Fish For A 55Gallon

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Piranha
MFK Member
Feb 24, 2011
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Phoenix
Hey just a question, I am trying to help my brother set up his new 55gallon. He is cycling it and has a few guppies and a gourami in it right now to get everything in order..

Well he wants "African Cichlids" and there are quite a few kinds. He wants something aggressive, something he can feed guppies too.
He also wants quite a few in the tank..

I am just wondering what would be a good choice? He wants "pretty" ones, and the main thing is the aggression which shouldnt be hard, and the fish eating capabilities..

I want to help him decide so he wont end up going out and buying fish that need a bigger than 55gallon tank and not doing things right because he wanted to buy fish on the spur of the moment..

The tank could be a little overstocked because he vacuums and water changes weekly, this will be his only tank so he can put in all of his time into maintaining and keeping it healthy. He has a full time job and has the cash to keep things well maintained..

He isnt a novice when it comes to fish care, we have had tanks and fish of all kinds since we were very young. He just recently decided that African Cichlids were what he wanted in his tank..

I was just wondering if anyone here had any suggestions on Cichlids I could tell him about and let him look up that would be fine in a tank like his and could be kept about 5+ or so in the tank.
 
Well if by Africans, he means Mbuna, he is out of luck. They are agressive, but should only be fed plant matter or they can suffer bloat. if he really wants to do feeders, he should look into NW Cichlids, but in a 55 would be limited in the number of individuals he could add
 
Well I am new to the whole "cichlids" typed fish, and so is he, so he just calls everything African. Okay I will make sure the fish he gets ARENT Mbuna, I would hate for him to have a problem like that.
I think he would mainly feed pellets and then throw the feeders (home bred guppies not store bought) in occasionally. He just wants to have the option to do that if he feels like watching his fish eat other fish. Typical young guy stuff.

What would be some kinds of NWs? I really dont know much about these fish, I just got two the other day on a whim and turns out I have one of the most aggressive lol so I am new to this whole Cichlid tanks thing and want to make sure I do some searching and reading so I can answer and teach him so he does his tank right, I wont let him buy whatever and have it be bad for the fish in the long run.
 
Nw just means new world, Central american/south american. The amount of possibilitys there are huge....Some what limited by the 55, but still many options.
 
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