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I am thinking of moving some of my fish to other tanks to change up my larger 55 gallon tank. One of the goals would be to later obtain something along the lines of a red tipped shark or bala shark for the main tank. My wife and I love the way these guys swim, so graceful etc. and not to mention the shark look is very eye catching but we are wary of their aggressiveness as well.

So here is what my tank will be:

1x 55 gallon - heater, 2 airstones, 30-60 filter, power head diffuser

3x Ghost Catfish
1x Pleco
1x Angelfish
4x Gouramis (all dwarfs blue, fire, gold, tiger stripe)
6x Tetras (3 strawberry, 3 blueberry)

What would go well with these fish? Like i said above the bala sharks look really nice. Any advice appreciated (and how many of what - i know some require either 1 alone or a school). Thanks for any help

balas will need a 125+ gallon tank, so that is out of the question. a center fish would be get 2 more angels, and let them grow out, b/c when they reach the semi adult size, ur tank will have a nice center pieace and it will be full.

Personally I'd prefer to see the tetra schools filled out a bit more. Unfortunatly the only way to do that is to buy more dyed fish. To read about what they do to make them [link=see this link]http://www.deathbydyeing.org/" style="COLOR: #EB4288[/link]. Fish school by visual cues so different variations of one fish may not and sometimes will not school with others. For instance I've seen a green tiger barb nipped to death by a regular tiger barb.

What type of pleco is it? Many of them will more than outgrow a 55 gallon tank and no matter what they do produce their share of waste and that should be taken into consideration with the stocking.

The bala sharks are out unless you've got a spare 500 gallon tank you forgot to mention . They grow to one foot plus are active fish (like all cyprinids) and require a school. Since you posted in cyprinid I'd suggest a healthy sized school (6 plus) of white cloud mountain minnows. They're small very active and have nice fin colors that the males just love to show off . I've got some in with my white skirts (what berry tetras are before they're injected with dye) and they leave each other alone.
Rasboras are another option you might want to look into. Check what your LFS has available and let us know .

^_^[hr width='40%']"Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by
Every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes
EVERY NOW AND THEN I FALL APART.
And I need you now tonight
And I need you more than ever
And if you'll only hold me tight
We'll be holding on forever..."

Yeah, i fell prey to the those are pretty bug and bought the tetras before i knew how they did that to them

on the plus side due to their rough/rude handling as fry the tetras are extremely hardy.

maybe i am thinking of the wrong thing. I thought bala sharks were black tipped sharks? I have seen them get to about 7 inches and read that was normal compared to the possibility of them reaching 14 inches.

No, Bala Sharks are not Black Tipped Sharks.
They are also commonly called Silver Sharks and Tricolor Sharks.
They grow 12-14 inches and need at least a 200G tank and a school of 6 minimum.
The black tipped shark is a Columbian Shark, these catfish, (has whiskers), is a bottom dweller, and also grows to 12-14 inches.
For a centerpeice fish in your tank, why not go for a pictus cat, a hoplo cat, or a rainbow or red tail black shark. Those fish are all suitable.
I also wanted to mention, glass catfish (ghost catfish), really need to be kept in a school of 6 or more, preferably more.
They are such shy timid fish.

PS.
This was my largest bala shark before I sold them, she was 9 inches

And heres the three I had, the smallest is 6 inches


Last edited by So_Very_Sneaky at 01-Oct-2005 16:28[/font][/font]

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Just so you know, i owned bala sharks before and it was in a 55 gallon tank- I gave them to a friend who had a monster tank over 200 gallons-but dont do balas, they are very active and will be WAY too big for that tank now if you want to invest in a HUGE tank then I say go for it... they are very intertaining to watch but that small of a tank is not healthy for them.- s

oh, if you are thining angels I say go for it, they are gorgeous fish and I have had no problem with the pair that I own, in fact they are constantly in the process of making babys. Gorgeous fish and very elegant in the water... I think they would be an excellent pair in a tank, just love them