First Tank EVER

[hexxx]

My friend is moving to college today & offered me his 55 gallon freshwater tank complete with filter, water, fine gravel, and a few plants. He's bringing his only fish from the tank (an Oscar) with him to school & is getting an entirely new setup there. Other than having a few horrible Petco tanks from when I was a kid, I have no experience in the art of being an aquarist, and figured since I have some free time, it'd be something that I'd like to get into.

From what I understand, it's important to get the nitrogen cycle going with a few hardy fish before introducing the more vibrant & larger species. I was thinking of adding a solid school of a few black mollies before adding between 1 and 3 larger fish. So I have a few questions:
1: What's a good size for a school of black mollies? I don't want them to dominate the tank, but I want it to be a large enough group so that they're stress free & schooling.
2: How long should I wait after they've been introduced to begin adding other species?
3: Any suggestions for other species? I'm a bigger fan of the more odd & interesting larger fish, like eels & black knife fish.
As of now I have a budget of about $300 for the next month, so I'm looking to get pretty serious & make a badass tank in the long run.

PS I was doing some research online today on the hobby & lurking this forum, which seemed to be the most helpful overall. Hopefully someone here can help get me started.

Thanks,
Hexxx

 

[Ian21777]

When is the move happening? or has it already happened? Reason I ask is that if you take the tank right away and keep the filter as it is you wont need to cycle the tank as the filter will be already mature... If possible keep as much of the original tank water as you can as this all helps and make sure you top up with dechlorinated water. As long as you add fish pretty much right away the bacteria in the filter will not die off from starvation. It just means you have to be prepared for the move to allow the minimum time possible for the filter to be turned off. If you have to start from scratch then you will obviously have to re-cycle the tank. most people will say to do it without fish in the tank- by using ammonia as the food source and adding a bit each day until the filter is up and running. There will be a thread on here somewhere for fishless cycling im sure. either that or someone will jump in and point you in the right direction. Personally, whenever i start up a new tank, i use mature filter media from another filter. Luckily for me one of my LFS sells mature k1 filter media from their sump for a penny each so £5 worth is plenty for an external filter.

Ive never kept mollies, but like most live bearers it is best to keep them in a ratio of at least 2-3 females for every male. This stops the females from being constantly harassed. From what i know mollies do best in harder more alkaline water (someone correct me? with some salt?) so mollies could ultimately cut down on other choices for inhabitants later on. I dont know about numbers, and from what ive seen of guppies, it is less of a schooling behaviour and more a case of the males trying to get it on with the closest female all the time lol hence the ratio of m to f... If you manage to 'save' the filter you could add most fo your fish at once- providing you dont go overr the top. bear in mind that the filter was looking after a large messy fish (or was it a baby o?) so use that as a guide to what bioload the filter can support. Adding new fish over and above the initial addition should be done gradually to allow the filter chance to 'catch up' maybe a few fish each week/fortnight. You should invest in a test kit and read one of the threads on this or aquaria central about the nitrogen cycle and how it works, and go form there...

If you like eels and are definitely wanting mollies then i believe there are eel species from lake tanganyika- leopard eels i believe. They do however get too big for a 55 so you may have to upgrade at a later date. The same would be true of a lot of eels, although i think peacock eels are a little smaller. not sure if they would fit with the mollies water conditions though. My advice to you would be to forget the mollies and concentrate on the type fo fish you really want to keep, sounds liek you prefer the 'oddball' type species. There are many posts on here about what would be suitable for a 55. I think there is a sticky about mini monsters?

hope this has been a little help, there are other people that can advise you way better than me i am sure. keep us posted and good luck!!!

 

[oscaroo]

a 55 gallon is a decent sized tank but not a big tank... You could do a cichlid commununity, a tank with 1 big fish, a small fish community tank, there are endless posobiblities but just a few ideas... the nigrogen cycle is when a tank gets everything started and is neccacery for creating an aqaurium with fish witch is a small eco-system... When the aquarium cycles the ammonia rises to very high levels, then goes down and then nitrite rises and goes down then nitrare rises and goes down, when nitrate is under 40-45 ppm you can add fish. Don't add too many fish at once or you will have a bacteria bloom and a mini cyle beacause the aquarium is not used to a bio-load so if thee are too many fish it will overload the tank...

 

[bassfisher91]

First off, welcome to mfk. I hope you enjoy your stay. Secondly, I start with 3 female mollies and one male. Wait about two to three weeks before adding anything else. As for other fish, black ghost knife fish are cool but they can be a little sensitive and aren't the best beginner fish tbh. Same with many eels. A hardier fish that would be perfect for a 55 would be a African brown knife fish. Same body shape as a black ghost but a different color and more active IMO.

As for the mollies, they'll be fine in just about any type of water from full salt to fresh. They are popular for a reason. As for eels, I wouldn't recommend a peacock eel. Although the size is ok, they can be extremely picky eaters and my starve to death. They can be difficult even for experienced keepers.

 

[piranhaman00]

Just dont get an oscar

 

[Thelatinofishlover]

get a bunch of african cichlids they're good begginer fish and have great colors!

 

[hexxx]

First of all thanks everyone for the responses! They've all been really helpful.

After doing more research today, I'm beginning to realize how little I actually know haha. Tank is in my room now, but we had to dump the water & drive it a while before we made it to my room, so looks like I need to start cycling it from the beginning. I've decided on getting a few small fishes to let the tank settle in for a week or so before adding one large predator that can have a descent sized meal (Is that unethical/Frowned upon?). I like the idea of having one big fish so that I can set the tank up just right for it and not have to worry about having multiple species.

 

[Thelatinofishlover]

oh if you want one large predator for a 55 then go with an oscar, they're very fun fish and most of us have started with oscars, plus its one of those fish that its really fun to feed

 

[deadmanwalking]

Welcome to MFK! Just quickly, I wanted to say that everyone here knows their stuff - they all helped me out a lot when I first started too and every word they say is the complete truth.

Oscars are really fun to feed? Gosh, i'd be scared to put my hand in the fish tank if I had an oscar. LOL. They are nice but.

 

[Gurky]

You can also consider getting a puffer, they are "special". Their eyes and the way they swim always cracks me up They are very sensitive, so you'll need a fully cycled tank and stable parameters.