View Full Version : Archer tank setup
archerman22
04-17-2006, 4:23 PM
Hi, I am new to this site as well as aquariums. I currently have a 10 g with a dragon goby, 3 angelfish and 1 chinese algae eater. This tank has been very fun even though I've only had it for about 2 and a half months now. I think I am ready for a cooler tank. I have a 29 g high and am going to set it up with archers, since I think they are the coolest fish ever. I plan on setting a 10 g tank on top of the 29 g upside down and modifying it so that the archers have room to shoot down insects. Does anyone have suggestions, or just comments?
Primetime
04-17-2006, 4:40 PM
Sorry man but you will need a WAY bigger tank for archers. You also need a WAY bigger tank for your 3 angels and the chinese algae eaters.
BeelzeBob
04-17-2006, 8:18 PM
archers are going to need at least 55 gallons.
they get big and need room at the top to jump and spit.
so you can get a big tank (60Gal+) and keep in around 2/3 full, or you can do what i did and build a cage for the top with some sticks and logs and such, so you can introduce bugs. they'll just about eat anything, but i think red ants are too bitter. but its cool to watch, and they don't need any promting.
archerman22
04-19-2006, 9:05 AM
I thought about building a cage overtop of this aquarium, but how do you keep the archer from spitting water everywhere. I realize that they don't spit all the time, but when you do feed it doesn't it get water everywhere?
BeelzeBob
04-19-2006, 3:34 PM
my cage is just a simple wood box with fine mesh screen, a lot of the overspray gets caught in the mesh, but there is a bit of water that gets out.
for me a little mess is worth watching them do their thing, plus when a bug is close enough, they just jump out kamakazi style.
so make sure they wont have any open space around the tank that they can't fall out
archerman22
04-21-2006, 9:52 AM
I attached a picture taken with my phone of the box that I came up with. I think it will work pretty well. It is about 12 inches tall giving the archers plenty of room to spit and/or jump whatever they like.
BeelzeBob
04-21-2006, 11:11 AM
looks a lot like mine, keep a roll of paper towels nearby.
they will outgrow that tank though, but good work buddy!
sploke
04-21-2006, 11:51 AM
Instead of using screen, you could use pieces of plexiglass, with just screen over the top.
archerman22
04-21-2006, 1:03 PM
Ok so I have a question about everybody being so worried about fish being in the right sized aquarium. I know that when you pick out a fish you should always go by the adult size of the fish. Also in choosing the size of the tank, it is appropriate to have one gallon of water per every inch of fish (by the adult size). Is it not true that a fish of any size in an aquarium will not grow to be bigger than its appropriate size for the size tank that it is in? In other words a fish will not grow bigger than the aquarium. By asking this I am not trying to start a huge argument, only posing a question. I would like to hear what people have to say, but by no means am I trying to stunt the full growth potential of my or anyone elses fish, it is only a question.
BeelzeBob
04-21-2006, 2:12 PM
i think thats only for certain fish, and archers are not one of them.
archers will literally out grow your tank.
as well as your dragon goby, which will grow to over 2 feet and is also a BRACKISH WATER fish, even though they are kept in fresh at petsmart.
i guess you could keep them (archers and goby)in a tank less than 50 gal, but their lives will suck.
and in my opinion you shouldn't keep a pet if you can't keep it happy.
but thats just like my opinion man.
sploke
04-21-2006, 2:49 PM
The inch per gallon and fish growing to the size of the tank are probably the two biggest myths in fishkeeping. The inch per gallon can sometimes be used as a guideline, but its not the be-all end-all rule. By this rule, 10 one-inch neons would have the same bioload as a single ten-inch oscar. Simply not true. As fish get bigger, their bioloads to not increase in direct correlation to their length. You just have to use common sense, and think about the fact that if you over stock you're going to either have to get rid of fish or do 3-7 water changes a week.
The other one is also not true. If you're keeping an archer in a 10gal tank and it stops growing after 3 or 4 inches, its stunted. There is a lof of speculation about what exactly causes the growth to stop, but in any case its not natural. So, there's some food for thought I guess. When I choose fish to go into a tank I look more at the footprint of the tank instead of the volume. Like a 55gal tank is a very common size, but its only 12" long. Some fish might be good in 55 gallons of water, but if they get much about 8-10", the tank is barely wide enough for them to turn around. In short, there are a lot of things you should take into account when choosing fish for any aquarium.
Sushi
05-04-2006, 12:23 AM
archers are going to need at least 55 gallons.
they get big and need room at the top to jump and spit.
so you can get a big tank (60Gal+) and keep in around 2/3 full, or you can do what i did and build a cage for the top with some sticks and logs and such, so you can introduce bugs. they'll just about eat anything, but i think red ants are too bitter. but its cool to watch, and they don't need any promting.
That's not necessarily true. If they are still young, they can be kept in a smaller tank until they get larger. For instance I have three young archers in a 20 gallon tank, with a foot tall wooden box over the tank which I made myself to fit the tank. They are doing perfectly fine in it.
Although, at the end of this summer, I'll be moving them into a 60 gallon tank with the same kind of 1-2 foot tall hood over the tank, and a compact day/moonlight tank. I'm also turning that aquarium into a mangrove forest style aquarium. The water will be all the way full, no draining, and I'm going to buy mangrove saplings to grow from the aquarium into the box above the tank to create an authentic (as much as possible) mangrove swamp. I'll also be putting my roommates mudskipper, a few monos and maybe a few halfbeaks.
BeelzeBob
05-04-2006, 2:43 PM
dont mud skippers need some sort of land other than sticks?
and i think monos will most deffinitally kill halfbeaks once they're outside of 9months old, maybe not but halfbeaks are small, and the bigger mono's get the more aggressive they seem to be.
and like i said, archers can live in a smaller tank, until they out grow it, so i dont see any reason to usea smaller tank if you are only going to have to buy another in a few months, but thats just like my opinion man
I would be moving the angels and CAE into that 29 gallon and making the 10 gallon brackish for the goby. Then see if you like keeping a brackish tank. If you do then feel free to buy a large tank and getting some archers at that point.
archerman22
05-29-2006, 11:27 AM
I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this thread, but in case they are here is an update on my aquariums. I actually did put my angels in the 29g and I bought a black ghost knife to go in there too. I kept my dragon goby in the 10g and have the SG currently up to about 1.006. He seems a bit more active since I switched the tank over to a true BW tank, but he still pretty much stays in this cave that he created under one of the fake logs in his tank. Is this normal behavior or should he come out more often than when I feed him? Also is the SG high enough at 1.006 or should it be higher/lower? Now I just need to save up some money to get a big tank for some archers.
Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and opinions.