Fish Ideas?

[luv_my_grlz]

Hi All! It's been awhile since I popped in, but I've been enjoying my 3 gallon planted tank so much that about a month ago we put up a 55 gallon planted tank at home. No pics yet (hopefully I'll get around to it soon) but I've got a variety of plants along with some driftwood in Schultz Aquatic Plant Soil substrate.

A couple weeks ago we threw some mosquito fish in just to help with the cycling and they've done well. We'll soon be moving them to a pond, and I want to stock my tank with some cool fish.

First thought was discus, but after all my research they seem pretty tricky and I'm not sure I want to make that large of an investment if they are that hard to keep.

Another thought was some colorful swords along with some neon tetras and some red cherry shrimp? And maybe a couple dwarf african frogs just because they are my faves.

Or, yet another thought would be to go with freshwater puffer fish and otos, mostly because they are rather unusual since they are too aggressive for a community tank. But then of course, I couldn't get any froggies because they aren't compatible. Though I do have them already in my 3 gallon tank so I suppose I don't *need* them in the 55.

What do you think? One of these ideas, or something completely different?

Thanks!

 

[luv_my_grlz]

OK, after much research and a couple trips to LFSs, now I'm thinking a school of rainbows (love the boesemanis and praecox) which would be peaceful enough to go along with some otos, cherry reds, and dwarf african frogs. Any thoughts? Anybody here have a similar setup?

Cheers!

 

[arowana man]

bomasians are nice. i would do about 15 scissor tail rasboras

 

[dzb912]

well for the 55 i wouldnt even hesitate about the discuss
mabey some otos and guppies?
along with the discuss of course

 

[albirdy]

this post may do better in the general section. hopefully a moderator will move it so you get some more traffic.

I would do a south american biotope with rummy nose and black neon tetra
with shoals of cories and ottos...
but that's just me

 

[Jfitz]

if its a 55 you should get a Black Ghost and hopefully it would grow to its full size
especially since you mentioned unusual fish, BGK is about as unusual as it gets lol

 

[JeninOK]

I love a large school of harlequin rasboras, and I love the black harlequins even more, which are actually a cobalt blue with a bright coppery face, a large school of 15-25 of those would leave room for a lot of other fish and they look lovely darting about in the plants.
A shoal of 6-12 cories on the bottom is a wonderful thing and then you could have a small grouping of larger more centerpiece fish, gouramis are pretty, or a pair of discus or severum.
What about angelfish, some of them are beautiful, I am eyeing the altums at my LFS ans waiting to see if they continue to thrive then plan on getting a pair for my 55

 

[jcardona1]

i agree, rasboras are an awesome schooling fish. i also like the neon, cardinal, black neon, and lamp eye tetras. i think tetras and rasboras work great with a planted tank