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55g tank, potential more stocking?

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2018 2:43 am
by PosingOwl
How is everyone doing this wonderful day?

Haven't been on here in a few months and was wondering what is the best dither fish for my Polka Dot Loaches?

Current Stocking:
7 - Polka Dot Loaches
1 - Blue Zebra Angelfish
1 - Longfin Albino Bristlenose
1 - Farlowella Catfish
5 - Glofish Tetras (White Skirt)
1 - Betta

Filtering is 1 - AquaClear 110 and 1 - FX4.

I am wanting a dither fish to bring out the loaches a little bit more, about 60% of the time they are chilling in their caves. Maybe they will always be like that but the top half of my tank is boring and sometimes the fish are not as active as what I really wanted. The slate rocks, i have another 3 story on the other side of the tank. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r0zH83 ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UQ2UvN ... sp=sharing

Re: 55g tank, potential more stocking?

Posted: Sat Oct 13, 2018 9:16 pm
by PosingOwl
bump 2 days and no one can answer?

Re: 55g tank, potential more stocking?

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 10:17 am
by Basil
I’m not good at stocking so I would be of little assistance. 🙂
I’ve gone by aqadvisor for my stocking and tend to be very conservative to minimize water changes.
I have 2 groups of barbs in the tank that I plan to stock with loaches; 8 tiger barbs and 6 golden barbs. And they all swim together. My tank is a 75 g.
Unfortunately, the barbs mainly inhabit the bottom and middle tank regions as the loaches will. So I’m certainly not the best planner lol! But maybe they will explore the top area more as I add more plants.
But I will comment that I love the polka dot loaches. They were my second choice after the Histrionica.

Re: 55g tank, potential more stocking?

Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2018 10:15 pm
by Diana
Harlequin Rasboras may be a good dither.
Grow plants that arch over the surface so the fish feel safer.

Re: 55g tank, potential more stocking?

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 8:09 am
by Basil
Diana wrote:
Mon Oct 15, 2018 10:15 pm
Harlequin Rasboras may be a good dither.
Grow plants that arch over the surface so the fish feel safer.
Any suggestions for an easy care plant that does this? I don’t want to get into adding CO2 but I do use root tabs under my current plants.

Re: 55g tank, potential more stocking?

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 3:11 pm
by Bas Pels
I've seen this kind of questions more often, and they Always surprize me. Surprize, because I keep plants in almost all my tanks, and frankly, I hardly do anything to grow them.

CO2 is something I never add, in fact I've once been kicked from a forum for advocating not using it .

What I do is - I use and as soil. This came, originally, 10 years ago, from a road builder. It did contain some clay, and nutrients. There have been used, and replaced, often. Further I use simple plants.

Elodella - I found in Uruguay. That is, it is wild type, I have them over a decade now.
Vallisneria - a line I have over a decade now. They are rather hardy, I keep them in winter @ 5 C
Ehionodorus - I love them. I got some 10 species, all bontanical species. That is, no hybrids, nothing with a fancy name, bred to be sensitive
Sagittaria - they have grown for 5 years in 2 cm of this sand. With a lot of fish above the sand, depositing new nutrients

Last time I bought plants was in 2017, but not everything survived.

I don't know why on forums in the English language plants are regarded as hard to keep, it could be they need quiet. Or natural soil.

I did see pictures of red or even bleu sand, mad artificially. I don't assume any plant would grow in something like that. But as I wouild not want colored sand, I never tried.

LIght can not be a problem either, I dislike blue lights, and use TL in the color 300 K or 3500 K, the cheapest ones I can find. These also have a long live, making them even cheaper

Re: 55g tank, potential more stocking?

Posted: Wed Oct 17, 2018 8:33 pm
by NancyD
I like Diana's suggestion of harlequin rasboras, I love them. Colorful, peaceful, hardy & too big to be "angel food", they can be wonderful!

I'm a low tech plant grower, medium light at most, no co2 or soil. To Bas Pels' list, I would add cryptocorynes of almost any species or variety, rotala repens/arcuata cross, java fern, anubias, bucephalandra (I'm still new to this), & in high flow, bolbitus.

For some surface shading, "jungle" vallisneria (It needs control! I have either natans or spiralis...not the short Italian spiral val) or red root floater.

Duckweed is a big NO! Watersprite (Indian fern, not to be confused with wisteria, a stem plant) grows well as a floater but needs control.