Moderators please move this to the tank journal area. Thanks

1577 Views 22 Replies 12 Participants Last post by cturner, Aug 30, 2012

cturner

Discussion Starter · Aug 15, 2012 (Edited)

Ok all I need some help. The husband and I can't figure out what to put in our new 55 gallon. I filled it up tonight, put in pool filter sand and started the up the filter. Everything is up and running and I'm starting to do a fishless cycle.

I've kept Discus, Malawi cichlids, Tang. cichlids, community fish so I have the experience with keeping picky fish.

Now the great debate...
The tank is in my husband's man cave. He wants colorful peacock cichlids. I want to be able to do live plants and CO2 with colorful tetras.

I'm looking for some great colorful tetras or other fish that would be compatable with plants and co2. I would prefer something I haven't kept before.

Please feel free to elaborate your voting choice.

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1 - 20 of 23 Posts

flight50

· #2 · Aug 15, 2012

I'd love to keep something new myself if I haven't done it. But in your husband's defense, it is his man cave. He would be a lot more tolerable of the tank's presence if it was to his liking considering its in his space. Do you guys have any other tanks that are not in the man cave? Does your husband help maintain the other tanks if there are others or are you running the aquatic show? Has he agreed to take on the responsibility of the man cave tank?

Cichlids obviously means not plant friendly most of the time. I haven't keep them since I started the hobby so I am not sure which ones are plant friendly if any. Considering its a sand substrate it will be a battle with plants and cichlids from what I remember.

cturner

Discussion Starter · #3 · Aug 15, 2012 (Edited)

Well to answer some of your questions. I have a 20 gallon in the living room that has community tetras. I wanted to move everything from the 20 down to the 55 gallon and put shrimp in the 20 gallon. He doesn't help with any of the tanks I've had except during water changes. He has no desire or in his words "he does enough sh** around here". So I'm on my own taking care of it! lol

ngrubich

· #4 · Aug 15, 2012

I'd go with some mbuna. I like their personalities more than peacocks, but then again the 55 wouldn't be much room for some mbunas plus some rocks (like lace rock or whatnot). My community tank (currently bloodfin tetras, but will be a discus tank when everything has been stable for a while -- discus are way more expensive than bloodfins so I don't want any mistakes haha) is nice to look at, mainly because of how well the bloodfins school. However, if I go anywhere within 5 feet of that tank, those fish take cover until I move away.

One other thing to look at is the pH of your tap water. Is it naturally acidic or alkaline? My tap water is about 8.0-8.2 which makes it perfect for my mbuna tank. Those chemicals to lower the pH in the future discus tank add up fairly quick: quicker than I would want to pay for them.

Do you have the space to move the 55 upstairs and put the 20 downstairs for him to mess with?

cturner

Discussion Starter · #5 · Aug 15, 2012

ph is about 7.6 to 8.0 out of the tap to 48 hours later.

Rivercats

· #6 · Aug 16, 2012

Great debate

Have you considered rainbow fish? You can do a planted tank, they prefer the higher ph (7.6 is fine), and you can get a variety of colors. My favorite are the albino millenium rainbows and the red Irian rainbows. There are many to choose from.

dougolasjr

· #7 · Aug 16, 2012

shell dweller cichlids

FisheriesOmen

· #8 · Aug 16, 2012

I'm a fan of small schooling fish. In a tank that big...you could have massive school....

DogFish

· #9 · Aug 16, 2012

I used to Bred/Hoard Cichlids ...Pic me, Pic me!

I feel a 55 is a little small for Peacocks. While many people crowd a variety of the Mbuna in a tank and get away with it I believe they are best in a single sp. colony. I definitely feel Lake Tanganyika sp. should be single sp. tanked.

With Africans it's a matter of what you can get away with vs. how the fish will really thrive.

Here's a Mbuna mix I would consider in a 55gl, Demasoni & Yellow Labs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcoZmDkRTn8&feature=fvwrel

YES, I see the Peacock...I still would not put one in a 55 :icon_roll

My absolute favorite fish I've ever kept Neolamprologus Leleupi, the variety in this video is just outstanding! I believe collecting at that point is recent in the last 5-8 years?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCmque3Aeak&feature=related

I found these best kept in a Harem, young males are ok for awhile with alpa males. Spawning can get pretty wild, do offer plenty of hiding places. I used 20Ls as breeding tank with plenty of PCS pipe and elbows as hiding spots.

One 'trick' I used was using PVC as a base for my rock scape. With a little work it isn't to hard to hide and the cave structure you can create is pretty good.

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DogFish

· #10 · Aug 16, 2012 (Edited)

SORRY, I got so caught up in the whole African experience I missed the whole grumpy-hubby, man cave part.

Real simple answer: OSCAR

He needs something to get him into keeping fish.

Oscars become an actual pet, to me they are like a Pit Bull with fins. I had one for several years. he'd take goldfish, worms & crickets out of my fingers. Always swam unto the see me when I went in the room. If I sat in the room watching TV, he'd swim over by me and keep an eye on me.

