What fish should I get for my 60 gallon?

Question

I had African cichlids in there before I moved...they started breeding like crazy, ended up buying a 20 gallon just for the frie! I really liked their colors and characteristics...I hated the fact that I had to stick with their species and not make the variety a little broader.

Anyway, I kind of got sick of the aggression and the fighting over the females, had to seclude some of the more aggressive males every once in a while.

I guess a community tank would be ok...but when I go that route, I still tend to want to get some semi-aggressive fish that end up picking on the less-aggressive.

Any ideas on some good colorful fish for a community setting?

Answer 1

Heavens no don't get an oscar! You can't fit one oscar in a 60 gallon, let alone five.

If you want to go community, you have to stock my levels of the tank.

Start at the bottom, right? :)
I always recommend corydoras. They are true bottom dwellers and really help tidy up uneaten fish good.
http://cyberaqua.free.fr/reportages/co2/31_corydoras_julii.jpg
Get at least 6, as they are schoolers. I recommend sterbai, but julii is fine too.
In a 60 gallon, you could a smaller type of plecostomous, such as a bvushy nose
http://fishinthe.net/html/fishguide/images/photo/fishphoto_0026_01.jpg

Mid-to-lower range stocking is best done with a school of glass catfish.
http://www.aquascape.co.uk/Glass_Cat.jpg
Get at least 6.

For mid to upper range, get schoolers. I prefer one large school or 15-20, but you can go with two small schools of 7-10.
If you're having larger fish, like angelfish, go with larger tetras such as
lemon tetra http://www.aqua-fish.net/imgs/fish/034.jpg
congo tetra http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/gordon.jpg
dwarf neon rainbow http://www.aquariumfish.net/images_01/neon_dwarf_rainbows_001_w320.jpg
emperor tetra http://www.aqua-fish.net/imgs/fish/156.jpg
rummynose tetra
http://www.azgardens.com/images/Tetra-Rummynose.gif
penguin tetra http://badmanstropicalfish.com/tetra-pictures/penguin_profile1.jpg
Etc etc

And of course, you'll want your centre piece fish. Angelfish would be my number one recommendation. I love angelfish, love love love em and I feed mine all the meaty foods I can find, and they're huge. BUT they aren't for everyone. Some other suggestions would be a pair of pearl gouramis http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/Fishpics/pearl_gourami.jpg
A festivum: http://akvaryum.mavituna.com/%5Cmages%5Cfestivum1.jpg
keyhole cichlid: http://akvaryum.mavituna.com/%5Cmages%5Caequidens_maronii_6.jpg

Anyway, go with what you want, right? There's no reason you can't go African again and just get a group of male peacocks of something. Good luck with your tank :) I always find stocking it is the best part.

Answer 2

I had this same issue....had Oscars...and others (red devils) got tired of the aggression so I sold all the fish and did semi-aggressive. I'm just not a molly kinda person so I got some small sharks, angel fish, silver dollars and some others. Tank looks great! Bio-load is basically a cake walk now that I have those ammonia producing fish outta there..(even with a fluval 405 canister on a 55g!) A 60g is a really nice size tank...you should have some fun with that.

Answer 3

It's not really a community but I think four or five oscars look good in a big tank. They come in a lot of different patterns and that would also satisfy your need for aggressive fish. I think oscars are some of the best looking fish you can get especially when they are big and have bold colors and patterns. Just a suggestion.

Answer 4

it really is going to take about 2 months for the traditional cycle. The cycle wont commence till there is an area with water bypass. you're turning out to be micro organism that needs oxygen for the cycle so some sort of clear out is needed. try kits can decision from 10-30 dallors in accordance to how a thoughts you wanna bypass. Basicly you need to get the 4 common ones. wich is about 16 dallors at the same time

Answer 5

60 gallon is a lot of space to play with....The first thing you should look at is a group of schooling fish. The danios are excellent fish for this, and will spawn easily if you decide to try breeding them in the future. If you want smaller fish, any of the smaller danios (like the ever-popular zebrafish, Danio rerio) are excellent, but a 50-60 gallon or larger tank gives you room for one of the larger danios instead, and these are in my mind much more impressive fish. Now, here's a piece of advice. These are schooling fish, so buy a school of fish. That means at least six fish, and twenty is better for your tank. Do not buy just two or three (or one) danios. Two danios alone in a tank will never feel comfortable or behave naturally. Having a large numbers of one fish species does however require that you have fewer species of fish. But believe me, a tank with twenty fish of three species looks much more natural than a tank with twenty fish of ten species.

In a 50 gal or larger tank you can have a second fish school as well. How about twelve rosy barbs (Puntius conchonius), or any of their medium size relatives? I would however avoid tiger barbs (Capoeta tetrazona) because they are more aggressive and may nip fins. Another possibility is any of the rainbow fishes. The Boeseman's rainbows (Melanotaenia boesemani) and the red rainbows (Glossolepis incisus) are both very good choices because they are very colourful and not too expensive. Get at least six fish for the second school too.

You now have chosen twelve or twenty-four so medium-sized schooling fish in your tank. All of the fish offered as choices so far stay near the middle level of the tank, but you would like to make use of the upper and lower levels too. Filling the lower levels is relatively easy, since there are lots of good beginners' bottom feeders, but suitable top feeders are harder to find. No top feeder fits our criteria of being colourful, cheap, and hardy. The hatchet fishes (Carnegiella spp.) might suffice but I would not consider them hardy. The African butterfly fish (Pantodon buchholzi) is hardy, but relatively expensive. However the popular live-bearing swordtails and platies (Xiphophorus spp.) will spend a lot of time near the surface, and can be used to make better use of the upper level. Personally, I have a bias against unnaturally coloured fish strains (red swordtails and their ilk), but you can still find wild-type "green" swordtails in most good aquarium stores (and various club members breed them as well) so if you share this bias you can still have your swordtails. Get one male and a couple of females. I would not recommend mollies for this tank because these fishes are really quite delicate and are not in my opinion suitable.

For bottom feeders, get a school of six to twelve Corydoras catfish (Corydoras aeneus is a good choice since it's commonly available and inexpensive) and also add a bristle-nose catfish (Ancistrus spp.) to eat algae. And since no tank is complete without cichlids, a pair of kribs (Pelvicachromis pulcher) completes the population. Make sure the kribs have a cave to hide in. Once together, this selection of fishes will make a colourful, active (but not frenetic) display.

You may have noticed that I have only suggested getting six species of fish for this tank. Many community tanks have much more that that, and that's fine, but I am sticking to my suggestion to have a relatively small number of species. I think that the hardest thing to learn about setting up an attractive display tank is restraint. A modest choice of fish species invariably results in a more elegant aquarium than does a hodge-podge of species.

You may have also noticed that the collection of fish presented here is a bit eclectic in that the fish come from many different parts of the world. This was done on purpose, because if you restrict yourself to fishes from only one locality you will have troubles finding enough species to populate your tank with hardy, colourful, inexpensive, and peaceful fish.

Answer 6

go for angels... they're cichlid but nicer.. You can keep a nice community tank with those guys. They do get aggressive during breeding time but they won't kill anything.

Answer 7

i have been setting up a 55 gallon tank..whew what a job..here's what i have so far and they r doing great..1 male betta,1 puffer fish,1 peacock eel,1 rope fish,1 algae eater,1 molly,and 3 painted glass fish.colorful and fun to watch..and the puffer and rope fish r my 2 favorites!!gl

Answer 8

get a shark

Answer 9

catfish