View Full Version : Archer Tank Setup
Oddball~
03-19-2005, 8:28 PM
Thinking of a tank, pretty shallow, maybe only 2.5 feet tall, and 2 feet wide by 4 feet long. Not sure of the gallonage.
I will fill it maybe 65-75% with water. Have sand everywhere, 3 little islands with mangroves on them, as well as sparse plants on the ground underwater.
Fauna:
1-2 Columbian Sharks
3-4 Archers, smaller species
Flora:
Fake or Real magroves, depending on availability
Java moss and Java fern
What do you guys think?
Oddball~
03-19-2005, 8:36 PM
And its an open tank most likely with 3-4 clamp on lamps
Is this like one of those tanks I suggested to look at in the other thread, tank setup?
http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2000.cgi?&op=showcase&category=1&vol=-1&id=93
Oddball~
03-19-2005, 11:18 PM
That's my inspiration olaf. I plan to make a stand with stocky legs, maybe 1 foot across each.
cdawson
03-20-2005, 12:37 PM
Thinking of a tank, pretty shallow, maybe only 2.5 feet tall, and 2 feet wide by 4 feet long. Not sure of the gallonage.
I will fill it maybe 65-75% with water. Have sand everywhere, 3 little islands with mangroves on them, as well as sparse plants on the ground underwater.
Fauna:
1-2 Columbian Sharks
3-4 Archers, smaller species
Flora:
Fake or Real magroves, depending on availability
Java moss and Java fern
What do you guys think?
for starters, that many fish would need well over 200 gallons. I would say rule out the columbian sharks and get yourself a 150 gallon then you could do it with the archers. Archers get to about 12", and need alot of swimming space.
While it's still a large tank, for those fish it's just not large enough.
Oddball~
03-20-2005, 2:38 PM
Oooooh, OK, I see now.
What if I stick a buncha ghost shrimp, gut-loaded of course, like 5 red crabs, and maybe 5-7 crickets on each sand island for random food?
cdawson
03-20-2005, 3:47 PM
The tank still isn't large enough though, if you had maybe 30-40 gallons more (that size would be 110 galons I believe) you would be ok for the archers. Unfourtuneatly the crabs wouldn't live as the salinity would need to be much higher, and keeping crickets in there full time won't work either. Crickets are quite fond of drowning and will lower the water quality quite a bit.
oddball~ keep us updated; i am really interested in getting archers when i get a bigger tank (obviously :D) they fascinate me, and id love to have some. also, i understan what you are saying about the tank, it seems like an awesome setup! id love to watch its progress
jonathan03
03-20-2005, 4:08 PM
The best option is to have an air tight canopy on your tank and add fly larvae to your tank. As the flies grow, the archers will shoot them down. Their main food is flying insects. I'm not sure that they would go for circkets. Even if you try and use circkets for the other tank mates, you will still need an excellent canopy.
According to "The Complete Aquarium" by Peter W. Scott, archers eat mainly bood worms and flies. He says that they will take flake sometimes.
As for other fish that can be kept with archers, I would go for orange chromides, fingerfish, scat, or glass fish.
Personally, I would go for feeding flies to the archer. Its spitting style of eating is really unique. I'm not sure if he will spit at the crickets since they don't fly.
Oddball~
03-20-2005, 7:59 PM
Nonono, the crickets will be on the mangrove plants or whatever other plants that are on the islands. I don't expect them to live very long. I won't feed them flake foods, no way, jose.
There will be no other fish in there. I will increase the length by one foot to create the more gallonage. As for the crabs, the SG of the tank will be around 1.010.... Won't the crabs live in that SG? They aren't totally marine as far as I know
jonathan03
03-20-2005, 8:23 PM
Ok I guess crickets will work too. When they had archers on the discovery channel they said thye like flies the most. But I did find a link for your about building the tank you want.
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_archer.php
Look at the 4th comment expecially. Its about building the "cricketarium" you have in mind.
You might check out a book called "The Complete Aquarium" by Peter W. Scott for more ideas too. He made one tank for fidler crabs that could be modifed to suit your needs.
