Aquarium owners...

[10-Ring]

Hey all, I've had tanks before but never anything bigger than 20 gallon.  I ran across a steal on a 55 gallon the other night and picked it up.  Trying to do a little research, I still don't even know what I to put in it.  I'm leaning towards goldfish or something that is big and aggressive.  I'd like to not use a tank heater.  So what do you have? 

[Garufa]

When I kept a tank it was South American Cichlids for me.  Goldfish is what I fed them.

 

Problem is you can't have too many on one tank, depending on the species, as they tend to get very territorial.

 

Pretty sure you'll need a heater of for any type of fish in a tank that size.

Edited September 7, 2014 by Garufa

[10-Ring]

That would be cool to have a fish that eats other fish.  That's a little more exciting than a bunch of guppies. 

[Dane]

Problem is a 55 is not good for truly big and aggressive. Goldfish require lots of space because they are filthy. A lot will depend on how you filter as well. Over filtering will allow you to stock a bit more than getting a filter that claims it is for a 55. I've had just about every type of fish in the freshwater categories. In a 55 I would look at African cichlids. The are aggressive but won't get too big and have lots of color to keep the tank looking active. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Sam1]

Most cichlids are pretty hardy, but plan on having a heater in the tank no matter what kind you stick in there.  If you don't want one in the tank, get an external pump and an inline heater like we use, that way everything can be hidden in the stand/cabinet.

 

Good thing is if you get Oscars, they get pretty big, and if they get annoyingly big you can just fry them up and start fresh with some smaller ones.

[dralarms]

I got a 120 gal salt water. If you decide to go that route, I can help you get started.

[enfield]

Koi

[runco]

As a kid a cousin had a old Oscar fish that was about the size of a small bass. Very big fish, I think he ate meat or other fish. Very nice size fish.

[hipower]

Before he passed away, an old friend of my had a 55 gal tank in his living room.

Kept it stocked with Piranha. I went with him to get food for them several times. He fed them minnows.

[tnhawk]

I got a 120 gal salt water. If you decide to go that route, I can help you get started.

I had salt water tanks for several years.  The fish were beautiful but too difficult to maintain as I'm traveling 4-5 days every week.  I'll save aquariums and reloading until I retire again.

[VERO1]

Goldfish as earlier stated are filthy. They produce lots of ammonia. If you add an ammonia remover to your filter you can keep a little heavier load. One or at most two small Oscars and a couple catfish for clean up would also work.

[mikegideon]

I have a 125 gallon fresh water tank now. Oscars are too big for a 55 gallon tank. Even if you just have a pair, they will outgrow it. I have had a bunch of tanks over the years. They require some knowledge and commitment. I'm getting ready to put a couple of new Oscars in my tank, because they are my favorite fish. I won't do it until I have an automatic water change system in place. I'm just not disciplined enough to stay on top of it. If you want aggressive, get Mbuna type African Cichlids. Meanest damn fish I ever had. Don't mix them with any other africans (haps), because they will kill them off one by one. 

 

All cichlids are gonna fight. That's how I wound up with so many tanks at one point. Jack Dempseys are kinda cute, and don't get too big. They're just batshit crazy. Mine ate their catfish (algea eater) while I was in Florida for a week. They also tend to freak out and beat the crap out of themselves on the sides and top of the tank.

 

Everything except goldfish is gonna need heat. Also need good filtering.

 

You could just get some community fish and save yourself a lot of grief. Aggressive fish sound like a lot more fun than they really are :)

[mikegideon]

Goldfish as earlier stated are filthy. They produce lots of ammonia. If you add an ammonia remover to your filter you can keep a little heavier load. One or at most two small Oscars and a couple catfish for clean up would also work.

 

Ammonia filtering is a bad idea. You need to establish the tank so the ammonia will be taken care of by the bacteria in the tank. You just can't put more of a bioload on the tank than it will handle. Read up on the nitrogen cycle. Biowheel filters are always a good idea. No matter what, you gotta start slow on a new tank. If the tank isn't established, the ammonia will climb until it kills the fish. Filtering the ammonia will hamper the establishment of the bacteria. They thrive on it.

 

One type of bacteria converts the ammonia to nitrite (less toxic, but still toxic). Then , another type converts the nitrite to nitrate (even less toxic). Finally, the nitrate is removed with water changes. 

[RED333]

Get ya a frog, after they get big it is hoot to feed them little fish.

We had an African clawed frog, it was an eating machine.

A plecostomus will keep the glass clean.

Edited September 7, 2014 by RED333

[Murgatroy]

When I was younger I kept two tanks, one full of Oscars and another full of goldfish and guppies. I also kept koi for a while, with the goldfish. Each tank had a plecostomus or two.

 

The the guppies were for the Oscars. Goldfish aren't good food for Oscars. The guppies were.

 

I just liked Goldfish. Fred, my last goldfish was approximately 4lbs when I rehomed him. The buggers can get huge in the proper tank.

