Stocking My Community Tank

[Brahmza]

I'm semi-new to fish keeping, but I'm looking to make some changes to my tank and want to make sure everything will work out beforehand. I have a 55g tank at 80 degrees stocked with 3 4" Tinfoil barbs, 10 tiger barbs, 8 zebra danios, 2 German blue rams, 2 dwarf gouramis, 2 green Cory, 1 sterbai Cory and a pleco. All of the fish are relatively young.
Fish I am looking to remove:
Dwarf gouramis x2
Zebra danios x8

Fish I am looking to add:
Cherry barbs x6
Pearl gouramis x3
German blue ram x1

Not positive if cherry barbs are top dwelles, but if not, looking for something else to replace my current top dwelling danios. Reason for the pearl gouramis is they are more peaceful, and prettier in my opinion. The rams are doing well with the other fish, but I need at least one more to make them comfortable. I'm aware that the tinfoils will outgrow my tank within the next 6 months. Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!

 

[thereverendturtle]

Glad you know the tinfoils are going to out grow your tank very quickly. Honestly though I'dremove them when you remove the danios and gouramis.

Cherry barbs are bottom dwellers, rarely moving more than a few inches from the substrate. .
A good fish to add a splash of color to the upper third of your tank would be bloodfin tetras, or if you can find them, there are some very nice looking pencilfish.
I'd also recommend upping your cories to 6 of each species.

 

[Brahmza]

Really? I can see upping each Cory to 3, but 12 Corys seem like a lot. Wouldn't that be too much for my tank? I'll take a look to see what kind of fish my LFS has to offer. I plan on getting rid of the tinfoils when my brother sells his bred African cichlids for his 90g tank. Any other top dwellers you can think of? I was looking at pencilfish, but I'm not a fan of bloodfins. Thanks for the advice. I'll pick up a few more Corys when I'm out today.

 

[the_lock_man]

6 is the number when shoaling fish start to feel more happy, and display their natural behaviour. Cories are a shoaling species.

Could you also have a look at the Blue link in my signature area - it deals with what happens to fish when they are in a tank that is too small. It'd be great if you could rehome this tinfoils sooner rather than later.

 

[Brahmza]

Would it be better to remove the 1 sterbai and up my green Corys to 6 then? Or vice versa? Just don't want to overcrowd my tank. The tinfoils will be gone within the month.

 

[leighton_87]

Would it be better to remove the 1 sterbai and up my green Corys to 6 then? Or vice versa? Just don't want to overcrowd my tank. The tinfoils will be gone within the month.

Personally that's what I would do.

 

[JenJ]

Whereabouts do your tigers spend most of their time? Mine go all over the tank, including the upper levels. I would just up their numbers - I've just got a new bigger tank and am going to up mine from 12 to 18 - they'll look fabulous in a big group!

 

[thereverendturtle]

Would it be better to remove the 1 sterbai and up my green Corys to 6 then? Or vice versa? Just don't want to overcrowd my tank. The tinfoils will be gone within the month.

Yes this would work well. Do be aware the sterbai do much better at the higher temps your rams like. Whereas the bronze and most other species, tend to do best at temps lower than 78°F.

 

[Brahmza]

My tank is heavily planted with a lot of cover for the rams, but my tiger barbs do the same. They pretty much go wherever the hell they want..lol. I have the 6 cories now and 10 bloodfins. They're doing well, and my tank is looking a lot better. Possibly going to add a few pearl gouramis.

Edit: We'll see how the Corys do with the temperature it's at.