New guy over here!

[FishNturt808]

Aloha fish peeps! Definitely a beginner to the hobby. I have a aquatic turtle that I’ve had for a couple years and decided to upgrade his tank and add some tank mates over the last few months. Definitely couldn’t be more addicted. Have already made some big mistakes(cycling/overstocking combined), cost me a bunch of fish which felt terrible about, but I definitely learned my lesson. As to what I’m currently running...55gal, sunsun hw304b canister, zoo-med fx350 canister, and a tetra whisper 10 hob (more for surface movement than filtering). I have a 4” res, a firemouth cichlid, a blood parrot (newest addition, 1st and only since I messed up the last group), a red-tailed black shark, and a common pleco. Really happy with the mix now. Would like to add some mid size schooling/shoaling fish eventually to fill in the mid-upper tank as there’s still plenty of space. (I think?)

 

[itiwhetu]

Cool lay out. I'm a plant lover so would like to see a whole lot of live plant in your tank. Aim for about 30-50% of the volume in plant

 

[FishNturt808]

Cool lay out. I'm a plant lover so would like to see a whole lot of live plant in your tank. Aim for about 30-50% of the volume in plant

I was definitely thinking about plants in there, at least one. But, since there’s a turtle in there i need to do my research on turtle safe plants for the inevitable bites he’ll take out of it.

 

[itiwhetu]

I was definitely thinking about plants in there, at least one. But, since there’s a turtle in there i need to do my research on turtle safe plants for the inevitable bites he’ll take out of it.

I had red sliders, and managed to keep giant Val. with them.

 

[FishNturt808]

I had red sliders, and managed to keep giant Val. with them.

I picked up a Java fern today...first plant attempt, so I went with what was recommended as ‘easy/beginner’

 

[Kyle E.]

Maybe tiger barbs for a schooling fish? It's kinda iffy with the turtle in there as I believe he will eat smaller fish, but I could be wrong.

 

[itiwhetu]

Java fern good choice. Tough enough. I would never put fish with turtles.

 

[FishNturt808]

Java fern good choice. Tough enough. I would never put fish with turtles.

It’s always a risk they’ll get eaten. But from what I’ve seen if they make it the 1st 24 hours the turtle gets over chasing them after not being able to catch them. You just have to make sure you get predator wary fish. Active, fast, short fins. Seems pretty similar to keeping dither fish with larger, aggressive cichlids.