# First Time Fish Owner Stocking Help!!!



## MainelyFish (Sep 20, 2012)

I recently inherited my first fish tank and I am very excited! It is a 55 gal tank and I will post some pictures soon... I have the tank fully cleaned and currently cycling... I am going to let it cycle for a week or so before I add my first fish... I am going to start by purchasing 3 fish and then start to introduce more as time goes on... 

The only thing I know for sure is that my wife wants an angel fish (it was part of the agreement with her to let me have the tank  )

So I need to make a decision on the other 2 fish... I am going to let my son choose one of them and I am going to choose the other, I want to have the whole family involved... However my son is 7 so I dont want to give him free range... So I am looking for advice on a couple fish that would go well with the angel...

What are your thoughts and suggestions... Thanks in advance!


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## Guest (Sep 21, 2012)

I would let your tank cycle completely before adding any fish. Angelfish are sensitive fish, they need an established/cycled tank. There are fish that are really good in a tank that is not fully cycled. Danios are hardy fish, they can withstand just about anything.

Once your tank is fully cycled, then there are discus, plecostomuses, neon tetras, these are just some of the fish that probably would be good with Angelfish.


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

Blue Rams! My favorites.

As suggested before neons will not work once the angel is full grown. They will be snacks. Maybe not in a 55 but it could happen.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

I wouldn't recommend discus as they are apparently really sensitive. How are you cycling without fish? Are you adding amonia to the water? I would get a bristlenose pleco to keep the ground clean. In a 55g you can also keep multiple angle fish.


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## aMawds (Aug 29, 2012)

Yupp one week isn't a cycle. Personally... and this might sound weird to the pro's, but I cycled a tank with a couple trapdoor snails. Would probably want more like 5 or 6 in a 55 gallon, but they're large, they clean algae so they're actually useful once the tank is cycled, and they happen to have a nice habit of sitting at the water line when the ammonia or nitrite levels get high enough that they care. You do a water change, they crawl back down the glass and go back to eating. I basically plopped one in my 8 gallon Betta tank, put a sinking shrimp pellet in every day or two, and changed water when I saw it at the surface. Tank cycled in a couple weeks. I seeded the filter from an established tank though. 

Either way, one week is far from a cycle, and like Bettaguy asked, how are you cycling the tank? We have to ask even if you know what you're doing, just because countless people come in here and say they set up a tank, ran their filter for a week, then plopped in fish thinking they cycled the tank. All without adding any source of ammonia. Fish start dying, they start asking questions, we explain that they made big mistakes, and then link them to the stickies all over the place that they could have read before starting this whole ordeal and saved the lives of some fish. Fishless cycling is just better.

Random bit of advice. Don't cycle with neon tetras. They die from even hints of ammonia. Ask me how I know  Hint: I wasn't a member here yet.


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## Guest (Sep 21, 2012)

You can cycle with danios, bettas, basically any hardy fish.

I wasn't saying to cycle with neons, just that they would probably be good with angelfish. But like Bettaguy said they aren't good with them.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

I know your wife said she wanted an angle fish but you can add one later and start the cycle with hardier fish. I'm assuming you are just running the aquarium without any fish right now? The thing is, without a source of amonia you wont get the tank cycled. The source can be fish, but also amonia from a bottle in case you don't want to loose any fish. I would recommend you read a few stickies on cycling, and do some google searching about it. It is always a great idea to get informed before you jump into the hobby. 

I never said that neons weren't good with angles, but ZebraDanio did. I belief the same thing though as she has more experienc with fish than m and it seems like a reasonable answer when you think about it. You want to go with fish that are bigger than the angles mouth.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

there are quite a few fish that can go with angels...bleeding heart tetras..congo tetras...silver tips..von rio..corydoras...smaller types of pleco....most of the hypancistris group...also ancistris...a couple of LDA-33 would be really nice...jet black with pure white polka-dots.....they can reach 8-9" but are slow growers so they will stay small enough for a 55 for quite some time...the wife and i were woking on some tanks tonight...moving 8 big angels from the 135 to the 125.....the 125 has lots of fish in it..clown loaches..plecos congos..black neons and now the angels...an hour later there are 4 pairs of angels scrapping over places for them to spawn....it looks like i will have 4 pairs for sale now...


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

emperor or congo tetras, corydora, bristlenose plecoes. After a "fishless cycle" I would say start with 6-10 small angels and plan on eventually keeping one pair. Angels are good for a living room tank. Pretty and not shy. Angels love neons, for lunch. Mouthsize rule applies, angels with eat what fits. Growing up together does not insure they won't figure it out when the neon fits.


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## MainelyFish (Sep 20, 2012)

Thanks guys for all the great responses... Like I said I am new to the game... I was either miss informed or I miss understood someone locally who told me that I need to run (Cycle as he put it) the filter for a week before adding any fish and at that point I would be fine to add fish but to not add more then a few at a time so that the amonia levels don't spike to high...

That being said how would you suggest I proceed... Should I go and pick up a couple of danios and let the tank cycle for a couple of weeks then add the angel fish?