The main problem that I can think of that you might have is how to keep your islands islands and not become substrate. If there are any waves from water changes, etc. you might have some errosion. If you plan for the tank to be half full, your islands will still need a steep slope. In the book I mentioned above, the author uses peices of slate with gravel and sand in between them to create elevation in the tank. This book is $16.95 if you want to buy it or just get it from the library. Its a very useful book for all types of tanks that I have used several times.
cdawson
03-20-2005, 8:40 PM
Nonono, the crickets will be on the mangrove plants or whatever other plants that are on the islands. I don't expect them to live very long. I won't feed them flake foods, no way, jose.
There will be no other fish in there. I will increase the length by one foot to create the more gallonage. As for the crabs, the SG of the tank will be around 1.010.... Won't the crabs live in that SG? They aren't totally marine as far as I know
Another problem with the crickets is that mangroves are extremely slow growing,
no more than an 1" per year. Undoubtedley the crickets will eat the mangroves, you would have to keep the crickets in a seperate container like everyone else does. You won't have to feed the archers flakes, they eat a variety of frozen foods, in fact crickets would not only have to be gutloaded you'd have to feed them in a seperate container anyways.
Second, archers require a SG of about 1.015, which is 0.005 more than you're planning.
SA14mars
03-20-2005, 9:16 PM
I should warn you, from having keep reptiles for many years, crickets are loud, very messy (they can produce an amazing amount of waste), and they smell really really bad if you have a bunch of them. I very quickly gave up on keeping them for longer than 24 hours (which also meant frequent trips to the pet store).
cdawson
03-21-2005, 10:43 AM
I should warn you, from having keep reptiles for many years, crickets are loud, very messy (they can produce an amazing amount of waste), and they smell really really bad if you have a bunch of them. I very quickly gave up on keeping them for longer than 24 hours (which also meant frequent trips to the pet store).
Exactly why I said to keep them in a seperate container, crickets in captivity are short lived and don't last long at all no matter how much you feed them. They smell horrible, in fact we had to keep our container in another room it was so bad.
Oddball~
03-21-2005, 10:56 AM
Egad!!!!! Alrighty, nix on the crickets!
Oddball, 2.5'H x 2'W x 4'L is 150 gallons. This is the tank I have.
http://www.arofanatics.com/members/olaf/150newsetup/image01.jpg
The archer is 5.5" long in this picture. The Sebae Monos are 7" - 7.5" tall.
I have two red crabs in my tank. They are at 1.012 SG. They always hide! I never see them unless I tease them with food to come out. I had bought them for my F8P. They both had escaped the puffer by hiding.
Archers live in the intercoastal region (estuaries, mangrove forests & brackish swamps, which all have a constant change in salinity).
If I were to have an Archer & Shark Cat tank I would have the width 2.5' and the height 2'. Since they tow fish have different swimming ranges, Archers being a top dwelling fish and the Shark Cats being a bottom dwelling fish.
With Shark Catfish min. of 3 same with the Archer.
So, say you get 3 of each that would be 6 fish in a 150 gallon tank. The only issue I would see is when they become FULL GROWN adults. Which could be a few years before that happens.
I would do a ARCHER only tank 3 or 4. There are two different kinds of archers and they will co-habitat even school together with no issues.
My Shark catfish grew fast. 1.5" every 3-4 months. I bought them when they were an inch long. They had their own tank for a while since they were such "piggies". They would eat all of the food they could get, even to the point of taking (sucking) food out of the other fishes mouth. I did finally place two other fish with them a Target Fish ("Shredder" - because it would go up to the other fish and take its gill spur and spear the sides knocking off scales and cutting the sides of the other fish) and a Red Mangrove Snapper which would chase and bite the Pectoral Fins of my Monos. This fish, "Red" grew REALLY fast I bought him at >1" and within 4 months it was 5" so about an inch a month. Max lenght of a Red Mangrove Snapper is 60". It now has a great home at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago.
Oddball~
03-22-2005, 12:34 PM
I see, I will plan to make the tank an Archer-Only habitat. It'll probably easier to make the tank myself, I think I can get the glass rather easily, but does anyone have a site where it has instructions to make a fully sealed, non-leaking tank?
Also, I plan on getting maybe 5 crabs to help stir up the sand and just to have something in there besides the archers. Any gobies that would work in this tank? Don't really want all top-swimmers, not that that's a bad thing :). Should I leave the tank uncovered? Worrying about the whole spitting out of the tank idea, yet don't really wanna find a cover, so light is an issue.