# Stocking plans for a 55 and a 20!



## Alaizabelle (Mar 4, 2011)

Hello!

I'm not exactly new to the hobby, but for years have kept to the species only guppy and betta tanks. :betta:

My 55 gal is fully cycled, and I plan to convert it to a planted tank. Right now there are a variety of tetras living in it (which came with the tank!)

I've spent hours and hours researching different fish and playing on this adviser website, and this is what I came up with!

The 55 gallon:









The 20 gallon:









With an eventual goal of adding a pair of either golden rams or GBR's in. (From what I've ready, they are more of a challenge, so I'm going to wait a while!)


I'll add the fish very slowly, would 2-3 a week be fine?

Do the plans look alright? Any experiences or suggestions about any of the fish or combination? 
*c/p*


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Interesting choice of fish. 2-3 a week should be fine for the 55g. I would do 1-2 in the 20. I would do all the work you need to convert it (55) to a planted before you put any fish in.


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## plecosrawesome (Mar 1, 2011)

get a pleco for the 55 gallon hell keep the tank clean


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

Plecos clean about as much algae as a street bum cleans up garbage dumpsters. I've never seen a system with Pleco's capable of keeping up with algae, even with 2 large adults. Should they actually "manage" to keep it in check, you then need to consider the volume of wastes they produce. I do not feel a pleco is an effective cleanup-crew in freshwater, and there are better alternatives.

Otto Cats as you plan to add to your 50g, are fantastic cleaners, they will even clean algae off of your plants and leave the leaves unharmed, increasing the amount of these specimens may or may not be a good idea either, as once they run out of algae, the will quickly fall victim to starvation, and do not readily accept pellets such as plecos do. 

In my own experience, I had a 29 tall tank with 1 severum in it about 5 years ago. The tank unfortunately HAD to be struck by indirect sunlight every day, and the algae went way out of control. Since I had no option to move the tank, I just bought a $2.50 Otto-cat, and he stripped every last piece of algae from the system within a week, and kept it away for years until he died. 

Also it is worth the mention he had no problems at all with the adult severum.


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## Alaizabelle (Mar 4, 2011)

I built the lists around the fish that came with my 55 gal tank. I might rework the 55 gal to keep the giant danios that are in there right now...but I've got lots of time to think on that 

Right now in the 55 gal there are 3 cherry barbs, 4 golden barbs, 5 glowlight tetra, 4 black skirt tetra, 4 giant danios, and 3 buenos aires tetra (I'm trading in the buenos for the cherries and other fish I need to round out the groups and will either trade in the giant danios or rework the stocking...)

The 55 gal. is situated near a window that lets in light in the afternoon, so I'm hoping there will be enough algae for the two otto cats! 

The 20 doesn't have a light hood (there's a backlight though!) and is under the cubbords on the kitchen counter, so it's not going to be planted.


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

Be careful to put any small shrimp in with your black skirt tetras, they may find them as food. Also, dont put more than one gourami in your tank as they will porbably end up fighting.


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

You can easily manage gourami aggression. Phy's is right, if you get 2, you may encounter a lot of battery between 2 fish, but only if you land a male. If you had 2 males, expect mortal combat, if you have 1 male and 1 female, expect the female to die from sexual harassment, but wait we have a cure for this problem!

Get 1 male, and the rest females, problem solved. The male will "hit on" the females throughout the system, which will leave any individual with a very managable amount of attention from the male, since its spread out across more fish. In this situation you then fall into "The more the merrier!".

2 ottos in a 50, if you dont have a lot of algae they'll have it stripped bare, but you can always offer them some cuccumber, romaine lettuce, zuchinni squash, etc... This is great supplement food for them, which they will accept far more readily than any pellets. Given the size of an Otto-cat, I would not feel too concerned about them starving out in your system with only 2 of them. One way to ensure there will be some food for them is to leave some panels of your aquarium uncleaned. Just clean your front viewing panel of glass and let the ottos scrub up the rest, the'yll get along great.

./agree on shrimp too. They can get predated by even small fish in a closed system, and worse than this, sucked right into the filter and turned into shrimp spread. If you wish to have shrimp, pay very close attention to your tetra species, loaches, and well.. every fish you put in. Most people will cover their filter intake with sponge to remove the oppertunity for them to get pulled into the filter too. It can be done, but it can also get a bit tricky too. With your plans, and a bit of attention to their behavior, im sure shrimp will do fine with your choices of livestock so long as they're all properly fed.

I would though encourage placing the shrimp in the system first, before any more fish. I know you have some already but if you get your shrimp, they can familiarize themselves with their environment, and be able to escape any immediate predation. Yes, I've seen fish consume fish still in the bag floating in my tank... Sometimes when you least expect it, predation still happens.


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## Alaizabelle (Mar 4, 2011)

I'm thinking about 86-ing the peacock gudgeon and the swordtails, keeping the giant danios (and bringing their population up to 5-6).

As for the dwarf gouramis, I can get females from a LFS, and have a male/2 female trio, or I could just get one male (but would he be more lonely and prone to pick on other fish?) 

I think that by the time I add the otto cats, they will have their work cut out for them  The tank is by a window, and will be planted as well. I'm also planning on supplementing them with blanched zucchini (I grow a TON in the summers!) 

I will probably start out with a bunch of ghost shrimp, like I have in my guppy tank, and see how they fare.


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

I dont see my gourami's picking on other fish when not already pissed off by the other gouramis. but be sure to watch for it. You could get some larger amano shrimp for your tank. I have 4 and all the fish just pass them over as if they werent there. I had large ghost shrimp (well large for ghost shrimp) and they were also eaten overnight. So it could have been the type of shrimp that the fish enjoyed? Not sure. Also, when you add the shrimp, either do it before fish, or put the bag all the way into the bottom so the shrimp dont look like floating food and get attacked when added from the top.


