NEW TANK PLEASE HELP

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Bleeding

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 14, 2006
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KC, Missouri
Ok heres my deal....

I have a small 20 ga. tank that is currently housing Guppies, Platys, some danios and catfish all for the purpose of breeding my guppies and platys.

I am setting up a 30 ga. long tank to house the parent fish in, and placing the fry to grow into the 20 ga. tank. This might be vice versa if i turn out having many many fry.

I just aquired a 55 gallon tank, that i want to set up to be an agressive aquarium, which is what brings me to this site. I posted on a similar forum at another site and they were disgusted with the idea of breeding guppies to feed and told me to go here! Good publicity!

Anyway....I want to select agressive carnivorous fish that will be suitable to live together, but the catch is, that i want this tank to be planted. It is going to be a centerpiece of my living room in my apartment, and i have seen many cichlid tanks that are just rocky and not have good appearance. (mabye im wrong here and am open to any suggestion).

I have tried to research fish...I really enjoy needlefish...carnivious, agressive, and are strictly top water fish, so im assuming there can be other fish here???

Someone should surely have some direction for me...Thank you all for your help!
 
my experience with cichlids - especially some of the more "robust" ones is that they love to dig. My girlfriend had a red devil that would rearrange everything in the tank. The decor was never the same more than 3 days in a row. haha. trade-off i guess.

Have you considered decorating with Artificial Plants? or is that a no no? Saw a tank the other day that I swear was one of the most beautifully planted tanks - just to find out that it was all artificial. No real plants. Wow. eheh would save a lot on the fancy lighting and worries that your fish will tear it up. hee hee.. just a thought.

Umm else as for fish- you may consider trying an African Butterfly fish. Its stays in the upper lvel of the tank and probably wont bother the plants. Those guys can swallow lots of guppies too. haha
 
I would not do needlefish as they need room to turn and most 55g tanks are 12 1/2" wide and the most commonly available Xenentodon gets to 13". Do you want glass biters or just aggressively feeding fish? This could be a real balancing act with 5 or 6 bad actors in there. A Chaca chaca, a Nandus nandus, a climbing perch, a bumblebee catfish, a banded loach, and a hujeta. get them all as adults and add them all at once then pray.
 
get a Jack Dempsey...55 would be good for life and they are slow in growth. a pair would be awesome. not to mention as a center piece in the room Jacks are gorgeous. they would love some guppies!

OR

Convicts...but then you would have more babies. and i dont know about them eating guppies.....kinda small mouths.
 
Howdy and welcome to MFK!

You already got some good advice. I keep cichlids (Altolamprologus compressiceps) and African Bufferfly Fish in a planted tank (check out my gallery and avatar). The compressiceps are one of the (few) cichlids that won't mess with your substrate, I even have sand. Besides, I keep them with sword tails, which serve as snack ;)

<----------

HarleyK
 
i have just recently set up a 55 along side my 75......
My 75 has dinosour eels Mogrunda Gobies and a 15" arrowana
I made the 55 a fully planted (amazon swords) sand aquarium!!
The tank is bad ass it has drift wood and slate in it as well!
Two weeks ago I filled it up with Discus.....I know what your thinking discus is a girly fish but honestly if you buy the right kind they are the most beautiful fish I ever bought!!!
i spent around $300 on six blood reds that absolutely look gorgeous I highly recomend it!!!!
 
HarleyK...Truly a bad-ass fish tank man!

Can you tell me a little more about your aquascape? That is almost exaxtly what i am looking for!
 
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