# 55 gallon stocklist



## knfanning (Mar 5, 2009)

I currently have a 55 gallon cycling and I've made some posts before here and I have my species list narrowed down and wanted some opinions on what would work best. I want a variety so I am shooting for 1 of each of whatever I go with unless somebody can convince me a pair of any of these would be worth a loss of variety(I could be open to it).

Firemouth(definitely want one of these at least)
Electric Blue Jack Dempsey
Convict
Salvini
Nicuruagenese

What would be a good dither for these? I hear people using gourami's for dithers. I would like something somewhat colorful but wouldn't detract from the central americans.

Also, I have a small gravel substrate but no decorations/plants as of yet. I would like to create a good biotype for them so if you can offer suggestions/links to pics of good examples I would appreciate it.


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

If you are trying 1 of each I would probably only select 4 of the 5 you listed (preferably only 3)... You may also want to decide on all the same sex if possible as a few of the fish you listed are somewhat notorious for breeding with the others... Which brings me to my next point ; typically females will be smaller and more colourful which is usually preferred, but they will also go through the spawning motions with another female or by themselves - that could lead to increased aggression...

Males have their own sort of problems - primarily they would get cramped in a 55... A male Nic can get to 10". A male JD or EBJD can get to 8" or 9". A male Salvini may push that as well...

Female FM
Female Nic
Female Con
Female Salvini

... The above may work together - but you would increase your odds if you only went with 3. I left the female EBJD off the list as I have heard they are hard to find/sex/raise past 4".


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## knfanning (Mar 5, 2009)

I still would like more opinions but I would like to say I have a great lfs and they regularly have all 5 of the species I have listed available


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## Comic Sans (Apr 21, 2009)

Well you want a female sal anyway because their colouration is much better. I think the advice on choosing females over males in a 55 is very sound. I don't know much about Nic's, but my advice is the same. My inclination would be to swap the nic for the EBJD and do the same list of four as above.

If you got a male or an aggressive fish I could easily see the FM or the EBJD (unless it is the biggest) getting torn up. Those fish are all tough, but those two could get pushed around.

If it was me, I'd do a female Sal to be the boss, and maybe 2 FMs then you don't have to worry about anyone outgrowing the tank. Get some dithers and maybe a couple cats, it's a nice tank (sounds suspiciously similar to mine  )


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

That's awesome if your LFS can get all the fish listed - I live in a city with several good fish stores and local importers/breeders and it's tough to find all those fish all of the time... I just saw Nics for the first time ever so I had to by some!!!

The only other problem I foresee is sexing the EBJD and the FM - I'm sure people can do it, but I can't!

The female Nic and female Sal are going to both bring a lot of colour & personality to your tank... EBJD's bring amazing blues and FM's have that brilliant red throat... Maybe skip the female con as they are the most common fish...


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## knfanning (Mar 5, 2009)

I think i like the idea of a nic, sal, fm, and ebjd best. Now for the other part of my questions. Should I add all 4 at once or in order of potential agressiveness/size? What(if any) dither should I add? Should I get a pleco? I was already planning on using driftwood and rocks to decorate should I add plants as well and if so live or fake?


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

My vote is for live plants whenever possible - Java Fern, Anubias, Valisnaria, and floating plants are typially hardy enough to survive in cichlid tanks... You may wan to let the val get established for a few weeks before adding any cichlids to the tank and you may want to tie the Java fern & anubias to rocks or wood...

A BN PLeco is a great addition to a cichlid tank - they stay small and actually eat algae.

I'd probably try to cycle the tank with the plants in it for a few weeks or however longit takes (fishless) and then add dithers and the pleco (if you want dithers - I have Ameca Splendens with my Nics - I want to get some Swordtails as well). And finally add the cichlids - try to add them all at once or in the order you suggested... I imagine if you are buying stock of a known sex they will be more mature and thus larger then if you were just by random juvies. Finding an EBJD that is large enough to sec may cost you a pretty penny - but at least they are apparantly hardier once theyattain 4".


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

Oh, one other thing - try to have at least 50% more 'caves' then you have cichlids... Decorating the 55 in such a manner to give all 4 cichlids a 'territory' is probably your toughest tsk to overcome - this is where the additional width of a 75g tank comes in handy.


