Lost In A Sea Of Choices!

[sad_rocc]

So I recently acquired a nice 55gal tank (trapezoid(?) design) and it is by far the largest tank I've had. It is in a main display area. I'm familiar with African cichlids and they're really pretty and all, but I kind of want to go in a different direction. My past experiences with cichlids have been that they usually don't get along with any other species of fish and for a tank that size, I want some variety. However, I also don't want to have to sell my organs to finance it. Also, it would be really great if I could add to it over time. With cichlids, I've always had to add a bunch of new ones at a time and make sure they're very close in size. I've always had fish of the more aggressive variety and am not familiar with peaceful, schooling type fish at all. So, I guess my question is, what sort of direction would you go toward/suggest?

 

[IovaykInD]

Community Tank?

You'll have a lot of choices to pick from and won't have to worry about too much aggression.

 

[Somethings Fishy Here]

judging by what you've said, I'd also say a tropical tank would be the way to go. I have the exact same sentiment about cichlids in that everything needs to go into the tank at once and I can say having a tropical tank will eliminate that problem, and will be very inexpensive. As for schooling fish, zebra danios or just about any tetra variety will school, as will harlequin rasboras provided you have enough of them (in my experience some tetras dont really school unless you have 8 or more). You may also want to look into livebearers as there are several varieties of very attractive swordtails, guppies, and mollies out there. finally, gouramis are extremely peaceful fish that would make a good addition to a community tank. I know this doesn't provide extreme amounts of insight into these types of fish, but looking up the varieties of each would probably be a good start to finding out which of these you like, as well as perhaps leading you to other species I did not mention. Hope this helps

 

[modernhamlet]

How about something like:
2 angels (start with 4-5 juveniles and let them pair up)
a big school of 12-15 medium sized tetras
2-3 apistogramma or rams
5 oto catfish

 

[rdd1952]

I vote community tank too. You can get tetras, danios, corys, etc for less than $3 each (at least around here anyway) so a full stock of 20 to 30 fish will be less than $100. Angels are great too but are a little more expensive. I think I paid $5 each for small ones (about 3/4" long).

 

[sad_rocc]

Sounds good, the main reason I've shied away from community tanks in the past is that most of the fish I've seen are very small and stay that way and also aren't real colorful. But, like I've said, I never delved too deeply into it.

One thing I like about community fish (correct me if I'm wrong) is that they seem a lot more compatible with other kinds of fish. I was always told with more aggressive fish to keep native species together and not to introduce fish from different areas of the world together. Community fish kind of seem like you can throw lots of different kinds together and at different times.

Angels seem cool but I thought I remember hearing that they need a lot of space and special water conditions (certain pH I think?)

Thanks for the suggestions and info guys, exactly what I'm looking for!