Edited September 7, 2014 by Murgatroy

[bersaguy]

My brothers body shop up in Rockdale Illinois got raided by the USF & WS  back about 20 years ago because he had two  180 Gallon aquariums in the waiting area and offices of the shop. He had them both full of illegal fish and didn't even know it. He had a buddy that was about 5 blocks from him and his buddy owned a huge pet store. I mean  HUGE one full of all kinds of critters. He talked my brother into letting him set those 2 tanks up in his reception area because he didn't have room for them in his pet shop.

 

Well, since my brother is even a duller knife in the drawer then me he let Alan set the tanks up and put the fish in them and he would send a guy down every day to restock the small tanks in the cabinets under the big tanks with fish food. Alan told my brother to just put a dip net of minnows in each big tank twice a day. Seemed easy enough.

 

He also told my brother to make sure he didn't get his hands to close when he dumped in the food. My brother figure out why Alan said that with the first scoop that evening. He said it was like a bunch of Sharks attacking a while and it was over in about 10 seconds. The only algae eaters he could use in the tanks where Bristlenose plecos because their skeleton was on the outside and the fish would not eat them. They would attack it soon as it hit the water but spit it back out.

 

Let me tell anyone setting up a tank. DO NOT UNDER ANY CONDITIONS PUT SNAKE HEADS in the aquariums..It didn't cost my brother anything because he told them who owned the tanks and the fish. Someone had stopped in the body shop and recognized the fish immediately but did not say anything to my brother. Just reported him. My brother had to work with the Feds to bait Alan. 

 

What Alan was doing is not keeping any of them in his store but when ever someone requested them and Alan would first say he didn't sell them and the person would use a pass word and Alan would go to my brothers shop and get the fish the guy wanted. Alan came down to my brothers shop and got the fish and took them back to his shop where he delivered them to a federal agent. They arrested Alan, confiscated all of his animals put him out of business and cost his $50,000.00 fines for all the illegal animals and fish he had. My Brother got to keep the tanks................... :up:  

[Mike A]

I’ll try to keep this short (no promises).  I’ve kept fish off and on (mostly on) for almost 40 years.  I don’t offer that as proof of my expertise but rather to say that I’ve had a lot of opportunities to make a lot of mistakes and have hopefully learned a few things in the process.  Rather than clutter the forum, I do have a list of good internet resources I’d be happy to send to anyone who’ll PM me a request and an e-mail address.

 

The first time I got a tank over 20 gallons I thought I could put an almost unlimited number of fish in it.  I understood compatibility issues but didn’t have a good grasp on proper stocking levels.  IMHO the overriding consideration is that you’re creating and maintaining an ecosystem.  I could put four or five people in my sedan but I wouldn’t want to seal the doors and all of us live there. 

 

 

1)   Understock.  If the tank looks a little empty it’s probably about right.

2)   Overfilter.  Really a misnomer, you can’t really overfilter but at some point you do introduce a level of turbidity that will disturb the fish.

3)   Do regular maintenance.  Clean your filters and replace materials as called for in your particular set up.  Probably most importantly, do frequent partial water changes. 

 

 

If you do those things, you’ll likely be successful.  There’s a lot of bad advice out there.  Sometimes it’s from the well meaning.  There’s a great temptation in encouraging people to pursue the hobby to downplay the importance of the foregoing three principles.  Sometimes it’s from people who really don’t know better (e.g., poorly trained clerks at the big box).  Sometimes, worst of all, I think it’s from short sighted sales people who really don’t care if you succeed long term.

 

Unless your house is tropical, I think the only thing you’ll be able to keep without a heater is goldfish (and I’ll get to them in a minute).

 

I’ve not kept African cichlids so I’ll largely defer on them other than to say that my understanding is that there are more water parameters to be concerned with than most of your basic hardy freshwater species.  I’d approximate the time commitment somewhere between the basic hardy freshwater species and saltwater.

 

As big as the 55 may seem right now, the tank is really too small for most of the larger South American cichlids.

 

You could do a couple goldfish (and by couple I mean two and no more) with a few caveats.  Goldfish are not the “beginner” fish some would believe.  In the quest to simplify my life I’ve reduced my tank collection to a single 75 gallon with three goldfish.  Goldfish are poop machines.  I’ve got a fairly large canister filter on it along with a double bio-wheel hang on the back filter and a small hang on the back canister filter I run with a micron cartridge for clarity.  I do a weekly 50% water change (DO NOT DO THIS HIGH A PERCENTAGE WATER CHANGE IF YOU HAVE NEGLECTED WATER CHANGES.  Doing so under those circumstances will be too big a shock).

 

Goldfish are not normally aggressive with one another and as such you can keep fish of different sizes with one another.  They’ll chase one another but no actually combat.  THE important thing is to never mix the different types of goldfish.  This is about competition for food and not aggression.  Faster types will out-compete the slower types for food and the slower types will fail to thrive.  There are three basic types (some of these are probably my terms and not necessarily widely accepted):

 

1)   Comets.  These are the single tail creatures in the bowls at the carnival.  These guys (like koi) get too big for the aquariums that most people keep in their homes and are more appropriate for ponds.  Comets are the fastest.

