How much decor.

D

danj

Registered Member
Nov 16, 2005
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I am pretty new to the fish keeping hobby. I have 3 tanks one 75gal and two 10gal. I would like to know how much decoration and fake plants to put in the 75gal. I dont want to over decorate and take up all the room for the fish. I have two oscars one clownknife one blood parrot one pleco one alge eater one gromi and an eel.
TIA Dan
 
What I did in my 72 gal is line the back with plastic plants and push my driftwood all the way to the back glass, while leaving the front of the tank mostly empty with some low plants, like hair grass.

tankwithplants.jpg


Just make sure to designate an area of free swiming space, and an area of clear gravel for your bottom dwellers, and you'll be ok.

In my tank theres 3 "18 cambomba, one big Amazon sword in the corner, 3 hair grass up front, 2 smaller cambombas, and 2 small swords.
 
This really depends on a bunch of factors:

-How many fish you can house comfortably (remember ornaments lessen the amount of water in the tank)

-Whether the water quality will be affected (some rocks and driftwood will affect pH/hardness/etc...)

-How much you want to see your fish, and how many hiding spots or territories you will have (very important with cichlids)

-What sort of fish you have. My Eyebiter requires a lot of open space, whereas my ropefish likes hanging out in a cave on the bottom or inside driftwood.
 
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the more important issue here is the fact that you have far too many fish that grow large, in that tank. a 75 is not big enough for two mature oscars which grow to 13-14 inches, let alone an eel, a clown knife and a blood parrot cichlid and the rest of your crew. if your "eel" is a ropefish (Erpetoichthys calabaricus) it grows to 3 feet.

unless you're planning an upgrade to about 300 gallons, you'll soon be looking for new homes for some of your fish or they're going to die. fish maintained in tanks which are too small or in conditions which are too crowded, develop severe stress syndrome. these fish do not exhibit proper color, do not develop proper fin form, do not exhibit proper metabolic development, do not exhibit normal behaviour, do not develop proper musculature, do not develop properly functioning organ systems and as a result, slowly lose their inherant resistance to disease. this results in a significantly shortened lifespan and along the way, lots of diseases for which the poorly conditioned fish is a good target.
 
The biggest ropefish I've seen was only about 16" max. I've never heard of one bigger than this. I saw a few articles say they are usually smaller in aquaria, but I'd have to say this is probably due to them not getting enough food. I'd love to see a 36" ropefish!

I have a hard time feeding mine as they are so blind, but tossing a couple flayed tiger shrimp in there garuntees my other fish won't steal the meal.
 
unless you're planning an upgrade to about 300 gallons, you'll soon be looking for new homes for some of your fish or they're going to die. fish maintained in tanks which are too small or in conditions which are too crowded, develop severe stress syndrome. these fish do not exhibit proper color, do not develop proper fin form, do not exhibit proper metabolic development, do not exhibit normal behaviour, do not develop proper musculature, do not develop properly functioning organ systems and as a result, slowly lose their inherant resistance to disease. this results in a significantly shortened lifespan and along the way, lots of diseases for which the poorly conditioned fish is a good target.[/QUOTE]


I see alot of do nots in here. And I appreciate the feed back. My wife is the one with the large fish idea. (not trying to lay the blame on anyone).:D So I may need to do some rethinking on our tank. And the eel is a Moray.
Thanks again.
 
:D

It's all good, we've all stuck some silly fish in a tank at some point in time...Hell, I have some in my tank now, but I'm gonna upgrade or donate the fish before I let it die a death in a tiny tank...That's just mean.

Luckily there's a wicked pet shop here that'll take back almost anything.
 
Roan Art said:
You have a moray eel -- a real saltwater moray eel -- in a freshwater tank?

Roan
Click to expand...

I've often seen a snowflake moray sold as freshwater. It is my understanding that, at best, they tolerate brackish.
 
the eel is a Moray
Click to expand...

Moray (eel), is an all too common name for about 110 species of marine eels. if you do have one of these, you're killling it as we speak. this is NOT a freshwater animal.
 
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