His last tank was a 90 he shared with a big pleco about 10" long. At this point he trashed anything & everything I put in the tank. I planted a big sword in a clay flower pot, had rocks on it so he would dig it up. Not only did he dig it up het trashed it and cracked the pot. I pulled every thing out including the gravel, I left 1/2 the pot for the pleco to hide under, I put in a 4" pc of PVC pipe elbow and he used to push it around(like a dog). I also had to keep a brick on the glass top he'd get pissy if I was late with his food and slam up into the lid.

I missed that nasty old fish.

Yep, get him an Oscar

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HybridHerp

· #11 · Aug 16, 2012

A 55 isn't really wide enough to comfertably keep an oscar
HOWEVER
I would look into some of the central and south american cichlids for sure. The best part about them as well is that you can still do a planted tank, it might be a little more challenging, but just look at my profile picture, the geophagus in there is a species that is know for digging and I can keep mine with plants all the same

I feel like you should get some tetras and maybe 2 medium sized cichlids, say a firemouth and an Electric Blue Jack Dempsey, or even a Blood Parrot. That way, you have size, color, and whatever plants you want to mess with.

nanobettaman

· #12 · Aug 16, 2012

Put a skull and a toy harley in there, then do what you want

DogFish

· #13 · Aug 16, 2012

HybridHerp said:
A 55 isn't really wide enough to comfertably keep an oscar

But a Jack Dempsy that can get 10" long can?
:icon_roll:confused1::eek5:

She doesn't have to get him an 8" Oscar, a young one 2" won't out grow a 55 that fast. By time he does out grow it Hubby will be hooked, He can get a 125 for his Man Cave and she gets the 55 upstairs for her planted shrimp tank.

SpecGrrl

· #14 · Aug 16, 2012

nanobettaman said:
Put a skull and a toy harley in there, then do what you want

Hahahahahahaha!

SpecGrrl

· #15 · Aug 16, 2012

DogFish said:
But a Jack Dempsy that can get 10" long can?
:icon_roll:confused1::eek5:

She doesn't have to get him an 8" Oscar, a young one 2" won't out grow a 55 that fast. By time he does out grow it Hubby will be hooked, He can get a 125 for his Man Cave and she gets the 55 upstairs for her planted shrimp tank.

Planning ahead +1

cturner

Discussion Starter · #16 · Aug 16, 2012

You guys are great! Thanks for the ideas. We won't be going with an oscar. I had one years ago and he out grew his tank in no time! I had to "donate" him to the LFS since they wouldn't buy him back. What a mess just getting him out of his tank!!! :O

Quote:
Originally Posted by nanobettaman
Put a skull and a toy harley in there, then do what you want

^ I like that idea!!

HybridHerp

· #17 · Aug 16, 2012

DogFish said:
But a Jack Dempsy that can get 10" long can?
:icon_roll:confused1::eek5:

She doesn't have to get him an 8" Oscar, a young one 2" won't out grow a 55 that fast. By time he does out grow it Hubby will be hooked, He can get a 125 for his Man Cave and she gets the 55 upstairs for her planted shrimp tank.

Well, I'm thinking fully grown here. A fully grown oscar is more than capable of reaching 12+ inches and I have hard of 14+ inches rather often. So in that sense a 55 is a little cramp to fully enjoy the fish imho. Jack Dempseys can get 10" and it would be a little cramp but not nearly as cramped. Also, most EBJD stay significantly smaller than regular Jack Dempseys, they tend to stay around the 6" mark and the biggest i have ever seen were just touching 8".

Although, I like your logic as well with the 125

But I wouldn't personally want to really on waiting for a non-fish person to decide to upgrade their tank anytime soon lol.

cturner

Discussion Starter · #18 · Aug 16, 2012

I tried to get him to bite on a 120 or larger for the man cave with discus because he enjoyed them when we had them before. He wouldn't go for the bigger tank right now and of course I'm itching to set up another tank I really don't care what size it is. However I won't put anything that gets over 5 inches in a 55 gallon. It just seems crowded no matter what kind of fish it is.

HybridHerp

· #19 · Aug 16, 2012

Well, fire mouth cichlids are still an option, along with convicts and other larger bodied fish like that.

cturner

Discussion Starter · #20 · Aug 29, 2012

4

Ok so we decided to go with rams with a clean up crew but we haven't decided on what schooling fish to add yet. We could use some suggestions on easy to obtain schooling fish that don't cost an arm and a leg.

So here's some pictures of the plants in their places for now. I'm waiting on driftwood to come in yet and our rams to come in from Matt on Friday. The rams will go in the 20 gallon until they are comfy and when I'm done aquascaping the tank so I don't disturb them until they claim their spaces.

FTS

Left side

Middle

Right side

I've got some diatoms, GDA and some BBA so I lowered my lighting photo period from 8 hours to 6 hours and upped my CO2 till I put fish in then I'll cut it back to safe levels. I put 3 threaded nerite snails in tonight to help with keeping some algae under control plus I've been doing manual removal.

I'll work on writing up some details about the whole setup sometime soon.

Thanks for looking!!

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