55 gallon tank

Question
QUESTION: Will this work for a 55 gallon tank?

1 black ghost knifefish
4 female clown loaches
4 fancy goldfish
maybe a few mollies?

ANSWER: Hi Sabrina;

Goldfish are coldwater fish and your others are tropical. The others are compatible with each other, but not with the goldfish. This means you will have to decide whether you want tropical with a heater, or cold with no heater.

Whatever kind of fish you decide to keep, the tank has to go through a break-in period, also known as "Cycling" or "New Tank Syndrome". Ghost knife and clown loaches are too sensitive and don't handle it very well so if you want to start with a few mollies to get it through the break-in, that would work. Stressful for the mollies, but it would get the job done. Or, if you are patient enough to wait a month or so with no fish, do a "fishless cycle" and you won't be endangering any fish. It's a very difficult thing for them to go through. Fishless cycling is not as simple as just letting the tank run empty. There must be fish food or another source of ammonia to "feed" the growing bacteria colonies that will eventually support your fish. Here is a link to my page about the break-in and some about fishless cycling;

http://www.xanga.com/Expert_Fish_Help

http://www.fishprofiles.com/articles/article.aspx?id=31

http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_fishless.php

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquariumforum/showthread.php?t=2678

Good Luck and most of all...have fun!

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: We already have them all,so they absolutely can't tolerate each others temperatures? We don't have the room or money to buy another big tank, and if we can't mix them the goldfish will have to stay in a 10 gallon.So we REALLY can't mix them?

Answer
Hi Sabrina;

Your goldfish will develop health problems in tropical temperatures over time but it's more than just temperature considerations I'm afraid. They just have different requirements and come from totally different environments. It would be kind of like asking a polar bear to live in the desert. You just can't change the laws of nature I'm afraid. Differences in temperament, food, activity, appetite, etc., are also problems;

**The ghost gets to be over a foot long and the clown loaches can get pretty close to that so they will eventually take up a lot of room. The goldies get at least 6 inches long. That's just too much fish for your tank.

**The Clowns could become nippy toward your goldfish and really injure them. My clowns do it to my other fish and they aren't goldfish. Especially when eating.

**The ghost can really harrass the goldies at night when they can't see. He won't mean to but if a fish gets in his way or hides in a spot he wants, a Knife fish can stress them out. They are nocturnal and have electrical impulses in their sides that can really drive other fish crazy sometimes. It would simply add to the weakened condition of the goldfish being in the higher temperatures.

**Goldfish are also gluttons and will eat too much of the high protein food that your ghost needs, making them sick eventually because goldies are mostly vegetarian.

**Goldfish are very messy fish that get big too. Just the four goldfish take up the entire population of a 55 gallon tank. The goldfish get to be over 6 inches long each so they can't live in a 10 gallon for very long either. Because of how messy they are, they need extra room.

I know it's hard to do because we become attached to our fish but you might consider finding someone who has a pond in the spring and give them a new home. That's where goldfish really belong.

Here are pages with profile information about each of your fish;

http://www.loaches.com/species-index/clown-loach-chromobotia-macracanthus

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile13.html

http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Knife,%20Black%20Ghost.htm

http://www.firsttankguide.net/goldfish.php

I wish I had better news...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins