stocking my 55 gallon freshwater aquarium, thoughts?

[tgwthf]

Hello everyone! I'm nowhere near close to setting up the tank, stand is still being built and needs to be cleaned out of all the sand and stuff, but i'm in the process of trying to find some fish i can put in there, will be keeping it around the 24C temperature mark.

so far i'm thinking of these for it:

1 Gold Spotted Plec (I love him <3 had him for a while)
2 fantail goldfish (read that they prefer the tropical temps of 22-28C)
4 female Guppies
6 blue male Guppies,
2 red snakeskin male Guppies,
4 balloon Mollies,
5 blue wagtail Platys
1 neon blue dwarf gourami male
1 yellow honey gourami

I'll probably try and find some female gourami's too so theres more of em

I was also thinking of keeping 4-6 threadfins in there? maybe some other fish? or are there too many fish that I want? hahaha
thanks for any replies/suggestions

 

[Baker]

If you go with the 2 goldfish then you're already pretty much maxed out. I say exclude them. Also, many of these fish do not cohabitate, you need to make your choices based on the parameters of your tap water, it will make things a lot easier in the long run as you won't have to worry about maintaining specific pH and buffering water, etc.
Look up your water providers website and it should tell you what your pH, Gh, Kh, water softener systems, etc find out that info and then look for fish that fit he bill.
A good tip is to look for fish that inhabit similar areas of the world. A lot of South American fish like softer waters so it will be easy to work around that, then it would be to just throw whatever in and then find out that mollies for example like water a lot harder and won't life full lives in soft water.
You also need to think about aggression, as most gourami don't tolerate other gourami well. Honey and dwarf gourami are generally more peaceful but will still show aggression towards other males. Furthermore, mollies and swordtails are naturally inquisitive and may harass long finned fish like gourami, biting their fins, etc. not necessarily out of aggression but still not good.

 

[tgwthf]

ah right well no mollies then, i don't want things nibbling tails its why i didn't go for tetras, and seriously? 2 goldfish in a tank that big? and yeah i know about gourami's not liking other males, i meant a female honey, the typer thing kept messing up when i was trying to write it out,I know from water tests that my water is directly in the center of everything, it neutral overall, and all the fish i'm looking at are from a breeder who has bred them and says they will adapt to most water parameters? chose the fish i chose based on that and the fact they remain quite small so there is plenty of room for them to explore in the 4ftx2ftx2ft tank

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Goldfish don't stay small. And they are very messy fish and need really good filtration and tank maintenance. Here is a link to live aquaria and their info on them.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=830+835+2743&pcatid=2743

Minimum this says is 30 gallons. That's for one fish only, so you get two and well...yeah. tank sized maxed out.

 

[tgwthf]

Goldfish don't stay small. And they are very messy fish and need really good filtration and tank maintenance. Here is a link to live aquaria and their info on them.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=830+835+2743&pcatid=2743

Minimum this says is 30 gallons. That's for one fish only, so you get two and well...yeah. tank sized maxed out.

sorry, guess i never had one that got bigger than about 4-5 inches when growing up, didn't assume that they would grow much bigger than that, and never would've thought 30 gallons each, that really sucks, i don't want just 2 fish in such a large tank it'd look ridiculous, oh well

 

[cowgirluntamed]

Sorry for the bad news. Most people put them in small tanks or bowls and they stop growing, or so it seems. It's actually a myth that fish only grow to the size of the tank. They might look like they've stopped on the outside but their internal organs and such still grow and they usually have much shorter lives.

 

[tgwthf]

Sorry for the bad news. Most people put them in small tanks or bowls and they stop growing, or so it seems. It's actually a myth that fish only grow to the size of the tank. They might look like they've stopped on the outside but their internal organs and such still grow and they usually have much shorter lives.

no its fine, i've heard of that, I just have never actually seen goldfish get larger than the 5 inch mark even in bigger tanks, don't want em to suffer

 

[Essjay]

There is a good write up on goldfish in these forums here http://www.fishforums.net/threads/goldfish-for-beginners.417799/