55 gallon semi-aggressive stock

Question
Hi Karen~

A few weeks ago I upgraded from a 10gal to a 55gal (big jump, I know!) I kept all of the gravel and water from the old tank during the transfer and added new water little by little until the new 55gal was full, and tests show that water conditions are fine.

Since I've been so used to keeping a small number of fish, for fear of overstocking the 10gal, I'm not sure what the limits are on the 55gal.

My current stock is the following:
2 Pictus Catfish (about 3.5" each)
1 Sun/Eclipse Catfish (he's grown to a nice 5.5")
1 Gold Gourami (2")
1 Bala Shark (2.5" but is a skinny lil guy)
4 Tiger Barbs (about 1.5".. there were 6, but two mysteriously disappeared)
1 Plecostomus (3")

I realize that I have some that don't stay tiny, so I am wondering how many more fish could be added. If anything, I would expand the Tiger Barb school to be larger, and if there's room after that, trying another smaller school of Buenos Aires tetras.

So my questions are the following: Does this seem okay? If there could be more, how much? Also, I'm currently running two TopFin 60 filters. Is that too much at present?

Thanks a lot for offering your expertise!!
Mel

Answer
Hi Mel,
Interesting stock indeed!

Lets see, I think our main concerns are the Eclipse catfish which -can- grow to 12 inches. Bala shark can grow to 10 inches. And the pleco can grow to 12 inches. All these fish will take some time to grow but if they all grew to their maximum sizes they you might have to consider a bigger tank for them.

But your tank logically would be OK where it is now and some more tiger barbs and some Buenos Aires tetras should be fine in the tank. I'd say about two schools (6) each.

Just keep on top of those water changes to keep nitrates as low as possible.

The two filters will be beneficial to your tank especially for the messy habits of the current fish you have. I doubt its too much, I'd only say it was overload if the tank had so much current the fish were having trouble swimming about.

Best of luck and I hope this helps!
Karen~