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

Do you know what your water levels are (ph, and hardness)? I know your wife said she wanted angles, but you should buy your fish according to what your water is like. The guy who told you to run the filter for a week before adding fish, and then adding fish slowly wasn't totally misinforming you. I would set the tank up and then let the filter run for a day untill the water is clear (it could be cloudy from the substrate, or a lot of things really). Once the water is cleared up I would introduce a couple of small fish, danios seem to get recommended a lot. Now you have something that produces amonia in the tank, but your filter wont take the amonia out of the water right away. That's why you would (depending on the amount of fish you add) need to do water changes every other day of 20% to keep the amonia concentration in the water low enough for the fish to survive, but high enough for bacteria to build up in the filter. 

Another option is that you do a fishless cycle, this option is probably much cheaper and is risk free. For this you would buy a bottle of amonia (fish stores sell these). You would then add a certain amount of the amonia to the aquarium each day and follow the procedure from the packaging. With this you also wouldn't need to do water changes every other day as there is no living animals in the tank that could get hurt.


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## MainelyFish (Sep 20, 2012)

I just got a call from my wife she was going to the pet store to pick up some test strips for me but since my loving wife doesn't totally trust me yet she brought a water sample in with her and had the pet store test it... They said that our water was excellent and we should feel free to start adding fish... But she get anymore details as to where exactly our ph #'s and stuff were at...


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Fishless is best. But a 55 is a lot of water. A slow ramp up, say 1 fish per month, cycle should also work. DO NOT OVERFEED. If you do, siphon out the uneaten food. If you have a substrate, get a "gravel washer". Buy a new, clean 5 gallon bucket only for fish water.

If you have a hardwood floor, I recommend something like this. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=14697 In any case, wipe up drips promptly.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

The reason your waterlevels are fine is because you don't have any fish in the aquarium that would produce waist (WASTE), but now you know that your tapwater is safe. I would go for a fishless cycle, since it is much safer, and you will be less likely to loose(LOSE) fish. If you go for a cycle with fish just do what emc said.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

bettaguy...i am going to start getting on you about spelling.....lol


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

in German you combine words a lot which is why I do the same.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

wasn't talking about combining words...just spelling..go to your last post..i added the correct spelling...
ok.....i am done hijacking the thread....lol


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## aMawds (Aug 29, 2012)

emc7 said:


> Fishless is best. But a 55 is a lot of water. A slow ramp up, say 1 fish per month, cycle should also work. DO NOT OVERFEED. If you do, siphon out the uneaten food. If you have a substrate, get a "gravel washer". Buy a new, clean 5 gallon bucket only for fish water.
> 
> If you have a hardwood floor, I recommend something like this. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=14697 In any case, wipe up drips promptly.


^^ Agreed with this guy. However I would never be able to just add one fish per month unless those fish were exactly what I wanted in the tank. Ammonia levels are bound to climb to pretty unhealthy levels before the bacteria populate enough to be useful, then you have a big nitrite spike. 

Fishless is definitely the safest method. Don't need to do many water changes either. Add ammonia until you're at about 3 or 4, then just keep it steady at that level until it starts dropping. Then just keep adding a tiny amount to keep the bacteria alive while the nitrite eating bacteria come about. When everything is 0 except for nitrates and all you're doing is adding ammonia and seeing it turn into nitrates nearly immediately, you do a water change to bring the nitrates back down, drop a few fish in, and add more when you still see no ammonia or nitrites.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

I cycled my 100ga by adding only a few fish at a time. And I do mean a few. No problems. I started with some JD's, then firemouths, then bringing those back to the store because I messed up on what I wanted, then started adding giant danios. All a good moth apart from each other. Nothing ever climbed. I can't see that not working in a 55. Just use smaller fish first. 

My first preference will always be fishless, but 55 and over adding slow isn't that big of a deal if you do it right. I would never cycle with fish in anything less than a 50.


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## aMawds (Aug 29, 2012)

Obsidian said:


> I cycled my 100ga by adding only a few fish at a time. And I do mean a few. No problems. I started with some JD's, then firemouths, then bringing those back to the store because I messed up on what I wanted, then started adding giant danios. All a good moth apart from each other. Nothing ever climbed. I can't see that not working in a 55. Just use smaller fish first.
> 
> My first preference will always be fishless, but 55 and over adding slow isn't that big of a deal if you do it right. I would never cycle with fish in anything less than a 50.


Well your opinion should definitely be taken before mine. If you've done it, it'll likely work. Just don't go crazy and see that the ammonia didn't climb after two days and go buy a couple full grown plecos x)


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## MainelyFish (Sep 20, 2012)

So after a long conversation with a local fish store.. I somewhat went against some of the suggestions on here and I picked up a few tiger barbs and I have been running my cycle with them... You guys have made me really paranoid about my decision  (which I appreciate in a way)... so far my numbers are good and I did a 25% water change today so we will see how it goes from here... I will keep you guys posted and I really really appreciate all of the feedback so far... I am getting addicted to this and fast... which I am sure you guys can all relate to...


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

tiger barbarians are not good long term companions for angels.


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## MainelyFish (Sep 20, 2012)

I am fully aware of this and have talked my wife out of having an angel in this tank...


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