Fish tank question

[Cobra Was Here]

Ok so my wife and I bought a 55 gallon tank a few weeks ago and it is up and running nicely. So far, we have 2 Plecos, 2 fiddler crabs, a Dragon Gobi, an African Brown Knife, a Silver Dollar, and an Angelfish. I'm trying to find out if I can put a red belly pacu in with these other fish without him harming the others. Any info would be appreciated!

 

[Cobra Was Here]

and BTW the Red Belly Pacu will be about 1-2" long, a little larger than our Angelfish but smaller than the silver dollar.

 

[dooberGN]

Other large friendly fishes make suitable companions for adult specimens while young Red Belly Pacu fish prefers to be kept with other Pacu. Suitable species to keep with includes Oscar fish, Arowana, Clown knife fish, and Datnoids.

Got that off google.

 

[Cobra Was Here]

Hm thanks man

 

[randoo]

You should be fine just keep it on pellets and things like that. I would stay away from live food because it'll get more aggressive.

 

[SNCBOOM]

Wow...first of all pacu are herbivores...they only really resemble pirahna as juveniles...then they turn into 40lb beasts and are not suitable for aquarium life unless you have a pond or 5,000+ gallon system. I wouldn't even put an Oscar, Dat, or Aro in a 55g. It's a fairly shallow tank. I would get rid of the plecosotumus' too, they get beastly also. Maybe you should look into planted community tanks and just do a couple of Angels and maybe some other small community fish like cardinal tetras [they're similar to neon tetras but have more vibrant color]. A lot of beginners start out with 55's because they think they're huge and can put whatever in there. It's just not true. If you want to really get into some aggressive fish keeping try monsterfishkeepers.com I spend a lot of time on there but don't post a lot.

cliff notes: Just build a nice planted community tank with a few Angels and some smaller fishes. :thumbsup:

 

[Niks97cobra]

SNCBoom knows what he is talking about. The Pacu will get way to big for the 55 gallon. The plecos will get quite large and you will definitely have to get rid of one, especially if they are common plecos. Check out the forums at www.aquariumadvice.com some very knowledgeble folks over there. If I had a 55 gallon I'd go with:
4 Angelfish (until they pair, then get rid of the other 2)
6 Cory Cats
8 Bleeding Heart Tetras

and with that stocking, you can probably keep the brown ghost knife but they still get pretty long and that is a small tank you have for having several fish that can get 10" or more.

 

[SNCBOOM]

SNCBoom knows what he is talking about. The Pacu will get way to big for the 55 gallon. The plecos will get quite large and you will definitely have to get rid of one, especially if they are common plecos. Check out the forums at www.aquariumadvice.com some very knowledgeble folks over there. If I had a 55 gallon I'd go with:
4 Angelfish (until they pair, then get rid of the other 2)
6 Cory Cats
8 Bleeding Heart Tetras

and with that stocking, you can probably keep the brown ghost knife but they still get pretty long and that is a small tank you have for having several fish that can get 10" or more.

How could I forget about bottom dwellers. Cory's are probably the most beneficial aquarium fish out there. Plus they look like short catfish which is neat I guess. It really is a shame how pet stores and retail stores sell fish that get so large...but what can you do :shrug:

 

[Uncle Meat]

PM Kilgore Trout. He's a big fish freak.

U.M.

 

[Juruense]

Ok so my wife and I bought a 55 gallon tank a few weeks ago and it is up and running nicely. So far, we have 2 Plecos, 2 fiddler crabs, a Dragon Gobi, an African Brown Knife, a Silver Dollar, and an Angelfish. I'm trying to find out if I can put a red belly pacu in with these other fish without him harming the others. Any info would be appreciated!

Even one pleco is too many for that size tank. The fiddler crabs will crawl out and die. The gobi, knife, silver dollar, and anglefish are all fine and good choices assuming filtration is sufficient and will grow into that size tank nicely. No ****ing way can you do a pacu in that size tank, they grow to the size of dinner plates. Tell us about the filtration system.

 

[MMShaggy]

Get rid of em all, and go salt. you'll never do a freshwater tank again....

 

[hoamskilet]

If you want a pleco, get a bristlenose pleco. They're smaller and better cleaners anyway

 

[Juruense]

Get rid of em all, and go salt. you'll never do a freshwater tank again....

Well I have one of each and the saltwater is 10 times as much work and 10 times as expensive to own and operate...

 

[kingcato]

Ok so my wife and I bought a 55 gallon tank a few weeks ago and it is up and running nicely. So far, we have 2 Plecos, 2 fiddler crabs, a Dragon Gobi, an African Brown Knife, a Silver Dollar, and an Angelfish. I'm trying to find out if I can put a red belly pacu in with these other fish without him harming the others. Any info would be appreciated!

i have 2 plecostomus about 6 inchs long and 2 albino white oscars about 10 inchs long... i had 5 other fish but the oscars grew so fast and ate them now i can't put any more fish in there lol... your gonna like ur fish tank taylor

 

[langod]

Plecos don't always outgrow a tank. I have two Clown Plecos in a 65 gallon tank. After two years they have only gotten up to about 3-4 inches long each (started at 2-3"). They don't seem to be growing any more than that.

I don't know what it is about my tanks -- but over the years my fish never seem to get all that big.

 

[SNCBOOM]

How often do you do water changes?

 

[Cobra Was Here]

Well the water evaporates a good bit so i usually just refill it (about 10%) once a week. We have the holes in the lid covered up so the crabs wont crawl out (already happened once). The filter system is just one of those double filter looking 30-60 gallon filters from wal mart. The whole 55 gallon tank kit was on clearance for $100 so i snatched it. We also have aquarium salt in the tank. No real plants but we have colored gravel and several hiding places for the fish. We only intended on having 1 pleco but we thought one was lost, bought another one, then ended up finding both. Somehow the dang Dragon Gobi is missing for over 2 weeks so we replaced him.