# Getting a 55 gallon tank in 10 days, need ideas



## daniel89 (Nov 28, 2009)

So as some of you may have read my problem with my south american dragon fish i had. They all died, and i now have 1 bala shark and 3 red belly pacus left. Im getting a 55 gallon tank in 10 days and i need ideas for it.

I was wondering could half rocks and hallf sand work?
Also what kind of deco should i use i wanna put a few live plants in but not alot.

Id like some ideas on really cool fish nothing stupid id like some aggressive fish and i wanna board line what i can have with fish. I seen some tiger barbs and they looked cool as heck so i might wanna get a few of those...

Just give me some ideas..


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

You should really get rid of the Pacus and the Bala Shark since all of them will get entirely too large for a 55 gallon tank. Then you need to decide what type of tank you want to set up. You could do a semi-aggressive tank with a 55 gallon, you'd have to choose your fish carefully. Your best bet with a 55 is a community tank.


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## daniel89 (Nov 28, 2009)

i want a semi-aggressive tank with really unique fish


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

GET A BOOK!!! A BIG ONE!!! 
You'll find way more info, and a lot faster, than you'll ever be able to find here one vague question at a time, and you'll have a better idea of what questions to really ask.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

daniel89 said:


> i want a semi-aggressive tank with really unique fish


Well, a 55 gallon keeps you from getting most of the unique semi-aggressive fish since most need a 75 gallon or larger. Do some more research on the type of fish you want and I'll let you know if they could work together in a 55.


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## Tallonebball (Apr 6, 2009)

Yes do research! 
And get rid of the Bala and the Pacu because Balas like to be in groups of 6 or more and you'll never have a tank big enough for the pacu.


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## Blue Cray (Oct 19, 2007)

5 Yoyo loaches, 10 tiger barbs, 7 bronchis catfish, 3 gold gouramis, a bristlenose pleco, and a black ghost knife fish (for a few years). There I just made up your mind didnt I? lol


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

Blue Cray said:


> 5 Yoyo loaches, 10 tiger barbs, 7 bronchis catfish, 3 gold gouramis, a bristlenose pleco, and a black ghost knife fish (for a few years). There I just made up your mind didnt I? lol


Haha, I love it.


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## daniel89 (Nov 28, 2009)

Blue Cray said:


> 5 Yoyo loaches, 10 tiger barbs, 7 bronchis catfish, 3 gold gouramis, a bristlenose pleco, and a black ghost knife fish (for a few years). There I just made up your mind didnt I? lol


The yoyo loaches i like them, the tiger barbs a diffently, the brochis catfish im not to sure about, the gold gouramis are a no cause i think there ugly and for the pleco i got a plan one but the albino bristlnose looks sweet as hell so i migh trade mine in for credit on one. and the black ghost knife fish is a sure thing.

Maybe i can get a dwarf gouramis?


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

Blue Cray said:


> 5 Yoyo loaches, 10 tiger barbs, 7 bronchis catfish, 3 gold gouramis, a bristlenose pleco, and a black ghost knife fish (for a few years). There I just made up your mind didnt I? lol


That sounds good to me. If you get a Ghost Knife small enough they can be housed in a 55 gallon for about 1-2 years depending on what/how often you feed them.


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

Ghost Knife said:


> That sounds good to me. If you get a Ghost Knife small enough they can be housed in a 55 gallon for about 1-2 years depending on what/how often you feed them.


Not to get off topic, but a minimum tank requirement for a Ghost Knife is a 55g? I'm not criticizing, I'm just wondering haha. 

The idea Blue Cray posted seems like a very logical setup for a 55g, community based. Yoyo loaches are really cool and tiger barbs school very nicely if you get a handful. I say you take that idea into consideration unless you have a better idea, no offense.


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## Blue Cray (Oct 19, 2007)

A 55g is ok for a GK for a couple years or less like Ghost Knife said. A 125 would be a good tank for life.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

Blue Cray said:


> A 55g is ok for a GK for a couple years or less like Ghost Knife said. A 125 would be a good tank for life.


I agree that a 125 would be good for life. You could probably even get by with a 90/100 gallon tank for life, but those sizes are harder to find anyway unless you go custom. This is my second Ghost Knife I have now and he has grown about 3-3.5" in about 5 months or so since I bought him. I estimate he'll be over 10" in about 6 more months.


