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I want to turn my 55 gallon into a community tank. I just finished cycling and I added 5 red phantom tetras. I want to add another schooling fish so maybe a different type of tetras. Can I have guppies and platies or mollies? Of so how many of each. What bottom feeders do you reccomend?

Steve

Assuming that the red phantoms werent mislabeled serpae tetras which can be quite nippy, i would say you are open to hundreds of choices (if you dont want to go with the biome look)including most species of livebearers (possibly not mollies as they need a substantial amount of salinity in their environment, I would go with swordtails but keep a tight lid as they are jumpers). As far as bottom dwellers, I would reccomend a bristlenose and shoal of cories for cleanup. In the tetra class I would look at increasing your red pahnatom school and choosing another smaller tetra that complements the fish that you already have, concentrating on two larger shoals instead of many smaller ones. As a final note you may not want to add evrything I mentioned here, just some general suggestions. With this type of community, as I mentioned before, you can take it anywhere.

I think I am going to move the red phantoms into my 33g with my dwarf cichlids. I made a list of the fish I would like to put in the 55g:
- ?# guppies
- ?# sword tails
- 10 lamp eyes
- 10 cardinals or neon tetras
- 3-4 misc. plecos

How does this sound? For the guppies and sword tails how many of them should I get?

You can add all possible Tetra's that there are, but i will mention a few, Glowlight, Buenos Aires, Cardinals, Lemon, Black Widows & Rummynose Tetra's.

If you add non nipping Tetra's, you can add some Guppy's aswell.
For bottom feeders, i recommend Corydoras. There are alot to choose from & here are a few, Bronze, Albino, Peppered, Leopard, Arcuatus & Jullii.


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Assuming that the plecos are small, various types of livebearers can be added without maxing out your bioload. I would definitely go with cardinals although they tend to be a bit more expensive, I find their coloration to be superior to that of the neons. Additionally, neon tetras are somewhat overbred and non-resistant to any possible aquarium disease and have even been the source of "Neon Tetra Disease," a neurological aquatic disorder charcterized by jerking motions and the seemingly eratic and unbalanced swimming of the fish. This disease may cause fish to "stand upon their heads" and is communicable to the other members of the community. As far as numbers of livebearers, I would reccomend a general ratio of 1 males to three females to relieve stress and deplete agression (usually in the form of the males harassing the females to breed). I would reccomend a peaceful, larger centerpiece fish such as a dwarf gourami that could also serve as population control amongst the prolific livebearers. I would anly add a group of possibly five swords or platys, and that many guppies. Natural breeding will cause their numbers to spike even with the appetite of the gourami. Even if the population becomes too high, many local fish stores are more than willing to accept fry that have no place in your community in exchange for store credit.