# Need help in stocking 55 gallon



## abercrombie2177 (Apr 27, 2013)

Hi -

I am new to this forum, in general. I am also relatively new to keeping aquariums. However, I have had a peaceful, tropical community of guppies and mollies in a 15 gallon long tank for about 2 years now with no deaths. I have done countless hours of research as well into the care and maintenance of an aquarium, so I would like to believe that I am fairly knowledgeable on the community that I currently have.

I just recently purchased and set up a new 55 gallon long aquarium today. Obviously, it is currently in the fishless cycle process, but I have used a netted bag of gravel from my other aquarium to sort-of kick-start the cycle process on this aquarium. Once all of my water levels are normal and my ammonia/nitrate levels finally fall back to zero, I am looking into starting my first semi-agressive tank. 

I would like to have a couple of centerpiece fish, like kissing gourami or something a little bit bigger in size than the average fish. I also would like to have a couple of schools, especially a group of 6-8 tiger barbs. My husband, however, is looking for something a little more interesting, such as an eel. (specifically an eel or a knifefish) However, it seems that no matter how much research I do, I am finding out that everyone agrees to disagree on the compatability of each of these fish, which makes it much more difficult for me to decide on what types of fish I am wanting to get.

Ideally, I would like to have 2-4 gourami (preferrably kissing gourami, but I am certainly open to ANY other type of larger fish) and some type of eel with a school of tiger barbs and some other type of fish. However, I am open to any advice or direction as to what type of fish that I should get. I just really want to have a tank that has some color but that has a lot of movement and flow to it.

I currently have 2 cory cats in my 15 gallon and would like to pacify my husband and have an eel (if possible) or a knifefish, but if it is not possible, I would be open to any suggestions on any types of loaches that would go well with cory cats, because if I do not get the eel, I would like 3-4 cory cats to fill the bottom.

Anyways, I have a Marineland Penguin 350 Bio-Wheel Power filter on my tank at the moment (rated for a 70 gallon at 350 GPH), though I may increase the GPH if I decide to _really_ stock my tank. I also have a 200 watt heater in place, though I am going to supplement it with a 60 watt heater on the opposite end of the tank if I need to, but obviously I need to let my tank warm up for longer than a couple of hours to determine if the supplementing will be needed.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I hope that I have answered any questions that you may have had, but if I haven't, feel free to ask and I will try to answer the best that I can!


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## TroyVSC (Aug 29, 2012)

Not sure about some of the stocking but I would say a big no to the kissing gouramis. The reason it is a big no because they get huge and can be aggressive. My dad has an 80 gallon tank and had three kissing gouramis and they were way top big for that tank (smallest was easily 8 inches). In a 55 you could probably do school of smaller (no clown loaches) loaches along with you cory cats. i don't know how that all works with the eel though. 

Their are good alternatives to the kissing gouramis such as pearl or gold gouramis.


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## DarkestCloud (Mar 21, 2013)

Opaline gouramis are my favourite, and they get about 6 inches-ish. You'd have to wait awhile before they'd be very big, though. They sell at around 3 inches. Though they aren't rainbowy, mine has lots of personality. Very friendly fish. Though it depends on the individual. What kind of knife fish were you thinking? Black Ghosts are popular, but when full grown need a 80-90 gallon tank. I understand that there are other species that are smaller, however. There are tons of unusual, serpentine fish out there, and I'm sure you'll find a type that'll work for you. Tiger Barbs are infamous for nipping, though, and if you get something with long, flowy fins you might have trouble. Loaches get aggressive with other bottom-dwellers, so maybe not cories with loaches. Though I think a school of loaches would be more that adequate for bottom-cleanup duty, and also look pretty neat.


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## CAM (Jan 27, 2013)

I think you meant nitrItes and not nitrated when talking about cycling your tank.

Definately need more filtering.

Cories do much better in larger groups than two.


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## SueD (Aug 4, 2012)

Here's a good page with lots of information relating to eels, especially in the lower half of the page and you can click in the box on the different species for more specifics. Not my kind of fish but I guess I can understand the fascination. It's just if they hide in caves or borrow all the time, you never get to see them.

Eels, Aquarium Eels, Fish Guides for Freshwater Eels and Eel-like Species

For other semi-aggressive fish take a look at the cichlids on this same site. They have some great colors and even some different shapes. Some are very agressive, but some are less so. This site does a great job showing the groupings by region and you'd want to consider staying with one region, e.g South American vs. African. Some also get quite large so would not be appropriate for a 55 gal. But there are so many others that would work.

Lots of research to do here.


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## Raymond S. (Jan 11, 2013)

Your mollies will thank you as even though their not "large" they like their swimming space but don't know how they would react to Tiger barbs
as they aren't much bigger but still are a predator. I do like the green barbs over the Tigers and a 6-8 fish school will make the guppies act
much more like schooling fish. A person on here adds this to their post: "any fish that fits into the mouth of another fish...will" You may wish
to keep this in mind(especially about fry of guppies/mollies etc) though I did have a friend who occasionally had some because he found just
the right piece of driftwood to make a wall across the bottom of a corner and had that corner heavily planted/w Rotala so the fry had a place
they could escape from some of the harm. Oh yea he had extra gravel in that aria so the bottom there was about 2-3" higher than the rest.
AqAdvisor - Intelligent Freshwater Tropical Fish Aquarium Stocking Calculator and Aquarium Tank/Filter Advisor


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## joetheroofer (May 19, 2013)

I recently had to move my opaline gourami to another tank due to my 6 tiger barbs. From the minute I put the gourami in they were all nipping at him constantly.....which is wierd because I bought him full grown so he is obviously much bigger than the barbs.


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## CAM (Jan 27, 2013)

Would only be strange if they tried to swallow him whole.

They just want to bully him because they are faster and he has nip-worthy fins.


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## joetheroofer (May 19, 2013)

Yea he was pretty banged up


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## CAM (Jan 27, 2013)

Glad you noticed before they killed him. You treating him with any meds? Is he in a tank where you can keep him permanently?


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## TroyVSC (Aug 29, 2012)

Btw some loaches are very eek like in body shape like the dojos and kulhlis. That may be preferable in a community tank to an actual eel specially in only a 55.


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