Stocking opinions :)

[Makena95GT]

So I finally got the 45 gallon tall tank up and churning water. One of the ones that has the filter in the hood. It's empty as of today, just churning water through the filter and going through a nice long cycle due to old fish turds still all over the bottom.

Also have another 45 tall tank that has some inhabitants, but it's looking empty due to my Neon Tetra school slowly dying away. Pretty sure the Bichir ate a lot of them over the summer He's still a baby so he stays in that tank until hes big enough to not be eaten by Oscar.

So for the community tank I was thinking of getting some more Neons, some Platies, but I can't decide on what else, mainly because I don't know what else would be neat. Maybe an angelfish?

the empty tank is free reign. I was pondering the idea of a goldfish tank. Fancy goldfish of different types. Or maybe a more aggresive tank. I'm pretty much done with cichlids. The convicts burned me out. I hate cichlids now

[George Monnat Jr]

What I'm doing is a West African biotope centered around Elephant Nose (Gnathonemus petersii), because they are my wife's favorite. It's community with a lot of Congo Tetras (Phenacogrammus interruptus) and my favorite Upside Down Catfish (Synodontis nigriventris). Bichirs are part of that biotope, too if you want to keep it, and so are African Butterflyfish (Pantodon buchholzi). The biotop includes a lot of low-light plants like Anubias, so lots of good green without high light and flow requirements.

All of those except the Congo Tetras are brown and white, so I broke the biotope theme with some South American Brass/Gold Tetras (Hemigrammus rodwayi) and SE Asian Harlequin Rasbora (Rasbora heteromorpha).

An interesting crustacean that fits in the West African biotope is the Viper Shrimp (Atya gabonensi). It looks mean, but it's a filter feeder with four huge fans. Awesome to watch.

All of those I got at RCA.

[Sascha D.]

Convicts could burn anyone out! What aquascape are you striving for?

South American planted tanks are fun and less maintenance than reef tanks, but more maintenance than typical gravel. Your basic Congo Tetras, Cardinals, Neon Tetras etc look amazing against the green background of the plants. Bogwood is a necessity to help keep the Ph down.

Discus are fun, especially in planted tanks.

Anaconda eel is a awesome specimin. They bury themselves but you'll see them a good amount of time.

Glass cats are popular species and can be kept with everything.

Rainbow sharks were popular back in the day. They can be aggressive, but generally work well in community tanks.

One of my favorites are Clown Loaches. You can get a bunch of them and they school around the tank. Feed them blood worms and they go crazy in a feeding frenzy!

[jestep]

Some bolivian or blue or gold rams or apistos, geophagus if the tank is large enough, are great South Americans. I would stay from convicts, sevrums, and any of the more prolific ones as the babies are nearly impossible to get rid of.

[JCAB]

If you're looking for a schooling fish that's not as "fragile" as the neons (although once neons make it for a little while, they seem relatively hardy), you should check out the pentazona barbs. I've had 5 of them for about 2 years, they're almost always together and are very peaceful. Aquadome has the best pricing, but you can sometimes also find them at Aquatek. BTW, PetSmart frequently has the neons and cardinals on sale for $1.

[Robb in Austin]

Good suggestions above.

My only advice would be to consider the tank foot print when looking at inhabitants. I have no idea the dimensions of that tank but it looks short in length and width. The last thing you want to add in that case is something that gets big( ie longer than the tank is wide in width) and is a swimmer.

I was going to suggest a South American setup with angels, cory cats, and some tetras. Not one of them need a lot of swimming room.

[Makena95GT]

Yes the footprints aren't very huge. They're very tall tanks, not so much long and wide like the 55g I have. Maybe I'll do a planted South American setup in the one with the filter-hood, and keep with my calm little community in the tank that already has some stock. I'd really like to get a little school of Platies. I love those fish A harem and a male to rule them all! Then rebuild my Neon Tetra population. I think what I need to do is give all of the filter media a good rinse in some tank water. I'll do that next water change. The filter hasnt been cleaned since before summer started... >.> I've been putting it off with all the other stuff I;ve been having to do.

[Sascha D.]

Cardinals tend to be more popular than Neons, but they're also more expensive. Cardinals live longer, get bigger and have a solid red stripe instead of half a red stripe like the Neon has. Personally, I'd rather have 20 Neons than 10 Carinals for the same price.

[JCAB]

Pet smart often has them both on sale for $1

[Makena95GT]

I def prefer the Neons. I'm a super cheapo when it comes to fish.. which isn't a very good quality

Cleaned the filter and changed the filter floss. (Canister filter) so the bacteria colony should be fine.