I have a 55 Gallon fresh water tank. I am looking for the best combination of fish that will be the most colorful and amazing to watch. I am thinking they would be in the semi-agressive to aggressive fish. I prefer to keep most of the fish at no larger than 3 inches at full growth, although 4 inches might be acceptable. Can I have enough colorful fish to "wow" my friends in a 55 gallon tank? Your suggesstions please. Thank you :) PS. I don't want fish that would be killing each other off all the time .. if possible.
Answers:
Oscars don't get up to 4 inches, they go up to a foot and possibly beyond (mine got to 14 inches).
African cichlids are good, and colorful. There's different varieties from different lakes in Africa, ie: Malawi, Tanganiyaka-something can't think of right name right now, I suggest reasearching those and sticking with the proper one. Meaning, go with one lake variety, not mixing them up.
One of my tanks(not an African tank), I have 1 Firemouth Cichlid, 1 Jewel Cichlid, 1 Turquoise (sp) Severum, and 4 Bolivian Rams, 3 small clown loaches(these guys grow HUGE, but very slowly). The Firemouth and Jewel turn beautiful colors when they mature, a red and iridescent. All of these are somewhat territorial, but they get along well. You don't want to pair up the jewel and Firemouth, because then they can get a little too aggressive when mating. All of those fish, with the exception of the Severum (up to 12+ inches) and eventually the clown loaches, stay small about 6 inches. The rams only get to about 3 inches. This is a good site for researching fish info:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/
It sounds like tropical community fish would be your best choice. The semiaggressives and aggressives tend to get larger than three to four inches and they need more space then community fish so you cant have as many in the tank. I would suggest tetras you can get some colorful ones and they are amazing to watch when they school especially if you buy at least 5 or 6 of each type.
Well, Oscars are probably four inches at full growth. They're agressive (watch your fingers near them), and if you'd like nicer fish, try a combination of some angelfish (about 2 or 3), ONE betta, as two would fight, but bettas only get about two inches long, and you could try an albino clawed frog, maybe a couple small eels, and pictus catfish are neat to watch. they swim VERY fast, and they wag their tails. O, and clownfish, are cool too. NEVER PUT IN A TETRA WITH A LONG FINNED FISH!! THEY WILL KILL AND EAT EACH OTHER. I tried it before, and i didnt know, and they got really nasty. You could also try a Koi. theyre good in lots of water, and get about six inches long. goldfish get big in big tanks, too.
if you want something cool get some perona that way you can put a feeder goldfish in the tank and u and your Friends can watch it get torn apart its really cool
You don't say if it is a tropical or coldwater tank?
Good tropical breeds to use are guppies, neon tetras, zebra danios. You should be able to get a good shoal of each type in a tank that size plus the guppies come in an amazing variety of colors and forms.
You are limited with colorful fish in freshwater. You could start with about 5 medium sized tiger barbs. They swim in schools fast and it looks kool. You would have to put in other fish that could get along like danios. A few very large ones would look good. The idea also is to make the enviornment a natural one. Dont use regular gravel , it looks fake. Look for real rocks or sand in the pet shop. If you really want to wow people consider learning about marine tanks. You get brilliant colors and fascinating fish. Enjoy.
African cichlids are probably the most colorful of the freshwater fish. They prefer a higher alkalinity and harder water environment. However, they also prefer alot of rock work for territory and pretty much no plants. You could get away with plastic plants but if you want their environment to suit them, no plants. Julidichromis and Yellow Labs stay fairly small. I'm not sure what other species of Africans do however as I am more into the south American Dwarf cichlids. Some of the dwarf SA species are fairly colorfu. Blue Rams, most Apistograma species..but some are quite hard to find and quite pricey. For the guy that said Oscars would be a good choise since they only get about 4 inches..WRONG. A full grown Oscar can reach 12 to 14 inches. Not a good choice at all.
My suggestion would be to set up a partially planted tank. Some good lowlight plants would be Java Fern, Java moss, Moneywort, Cryptocernes, Anacharis, amazon swords. (heavily planted if you want to spend the extra money on lighting, a Co2 system, and the extra work keeping your plants trimmed and alive.) Now You could maybe put a really nice pair of Angelfish in as a center piece fish and add a large school of cardinal Tetras 10-12 and maybe some zebra danios. 6 cories for the bottom of the tank. That would be a nice combo.
Another suggestion (only if you really read up on them since they are NOT a beginner fish) would be Discus. You could probably have 3-4 Discus in a 55 (but not much else in addition) and a pair of Blue Rams and cories for the bottom. Discus are very colorful but also very delicate and specialized as well as expensive. But definately make a tank a real Looker!
If you really wann "WOW" your friends, Go shoot that stingray that nailed Steve Irwin and have it mounted on your wall.
If they still wanna see tropical fish.. take them to Sea World!
Disclaimer: I in no way am claiming any expertise on tropical fish nor do I endorse the killing of innocent murderous stingrays. These remarks are in no way to reflect the opinion of the staff and management of Yahoo.
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