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## daniel89 (Nov 28, 2009)

Well I can always buy one and when he gets bigger trade him in for credit and a smaller one again for a few more years, also I looked at a few fish and I was wondering if a spotted puffer could work in the comunity as long as a golden rainbow shark as they grow to 5 inch from the research I did. 

Also I like the African cichlids and I'm wondering how many could work in a tank community ? 

Albino frog would be cool if I just bought one.

How many gouramis could I get that would go in a community?

I'll pribably do some more research tonight once I get home, might even go hit up pets smart and see. If they got any fish that I like.


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## petlovingfreak (May 8, 2009)

GSP's require brackish water even full marine as adults so that is a NO on that one, Don't bother asking petsmart or petco on their opinion as they are ****************ing retarded, and don't know what they are talking about 98% of the time.


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## daniel89 (Nov 28, 2009)

Well later today I will post a list of fish I want and yall can tell me what's up and how many of each I can get


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## daniel89 (Nov 28, 2009)

Heres my list of fish, I know its alot of fish but it doesnt mean im gonna get every fish listed. I will put a * in front of the fish i must have. Please tell me what fish could work and how many of each i can get. Keep in mind like barbs I would get 1 or 3 of each and add them all together to make 10 or so.

yoyo loach - Lohachata Botia Loach
*clown loach

*red tail shark - researched grows maxium to 4.5"

*Tretocephalus Cichlid
*Red Zebra Cichlid
Fuelleborni Cichlid, Marmalade
*Electric Yellow Cichlid
*Demasoni Cichlid
Blue Johanni Cichlid
Blue Peacock Cichlid 
*Double Full Red Cockatoo Cichlid
*Firemouth Cichlid

Tiger Oscar

*Black Veil Angel 

*Tiger Barb
*Odessa Barb
*Green Tiger Barb

Twin Tail Betta - Not sure if this would work but if theres a slight chance it could im gonna try it..

*A discus - will be later down the road and i will only be getting one since there 60$ a pop unless someone can refer me to a cheaper seller

*Flame Dwarf Gourami
*Neon Blue Dwarf Gourami
*Blue Paradise

*Hi Fin Lyretail Swordtail

*Black Ghost Knifefish

*Gold Datnoid


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## guppyart (Jan 22, 2005)

daniel89 said:


> Heres my list of fish, I know its alot of fish but it doesnt mean im gonna get every fish listed. I will put a * in front of the fish i must have. Please tell me what fish could work and how many of each i can get. Keep in mind like barbs I would get 1 or 3 of each and add them all together to make 10 or so.
> 
> yoyo loach - Lohachata Botia Loach "_*common loach not to many requirements other than standard care of a tank*_"
> 
> ...




barbs/tetras are both schooling fish so they like groups of 5+ of there own kind this doesn't mean 2 of that 1 of this maybe 1/2 of that and boom school,
you need like 5 tiger barbs, 8 rosy barbs kind of math.

so going from your list you could try firemouths with a school of tetras potentially and a school of cories.

african species tank/maybe 2 groups pending which you choose to go with.

you can't mix the africans with south/central americans very bad idea, alot of people frown upon mixing the african lakes also due to aggression issues.

angels with a gourami and maybe odessa barbs if you want to test if they bother the angels, maybe some cories also.


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## Chaos553 (Apr 2, 2007)

i agree with guppyart. angels are good fish, but you'd want to keep them by themselves or with other fish that would not love to nip at their fins, hence tiger barbs. you could probably get away with running firemouths with tiger barbs, but that might even be a stretch so that's a personal opinion. i'd avoid the clown loach and stick with yoyo loaches since clowns do get rather large, making you have to upgrade your tank from now and again, and gouramis are just good singular usually. 

all and all, there's a ton of different ways to model a 55g, just make sure you get the right fish =P. you can even run dwarf cichlids like rams or kribs if you really want to since they have beautiful color and a pretty nice personality, that's just my opinion though. good luck with your decision!


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## Kurtfr0 (Nov 2, 2008)

Doing a angel community is tricky but if you pull it off and with real plants, it's amazing.

My vote.


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## daniel89 (Nov 28, 2009)

sorry but i dont like tetras or corries...


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