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

Gouramis are a bit different species by species. I have seen male Trichogaster trichopterus go wild on fish twice its size. These are the commonly known "Three-spot gourami". Although added females subdued the aggression, gouramis if they have nothing much to do, can infact harass other species than gouramis. 

Bear in mind that gouramis are anabantoids. If you're not familiar with the term, its a group of fish which have a terrestrial air breathing organ called a labyrinth. Why does this matter? They are DIRECTLY related to the B.Splenden, aka. "The chinese fighting fish". 

All this means though is that they have the capacity to be very uncontrollable if they are alone, or if you have multiple males in 1 system that is not large enough for them to have enough space between them.


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

Reading the last post, it reminded me that you probably should refrain from using Melafix for medicating your fish if you do get a gourami. I've heard this is bad for gouamis and have experienced it. It almost killed one of mine. FYI


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## M1ster Stanl3y (Dec 10, 2010)

why does that site say a 55 is 50% filled with 2 angel fish? that doesmt sound right to me...


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

Melafix is absolutely horrible for anabantoids, it irritates the labrynth organ, and sadly their gills do not have the capacity to remove enough oxygen from the water column to keep their blood oxygenated. This is about the worst thing possible you could offer an anabantoid. There is also a product called "Bettafix" which is in my opinion a worse remedy. This is because it also has melaluca oil in it, just in a lesser concentration. Its worse because its directly marketed towards anabantoids.

Please avoid these "Gentler natural remedies". They are absolutely terrible for gouramis and bettas alike. Duly note though, Pimafix is FANTASTIC antifungal agent! I still dont use it though. If my bettas (i dont keep gouramis anymore) fall ill to fungal infection, i do a good water change and give them pomegranate extract. This whips a fungal infection right into shape lickity split. The best way to do this is to burst a pomegranate seed right into the water. Polyphenols for the win!!


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## Alaizabelle (Mar 4, 2011)

Eek! My general rule of thumb is that if anything is amiss... make sure they are getting lots of fresh water. I've never tried any of those medicines... and now I most definitely will not! The poor little fishies that had to figure that one out 

I have three bettas, one is a rescue who has next to no fins. But with every day (except monday) partial water changes he is really perking back up!


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## Alaizabelle (Mar 4, 2011)

Which fish would you recommend putting into the twenty gallon tank first, the serpae tetra or the black skirts? 

I'm also rethinking the stockings....

The 55 maybe:









The 20 maybe:









It's hard figuring out how to shuffle the fish I currently have to accommodate the ones that I would like to have


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

i dont see it different either way. maybe... which ever you'd like first?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

I think you'll probably go by what's available first. A pretty varied list. I would find it very hard to find a store here that would have even close to what you have listed in stock.


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## aquaticsnerd (Jan 29, 2011)

Alaizabelle said:


> Which fish would you recommend putting into the twenty gallon tank first, the serpae tetra or the black skirts?
> 
> I'm also rethinking the stockings....
> 
> ...


Like JR said it would depend on what is available first. If you have PetSmart or Petco you may be able to find the black-skirt and serpae tets easily. Not that I recommend shopping there . I personally like Buy Tropical Fish, Goldfish and Aquariums for sale at AquariumFish.net, where you can Shop Online.. You can check out there Buy Tetras for Sale at AquariumFish.net, where you can shop online for a Tetra Fish.. I ordered some SAEs from them a few weeks back and they gave me an extra one for free.


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## Alaizabelle (Mar 4, 2011)

I have both the long fin serpae and the black skirts already in my 55 gal, so it's just a matter of netting them out and putting them in the smaller tank. 

Also, I have local sources for all the fish on my lists (quite a few I already have in the 55!) There are two nice LFS within .5-1 hour of where I live.  I'm lucky! I've spent quite some time in the stores just watching the tanks to see which fish I liked, and then come home to research which would get along and have similar needs.


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

When you net them, try leaving the net in there for a few minutes and let them get used to it then herd them into it slowly.. it takes more time but it causes less stress.. you could even try using a bag but thats difficult considering they dont like to stay still or open.


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## Alaizabelle (Mar 4, 2011)

I have two nets that I use to sort of herd them into it very slowly, I'm so afraid to hurt them o.o

The tanks are at the same temperature and ph, should I use any sort of acclimation process?


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

IMO, if its going from your water to your water and the parameters are the same, then I don't think it's totally necessary. It wouldn't hurt, that would be all I could say.


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## Alaizabelle (Mar 4, 2011)

I slowly added the 20 gal water to their holding bucket little by little, just in case. They are looking good so far 

I chose to move the long fin serpae tetra and one skirt tetra from the 55 to the 20. If all goes well, next week I'll move one or two more over.

The 55 gal got a new filter today, an aquaclear 110. It's set up running alongside the existing whisper 60 that came with the tank. In a few months, I would like to replace the whisper filter with either another aquaclear or a canister filter of some kind. We shall see


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## phys (Feb 4, 2011)

sounds good! hope it continues to go well!


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## Alaizabelle (Mar 4, 2011)

While I was on a choir tour last week, the tanks did well. Water parameters are looking good for the 20 and the 55, and the two fish in the 20 look happy! They will be getting another friend from the 55 soon I think. 

I did lose 1 fish in the 55 while I was gone though  One of the golden barbs was stuck to the filter intake, I don't think he had died very long before. The fins were all in good shape and it didn't look like anyone picked on him. I'll be watching the others carefully.


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