2)   “Fancy.”  This is generally how you will see them listed for sale in the live fish stores.  By this term I mean the split tail fish that are NOT of the next type.  These guys are slower than the comets.

3)   “Oddballs.”  This is probably my term.  These guys are split tails but generally have odd shapes or appendages typically around the head area (e.g, bubble eyes, lionheads).  These guys are the slowest.

 

All of this is not to scare you off of goldfish.  I really like mine.  They get big enough to be seen easily across my modest sized living room despite my aging eyesight.  They also have a lot of the “personality” seen with a lot of the larger South American cichlids.

 

 

I’ll hang up now and listen off the air.

[mikegideon]

The ONLY difference in water with African Cichlids is the PH, and that's only because of the PH of 8 of the two big African lakes. They do just fine with a PH of 7 (right out of the tap). Other than that, they are vegetarians. Never lost an African because of a 7 PH. Their deaths were always more violent than that :) 

 

A trick I have always used to establish the bacteria in a new tank... grab a big handful of gravel from an established tank. That will seed the new tank. There won't be enough to handle a big fish load, but they will multiply rapidly if you give them an ammonia source like a couple of fish. You just gotta watch your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels.

[glowdotGlock]

I have a 55 with a few Silver Dollars, a young peacock eel, a larger fire eel and an 8" flathead cat. I just use a twin filter pump with no air pump or under the gravel crap. I set mine up like a natural river. Not much on bright colors. I do have a heater that I leave on 81°. They all seem to like that average temp. I like fake 0lants that look real. It is low maintenance for the most part. I vaccumm the gravel out with a siphon every month or so and do a partial water change. I have the lights on a timer for 9 hours a day. Too much light will lead to more algea. Catfish hanging out in it's weeds

[Mike A]

The ONLY difference in water with African Cichlids is the PH, and that's only because of the PH of 8 of the two big African lakes. They do just fine with a PH of 7 (right out of the tap). Other than that, they are vegetarians. Never lost an African because of a 7 PH. Their deaths were always more violent than that :)

 

A trick I have always used to establish the bacteria in a new tank... grab a big handful of gravel from an established tank. That will seed the new tank. There won't be enough to handle a big fish load, but they will multiply rapidly if you give them an ammonia source like a couple of fish. You just gotta watch your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels.

Always glad to be educated.  I never got around to the African cichlids before I went in downsize mode.  I thought there were more trace minerals that one had to be concerned about.  I think most major water supplies tend to be a little north of 7 anyway.  Pretty sure our local supply is ~7.4.  Wonder if some of the PH tolerance is a function of current specimens being so far from wild caught that over generations they've adjusted to the local supply.

 

Another cycling tip is using the same or similar hang on the back filters on multiple tanks (i.e. the Marineland Emperor 400 uses the same biowheels as the 280 (just 2 of 'em instead of one)).  When I established a new tank I would put one of the seasoned biowheels from an old tank in the new filter on the tank I was wanting to establish.

[R_Bert]

If you can find a bottom-drilled tank, run a sump under the cabinet.  I ran a pair of 55's with 30 gal sumps.

 

But, as someone mentioned, 55 is too small.

 

BTW, go for surface area, not depth, if you plan on plants.

 

And cichlids tear the hell out of plants....mostly in boredom.

Edited September 7, 2014 by R_Bert

[mikegideon]

Always glad to be educated.  I never got around to the African cichlids before I went in downsize mode.  I thought there were more trace minerals that one had to be concerned about.  I think most major water supplies tend to be a little north of 7 anyway.  Pretty sure our local supply is ~7.4.  Wonder if some of the PH tolerance is a function of current specimens being so far from wild caught that over generations they've adjusted to the local supply.

 

Another cycling tip is using the same or similar hang on the back filters on multiple tanks (i.e. the Marineland Emperor 400 uses the same biowheels as the 280 (just 2 of 'em instead of one)).  When I established a new tank I would put one of the seasoned biowheels from an old tank in the new filter on the tank I was wanting to establish.

 

I have a bunch of Penguin 350's. Always had better luck with the gravel trick than swapping biowheels. I had five tanks at one point. Got real fast at getting them established.

[TNMTBik3r]

When I gt a bigger house I want an aquarium again. Been years since had one.

[glowdotGlock]

Ya'll have these big fancy aquariums. I just have a plain ol' 55 gallon with olain ol' fish. :mellow:

[peejman]

We're in the process of getting a 55 gal tank set-up.  A friend of mine who was formerly a breeder of koy and cichlids (among other things) is moving and let us have one of his tanks for a song.  Also getting and handful of fairly large fish, hopefully this week.  The tank itself has been up and running for a week or so, just waiting for a convenient time to introduce the fish.  I haven't had an aquarium since I was little but my kids really seem to like it.  Based on what I'm told, tanks are a lot lower maintenance than they used to be.