Planning a new 26g tank...

NinjaPenguin

NinjaPenguin

AC Members
Feb 18, 2007
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Johannesburg, South Africa
Hi Everyone!

I'm planning to buy a new 4 foot 26g tank (my 4th tank) soon and I have been shopping around for a couple of weeks. I've ended up with 1000 different options and I'm a bit confused by all the jargon and conflicting advice the sales people have been throwing at me... some advice from the experts here on the forum will be much appreciated!

1. Lighting - The general advice from the sales staff at the various pet stores in the area is to have a standard 11w flourescent light on an electronic timer - switching on at 4pm and off at 11pm. That would mean fishies get about 18 hours of light daily - good or bad? Which lighting would be best for freshwater fish?

2. Filter - Bio-wheel or carbon and floss?

Once the tank is cycled I'd like to build up my community one species at a time with a gap of 1 or 2 weeks in between adding fish. Heres what I had in mind...

1. starting with 2 common pleco's & 6 zebra danios
2. 6 clown loaches / kuhli loaches
3. 6 tiger barbs
4. 3 bala sharks
5. 1 red-tail shark

Will I have peace and harmony or full scale fishy turf war? I do have the luxury of a spare 20g tank just in case it doesn't work out...

Thanks in advance! :)
 
umm... all in a 26gallon?? ... not gunna work, i currently have a 70gallon and only ONE common pleco, and im already sad to say he's gotta go
 
Wow! I agree - have you any idea how BIG Clowns and Plecs get? Common Plec - around 24inches, Clowns around 12 - 15 inches - Sharks - not a good idea to put 4 sharks in the same tank i'm told......Remember the newbie rule - an inch of fish to a gallon of water - 26 gallons - 26 inches of fish - if you put all these fish in this 26g tank, you will spend a lot of time taking plecs and clowns if you can catch them!) back to the shop when they outgrow the tank.

My tank no 2:
100 gallon tank:
L60" x W20" x H24"
-10 Lacrustis Rainbow fish
- 2 Blue Gourami
- 1 Red finned Shark
soon to have two clown loach from my 75g tank (again, if I can catch them!)
 
I'm sorry to say NinjaPenguin, but the fish you have selected for a 26g tank simply would not survive. I'm curious about the other 3 tanks you have... would you be able to post specs and list the fish in them for us? As far as lighting for your fish, they don't necessarily need light, but they will exhibit a more regular pattern of behavior if you have lights on a timer. (they will get used to their feeding time regardless of whether or not you have your lights timed, but they may become more active when the lights are on as they become used to their new schedule and environment)

I really don't want to seem like I'm trying to make any personal attacks here, please believe that I have your fish's (and your) best interest in mind. With that said, there are several things I want to list about your desired aquarium setup.

-Common plecostomus get to be monstrous... so unless you have a very large pond that they'd be going into, I wouldn't recommend even considering them.

-6 Zebra danios would be a nicely interactive bunch, and in a 26g tank, would do just fine.

-6 Clown loaches would be an interactive bunch and would do well, but not in such a small tank. 6 clown loaches would require something along the lines of a 300+ gallon tank when they reach their adult size, prefferably larger. (please keep in mind that clown loaches get to be 12-16" long each) Kuhli loaches stay much smaller, but I'd be concerned about them with the rest of the fish you have selected.

-6 Tiger barbs is a good number to try to keep them from getting too aggressive with any one member of the group, however, in a 26g tank, I wouldn't put much more than just the 6 tiger barbs in it. Perhaps 3-4 peppered cory's, but not much else. 26g tanks simply don't have the bio capacity for a whole lot of fish.

-3 Bala sharks aren't enough to make a comfortable shoal for them, but no matter the numbers, they simply could not survive in a 26 gallon tank. Bala sharks are large and very active fish, and in all seriousness, would need something even larger than the clown loach tank I recommended. These fish, though they are very attractive and tempting to buy, should not be brought home unless you can afford to start them in a 150+ gallon tank, and even then they will out grow it quite rapidly.

