Newbie, inherited Pacu and Oscar

[alyattes]

When I bought the house I told the owners to take the fish. They didn't, so now I have 3 red bellied pacu and 1 albino oscar. They were in a 55 gal, I have them in a 180 now. I didn't even know what kind of fish they were. I found a guy who works for a fish store and he comes to clean the tank, change filters, etc.

Is a 180 big enough? What kind of algae eater can I put in the tank (without getting eaten)? How big do they get?

C:\Documents and Settings\Lydia\My Documents\My Pictures\Fish Tank

:help:

 

[tai95]

the 180 will be fine for the oscar, but it is nowhere close to being big enough for 1 pacu let alone 3 of them. You would need about a 4 or 5 thousand gallon tank to keep the pacu's.

 

[dorkfish]

Is a 180 big enough?

An 180g is barely big enough to even stunt the growth of a pacu - they'll break the tank, maybe not now, but they definetly will, and probably within the next 6 months. Try something like 1000+ gallons, and even that would be a little overstocked with the fish you have now.

What kind of algae eater can I put in the tank (without getting eaten)?

You can add nothing living to the tank, so that means no algae eater. And no fish should be bought for the soul purpose of cleaning your tank - that's your job. So, instead of an algae eater, what you will need to clean you tank is:

• A gravel vacum - use this to do 50% weekly water changes, while siphoning fish waste and uneaten food from the bottom of the tank. Also, contrary to poular belief, nothing will eat fish waste.
  
• An algae cleaner- this will be either a sponge, a sponge atached to a handle, or a magnet type thing. Use this to clean algae off the tank walls as needed/wanted (fish don't care if there's algae in the tank, and many will apreciate it). Also, no algae eater will keep the tank cleaner than you can, and many stop eating algae at a certain age and need suplemental food.

How big do they get?

Pacu can grow up to 2 feet and are very active - why they are/will be capable of breaking your tank, and need a huge (1000+ gallon) tank. They also live forever whn you keep them in a proper setup - debra mark (other forum memeber) had a black pacu that lived to be 28 years old, and was kept for the most part in huge tanks, the largest being over 3000 gallons.

The oscar still gets big, but not as big a the pacu, it will grow to be over a foot in length. And, tankfully for you, and 180g is more than big enough for an oscar, actually it's big enough for a group of 2-3 of them.

Also, if you want links to prove to yourself that I am not lying, visit my member page.

 

[hmt321]

Pacu's do get huge, if I were you I would actively try to find a new home for them, (fish store, on line, whatever.) 3-4 oscars would do great in that 180gal tank, learn to do the maintenance yourself, and it will save you some cash. also, if you do your own maintenance you will be more in-tuned with what is going on with your tank to take care of small problems before they get big.

I would research a push button water change system, I will through my links , there was one that would cost around $150.00 or so (if you have your tank set up in the right location.)

a "ghetto" version is just a water timer plumbed to a python, you need to have a water level mark on the tank, drain it down to that level (while you vac up the poo) then set your timer (you have 2 know how many minuets it takes to fill your tank back up) set it then you can go do whatever.

180 gal is a BIG tank, good thing about a big tank is that it can be more stable, more water = slower changes (to some extent)

if the tank is cycled
and you perform a 25% to 30% water change each week
you feed the fish a varied diet, in reasonable quantities (once a day, as much as they can eat in 3-4 min)

you could keep 3-4 oscars very happy for years
they would be huge and impressive.

my 2 cents

 

[fishcatch22]

yeah, you really need to rehome the pacus. you can keep the oscar, though. I would recommend turing it into a giant communty tank, with 1-2 more oscars and a common pleco.

 

[Jericho]

If you need to get rid of the pacus you can go to a local aquarium and they will take the fish. Or at least the S.F. aquarium takes fish

 

[alyattes]

Thanks

http://pictures.aol.com/ap/myAlbums.do?albumId=43950.2673.1156456800154.1#


here's a pic of what I have now. Hopefully I can find a good home for them. I will see if there is an aquarium here,,, I'm not aware of any. but as least it's a start. Want them to have LONG happy, health lives.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

maybe if you could find someone with a pond or something. like Jericho said i would look for a local aquarium to take him.