Archer tank setup

[Sploke]

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]

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]

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

 

[TKOS]

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]

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.