockatoo Cichlid or Agassazi cichlid? If you get either cichlids or gouramis, the cherry shrimp will become snakes, so Amanos would be better. Plus amanos eat more kinds of algae

 

[Proxo]

Salvini cichlid (very limited tank mates)?
keyhole cichlid?
bolivian rams?
firemouth cichlid?

I'd personally find something you really like and work around that.

 

[Man of fish]

I really like crossfires.
(p.s. I got a khuli loach today)