Any help/advice for a newb would be appreciated.

T

TI44

AC Members
Jan 28, 2007
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I have read most of the important stickies, and I know about cycling my tank. I know that some fish get very big, and that I should not buy a fish that gets to big and plan on selling or giving it back to my lfs when it gets to big. Or tossing it in a canal or lake.


I have just set up a 55 gallon tank freshwater tank. Right now there is one catfish, don't know exactly what kind of catfish, but there doesnt seem to be anything special looking about it, it costed me $4 at Petsmart. Also a common pleco, the kind that are in canals and lakes down here in Florida, the pleco was $3 at Walmart, and a few snales that I bought from Petsmart. I bought two 25lb bags of white sand for my substrate, I know the sand (especially white) is harder to keep clean, but to me it looks much nicer than little rocks/pebbles. I bought some granite from Petsupermarket, and organized them very nicely around my tank, and I bought about 7 fake plants, 4 of which are in the tank now. I will add a picture of my tank as soon as I get use someone's camera.

For filtration I have a 350 Magnum canister, and A Marineland Emperor 280 Bio-wheel, so I definitely have more than enough filtration. I am in the process of cycling the tank, its been cycling now for about 3 days. Even though this is my first tank, I know a little bit about keeping fish. I had a vivarium type tank, with a certain reptile, and a few barbs, and my good friend has a few tanks, and I always ask him to many questions, because as you can tell it interests me.

Anyways. What I want to ask some of you more experienced fish keepers is, what kind of fish should I get for my tank? I like aggressive, yet good looking fish. I don't want a fish that is going to eat flakes it's whole life, I want something that I can give feeder fish to if I want to see some feeder fish get messed up and eaten. If there are fish that some of you think have good personalities, and are smart, then please tell me which ones. Also, I dont want to have just 1-3 fish in my tank, I would like to have about 4-6 fish. I dont mean to be rude saying fish arent worth money, but I DO NOT see the point of spending $600-700 on a tank, filters, and everything else, just to house one $10 fish.

So please, everyone give me their opinions on what I should put in my tank.

Thanks alot, Tony.
 
welcome to the addicting hobby of aquatics! that list of prerequisites for your fish you want is pretty difficult to fill. if you can find fish that fit the bill, and manage to not overstock your tank, i applaud you!

for example.. oscars are VERY smart, have great personalities, are beautiful (in my eyes anyway), and are always up for tearing up the occasional feeder.
however, they grow to a massive size of 12" or larger, which makes a 55 gallon tank a minimum to keep just ONE. so you fill everything but your fish quota.

Personally, ive always avoided 55 gallon tanks for the very reason that i enjoy owning fish that are colorful, aggressive, and have good personalities, and a 55 is pretty much the borderline for keeping things like oscars and cichlids, it is large enough to keep 1 or MAYBE 2, but not big enough to house any more than that (without serious health risks to the fish). 55 gallon tanks are great for a large peaceful community, like tetras, guppies, rasboras, etc.

as for the pleco, those fish can grow to be well over 14" in length, sometimes over the span of as little as a year. you should find a way to work out a deal with your LFS like i did, buy a small pleco originally, and when he grows toa length of 7 or 8", take him back to the LFS and exchange him for a new small one. this way, you get to grow your pleco, and the LFS gets to sell him for a MUCH larger profit to someone who has a tank that can house a fish that large. this is not normally done, i was only able to work this out with my LFS after a few YEARS of being a loyal customer and displaying my knowledge and understanding of proper fishkeeping. Your best bet is to ensure that the fish you buy WON'T outgrow the tank before you can get a bigger one, as that is the only sure means of the fish getting to a tank that is more suitable.

When you are choosing what kind of fish you want for your tank, research it here. You'll often find that a common-looking small fish will soon be over 12" or more! And most times, the LFS (or pet store, ie. petsmart, petco) will tell you that the fish will grow large, but not half as large as they really get, or they may even cater to your preferences and tell you that a 55 gallon tank IS ok for anything that you want.

my suggestion is to let the tank cycle for another week or 2, spend some time here browsing about the different types of fish you may want, and make an educated decision that benefits both you AND the fish you will buy. Your tank will turn out beautiful, your fish happy, and of course, you, the owner, pleased.

i don't think florida has much of a natural ecoystem enymore.... lol. not that that condones throwing any sort of domesticated species into wild waters. In doing something like that you can expect fines, tickets, even arrest! not to mention contributing to the detriment of the natrual ecosystem, as Omega already pointed out. Good on you for knowing that is NOT the route to take.

Good luck, and happy fishkeeping!

-Jon
 
Look into african rift lake cichlids at www.cichlid-forum.com they are interesting and rambunctious. The mbuna are mostly vegetarians but a 55 gal tank would be perfect. The best part about africans are the number of fish you can put in. Most people stock them heavily to keep aggression levels down.
 
Omega said:
No!

Never ever do that.

Adding feral invasive species with ruin your local ecosystem.
Click to expand...


Like I said I wasnt planning on doing that. But I honestly dont think it would make a difference in the ecosystem here, because its already pretty messed up. I can go bass fishing in a lake and catch oscars, JD's, african cichlids, knife fish, peacock bass, my friend even caught a 20 inch Pacu once. None of these fish are native. The common plecos are everywhere, seems like everytime you throw a cast net to try to get some bait, you will catch a big nasty looking pleco. The ecosystem here is already pretty messed up, with so many non-native species in the lakes and canals already, that I doubt the addition of one more fish would hurt a thing.
 
Back onto the topic of my tank. With african cichlids, I know they do not get as big as oscars. How big exactly would they get? I dont want to buy them as adults, I would like to get them as babies and watch them grow. When they do grow to adults, would they be able to eat feeder fish? When I was looking around at a few stores yesterday, the guy at the store told me that I could get ten of them in my tank, the baby ones ofcourse. I thought ten sounded like a little bit to much, but if I could do ten, that would be great. I also looked up a beautiful fish called an electric blue Jack Dempsey. I read that they get from 8-10 inches. This is a gorgeous fish, and quite expensive to, with a fish like that, would I be able to have anything else in the tank besides that fish? Is it to big?
 
One more thing. My tank has been running now for a few days. When do I have to start doing the waterchanges? And how much water do I have to change?
 
TI44 said:
But I honestly dont think it would make a difference in the ecosystem here, because its already pretty messed up. I can go bass fishing in a lake and catch oscars, JD's, african cichlids, knife fish, peacock bass, my friend even caught a 20 inch Pacu once. None of these fish are native. The common plecos are everywhere, seems like everytime you throw a cast net to try to get some bait, you will catch a big nasty looking pleco. The ecosystem here is already pretty messed up, with so many non-native species in the lakes and canals already, that I doubt the addition of one more fish would hurt a thing.
Click to expand...
I strongly believe you should reconsider that logic.

That's like saying it's OK to litter because everyone else does.

They might be banning plecos for this very reason.
 
Wow!!

Please tell me where I said that I plan on tossing a fish into a lake or canal? I clearly said that I know better than to buy a fish thats get to big. We have cane toads here in Florida, big nasty toads, that kill dogs, cats and many other things because of their toxins. They eat everything and nothing can hurt them, I dont want our waters to be like that. If a fish got to big for me, I would probably give it to someone who has a bigger tank, or give it back to the store that I got it from.

All I am saying is that it would not make a big difference, because it really wouldnt. Does this mean that everytime I go bass fishing, and catch an oscar, or a knife fish, that I have to kill it, because its not supposed to be there?



And thanks for the great advice from all of you, it helped me alot.
 
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