Guppies, Mollies and Platys

[EweSheep]

We bought a 55 Gallon fishtank for the entire family.

Each one of us wanted fancy guppies, mollies and platys and swordtails.

Are they all peaceful among each other????????????

We also are getting some neon tetras and danios.

Now how many fishes can we have in that tank without overwhelming the balance of the water enivornment. I know it is 1 inch size per fish would require one gallon. How in the heck can I measure each fish to make sure?

Sure we would have to have a pair of each color for each breeds of fishes.

Black and Dalamation Mollies are preferred
I can not remember that neon bright orange fish...looks very much like a danio or tetra and faint orange stripes.....beautiful color!

Would it be possible to introduce two different stores in one tank or best to get all fishes from one source> not all of them have the same kind of fishes or different colors which one may not have it, but the other supplier would.

 

[MagsC]

I know guppies and mollies usually get along? I am not sure about the others though.

 

[Goose and Fig]

Don't mean to put down your idea- but if you're getting such a nice big tank- why not get some bigger fish like cichlids? I had platys in with oscars and lepirinus and something else I can't remember. They come in so many nice colors too. I think it's the next best thing to a salt water tank. When they got really big I fed them cat food instead of fish food. They all had names

I had the same fish for 7 years, and when I had to move I donated them to the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo.

The ones that you picked should all get along- but the platys get huge. Guppies & mollies breed like crazy too.

 

[pringle]

I have had them in the same aquarium and they do very nicely together,good comunity fish.They even go well with my water shrimp(try getting water shrimp there awesom!)I would say you can get 40 or so?Make sure to get atleast10 neon tetras since they love company.

 

[fordmommy]

You need to get yourself some good catfish and sucker fish to clean the tank too!

 

[pringle]

I have snails and water shrimp,the shrimp clean the bottom bits and plants while the snails clean the surrounding walls.

 

[dntd]

neons can be quite agressive sometimes,they eat babies too. I found to keep babies alive you can either make an area with marbles of fake aquatic grass matts from the petstore.

 

[EweSheep]

I had relative that have those Oscars and related cousins of theirs....NO THANKS!

I'd prefer alot of little fishes, easy to care for and it is located in DD;s room. She is delighted to have it in there. Said that is MY TV LOL!

We are presently cycling it, treating it. Water is very very cold. So it is going to be a good while once it heats up. I may say about three days we will have fishes in there.

It is a first time we ever had that large of a tank, sitting on top of a dresser (yeah I know it is not the greatest idea but holding up pretty good!) If it goes, at least my floor would be washed LOL! We got two floor holes in case if ever does, goes directly down the basement. so it will be ok. We will check the dresser often. No way we will put it on her desk because it is made of particle board and two screws on each side.

 

[Davaroo]

Only the neon tetras will be mismatch, as they are rather frenetic. They wont really be a problem, but it will be like a bunch of kindergarten kids in an old folks home.

The rest of the one you metioned are excellent community fish and will do well together.

Up until a few years ago, I always had at least one large freshwater tank. My dad and I bred guppies and mollys many years ago. too.

 

[Southernbelle]

I raised guppies for a long time. Guppies and Mollies will have LOTS of babies for you, but the parents will eat the babies unless you get them out of there and into their own tank. I'd put about 15 fish in a tank that big and let them fill it up themselves with all their offspring. Give the babies lots of places to hide and they should be able to evade those that want to eat them.

You should get at least 2 females for every male - mating is ALL those little buggers think about and they harass the girls all day long. I think the Swordtails will be cross-fertile with the guppies. If you keep a bunch of guppies and swordtails together you'll likely end up with some interesting mix-breds, unless you seperated them.

Guppies/mollies/swordtails do best with conditioning salt in the water and not all companion fish tolerate this. Snails hate it and they'll most likely die. Ghost shrimp are absolutely facinating bottom feeders, they're super cheap and they thrive in the same environment as the guppies. African Dwarf frogs do well, but they need their own food, they can't survive on fish flakes. There's one other bottom feeder that does well, but the name eludes me right now...