New 55 gallon,stocking help
 

so i got a new 55 gallon tank,it came with everything except a heater which i will be buying.

heres my list of equipment:

55 gallon tank
marineland 240
fluval 4 plus
gravel
lighting


i wish to do a convict tank,but i also want an extravagant planted tank.i am having a hard time deciding, can i do both?

You can certainly try both. But as the convict is a largeish cichlid I think you can expect that they'll tear up your aquascaping. In that case you can:

live with it
use fake plants and re-root them all the time
find another solution

I think there are some beautiful tanks out there using only hardscape materials. Rocks and wood and the like. I think that's what I'd do. Spend no less energy on the design of your aquascaping. Just scratch the plants off the list. Try and find excellent and characteristic pieces of rock and wood. Get the perfect substrate.

Be sure to read up on the Convict Cichlids. Click the name of the fish and it should take you to our fish profile.

anyone know how many female bettas i can keep in a 55 with 10-18 corys?

I would imagine quite a few. I know you can keep anywhere from 4 to 6 and maybe 1 or 2 more in a 10 gallon. if you do decide to go with female bettas then you will have to do alot of plants and caves and hidning spots for them to claim territories. Heres a good thread to read about female betta sororities - http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=29402
Keep us posted on what you do with this tank.

thanks zeetrain.


so about 2 days ago my mom decided to help me out by reconnecting the waterfall feature in my pond and the connection came loose.soo lets say very wet backyard,and i had to save the goldfish from suffocating.

So the tank currently has 8 feeder goldfish in it,soon i will be switching my swordtails into my community tank and my goldfish to my old sword home and this tank will be free again :)


i was thinking uber planted like this,just more plants

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p...s/IMG_1783.jpg





or something like Byrons

ha!so tomrrow im moving the goldfish to my 29 gallon and all the fish from the 29 to this tank,and i got a few new additions


Old Fauna list (From 29 gallon):
2 Female Swordtails
6 Neon Tetras
3 Albino Aeneus Corydoras
2 Common Pleco (dont judge me)
7 Zebra Danio
1 Rainbow Shark
4 Apple Snails (no babies in like 3 months??????)


+ : Means New Fish

New Fauna list:
2 Female Swordtails
+1 Male Swordtail
6 Neon Tetras
3+3 Albino Aeneus Corydoras
+3 Aeneus Corydoras (Mother would not let me get more than this,hoping to get more soon)
2 Common Pleco (dont judge me)
7 Zebra Danio
1 Rainbow Shark
4 Apple Snails (no babies in like 3 months??????)

Flora:
3 Large Aponogeton plants
#? GC
#? Dwarf hairgrass
3 Pennywort
#? Duckweed
3 Anarchis


Hows this sound?

Have you already bought the new fish? If not I would really hold off on the common pleco or any kind of pleco at least for a few months to let alge build in the tank if you already have them be sure to feed them sinking alge wafers so they don't starve. Are you getting your plants local or ordering on line? I got a good deal on ebay today that you may like if the lady has anymore left she had 5 groups to sell that had 8 different plants for $20 includeing shipping it was a really good price. It was 27 plants all together. I would add 4 more neons to make an even 10 they look awsome swimming together.
Just wanted to add you could add a group of female bettas in there if you like to you need to do at least 5 but could do more. That would add some nice colors to the tank.

haha i already had the pleco's and the tank has been running for 1+ months and i have wafers.also i have driftwood for the plecos.and i already have the plants.


so i can still add female bettas if id like?

Yes you could still add the female bettas.

I doubt your 55gal has the light to support the plants on top of the fact that common plecos are not plant friendly I can't see them lasting very long.