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## knfanning (Mar 5, 2009)

The EBJD's are actually very reasonably priced. I suspect somebody is breeding them in my area and selling/giving them to the LFS. I am pretty sure they are < $10. Like I said I have an awesome lfs. I don't have any seed material to cycle my tank so I have a good bit of time to play with the decorations/caves/etc. I was going to go with a 75 gallon but my wife bought me a 55 because it had been sitting around at the lfs for a long time and they practically gave it away to her so she couldn't pass that up. Now I know I need to make like 6-7 caves but what actually defines a cave as far as the cichlid is concerned? Could it just be like a gap between 2 rocks, an overhanging of a plant. I assume I should make a variety of caves so they can pick out what they like best. What types of things should I setup that would qualify as a "cave".


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## knfanning (Mar 5, 2009)

Also, should i wait for the cycle to complete to add the plants or should i get those in ASAP?


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## Comic Sans (Apr 21, 2009)

I have Buenos Aires tetras with a sal and FM, no problems at all, they are completely ignored.

Just to point out, Illy suggested 4 fish, preferably 3, with the Nic and NOT the EBJD. I suggested the same, but with the EBJD and not the Nic. Those two will become the largest and I wonder if a 55 will be enough space for both with company.


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## knfanning (Mar 5, 2009)

From my understanding of these cichlids the females are smaller then the males and as I will be adding them all as juvies I think I may be able to pull it off. I think I may be able to get one of the LFS employees to help sex the nic, sal, and fm. I guess the ebjd would be the harder one to sex. I guess if i were to run into issues I could always scrap the ebjd or salvini (as I understand these would be the more agressive of the bunch).

Just a thought would a fm pair and a nic pair work out in a 55?


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## Comic Sans (Apr 21, 2009)

good luck :thumb: I've heard of other people pulling more improbable setups off.

The care sheets I've read on Nic's call for 50 gallons for an individual, more for a pair. I don't think a pair would do well in a 55, the male will get too large. I certainly can't see a pair of nics or JD's doing well with company in your tank. If the Nic's spawned the FM's would be dead within hours.

I think go with a female Nic or an EBJD and then see what combination of smaller fish (Sals, FM's, etc.) works based on personalities. You might be ok with the nic and EBJD, but i'd have a plan to rehome one if things got out of hand as they mature.


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

Female Nics will stay much smaller then males apparently - I have a pair but they are not full grown so I am going off what I have read - not experience.

As far as caves, they don't necessarily have to be caves - more like a retreat or an area of refuge... Caves are often used for spawning by some cichlids - but since you're not going for that I think a mixture of stacked rocks, planted areas, drift wood tangles - site breaks & hideaways primarily... What you don't want is the fish to always be in view of each other 100% of the time...

I'd get the plants in ASAP and then start the fishless ccyle... it may slow things down a bit as plants can use the ammonia/nitrites as a food source... Be warned my friend did a fishless cycle with plants and because he had to leave the lights on (for the plants) he had a LOT of algae growth... But either way I don't know that it would matter... In fact I'd only be worried about giving the rooted plants (like vals) the head start... If your ferns & anubias are fastened to wood or rocks it won't matter...


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## knfanning (Mar 5, 2009)

I started cycling on saturday so hopefully I have some bacteria growth already. The water just started going clowdy yesterday so hopefully that's a good sign. My wife had a great idea to go to a state park near us and we're gonna try to find some good river stones that we'll boil and then put in the tank. I think maybe I'll wait till the nitrite starts to spike to add the plants maybe and I'll just make sure that I put some extra ammonia in there.


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## knfanning (Mar 5, 2009)

SOOOOOO.... apparently what I thought were nics were ngar's so looks like the con will be taking the nics place. Maybe that's for the better in the endl. I picked up a piece of driftwood today from the lfs. I'm still not getting any nitrite readings and my ammonia levels don't seem to be dropping. I think i may go try to get some seed material this weekend if my ammonia levels don't start dropping. My ammonia level is somewhere between 4 and 5.


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## illy-d (Nov 6, 2005)

what is an ngar?


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## Comic Sans (Apr 21, 2009)

illy-d said:


> what is an ngar?


x1.

And I agree, I think your tank will be more stable in the end.


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## knfanning (Mar 5, 2009)

illy-d said:


> what is an ngar?


It's some sort of african cichlid I believe.


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## Comic Sans (Apr 21, 2009)

ahh, the library helps. Ngara, indeed an African.


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## knfanning (Mar 5, 2009)

Impatience got the better of me and I went out and bought some of DrTime's One and Only which is made buy the developer of BioSpira. The guy at the LFS who seems to know his stuff recommended it and so I added it and put in 6 Giant Dannios. I'm going to watch my parameters like a hawk and hopefully all should be okay.


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