-The red tail shark is a very nice looking fish to have, and I'm glad to see that you only wanted one, as they may become territorial amongst themselves if not given enough room to establish their own territory. That being said, I still wouldn't recommend this fish for a 26 gallon tank, as it will get to be approximately 6" in length, and it would be rather limited on space, and may bump into the glass of the tank if it becomes scared and bolts for safety.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, though you've selected some wonderful looking fish, I believe you should do some more research as to what kind of environment and care these fish will require. What are the dimensions of the 26g tank you listed? You said it was 4' long... that's an awfully skinny tank if its only 26g. Even though you have another 20g tank, I would strongly urge you to not get the clown loaches or the bala sharks until such time as you can provide them a 200+ gallon aquarium, and the common pleco... as with drugs, just say no. Check out a rubbernose pleco, clown pleco, or one of the other various smaller species of the fish if you are adamant about getting one. (or even check out a few otocinclus... they're cool little guys, and only get to be between 1" and 1.5" long each)

Browse around some of the threads on this site and see what other users have in their various sized tanks, and see what seems to suit your fancy. There are literally thousands of different fish out there, and not all of them become as monstrous as a few of the fish you selected.

Again, I did not want all of this to seem like a personal attack, but please, do some more research and you will discover that not only would those fish be unhappy (and possibly dead) very quickly in such a small tank, but it would be a nightmare to attempt to care for until the inevitable happened. Take care and happy fishkeeping. :-)
 
The rules of thumb are little sketchy, though, because, according to the 'inch rule', it could mean 26 one-inch fish, or one 26'' fish. Even 3 8.5 inch Bala sharks meets the 'inch rule' but is definitely not ok.

I would do a little more research, like gatostu mentioned, and figure out a fish-load that is safe for such a little tank and can maintain health and peace. The fish you chose are pretty and fun, but definitely not feasible for a 26g. Keep in the realms of tetras, rasboras, barbs, danios, cories, etc. for tanks this small.
 
Thanks for the advice!

Ooops! I got a bit confused with the converson from metric to imperial - it's only a 3foot tank (915 x 325 x 325mm). Sorry for the mistake!

My other tanks:

10g - 3 Siamese fighters (1 male & 2 females)

20g
- 1 common pleco
- 5 neon tetras
- 4 fancy guppies (2 male)
- 2 kuhli loaches

photo: http://photo.w3b2.com/phish/SSA41202.JPG

Other 20g is currently cycling - no fish yet

I didn't realise the clown loaches could get that big. One of the sites I visit often says they reach 4 to 5" fully grown.

I'll definitely scratch the sharks off the list until I have a bigger tank and a lot more experience.

Thanks for all the advice! I am certainly going to go back to the drawing board and do the research all over again!

Would anyone recommend Lunar Lights?

Much appreciated! :)
 
I'm very glad to hear that you're willing to reconsider. :-) Which website was it that listed clown loaches as only reaching 4-5" max size? Either that was a serious typo, or perhaps their information isn't the most reliable info out there.

Mahorela made some good suggestions for fish types to look into. I'd even go so far as to recommend checking out some gouramis, (be careful with male/female aggression... I have a pair of opalines in my 55 and the male chased the female incessantly for the first couple months... now he leaves her alone) killifish, silver hatchets, (make sure you have a good cover on your tank if you want hatchets, they're notorious jumpers) mollys or platies, or anything else in the vast array of small tropical fish.

The main points you want to keep in mind when selecting fish for your aquarium are their water needs, (hardness, temp, pH, salinity, etc.) diet, what part of the tank they preffer to swim in, (you don't want the top or bottom too over-crowded) what kind of environment they are naturally from, (the closer to looking like home you can make their tank, the more active, vibrant, and overall happier your fish will be) their maximum size, (we don't want a 6' fish living in a shoe box :-P) how aggressive they are, (no fishie casualties) etc. There really is a good bit of forethought that goes into a successful ecosystem, and it all starts with being well informed. Browse around and see what kind of info you can find, who knows, perhaps you'll discover a species that is perfect for you that you may never have heard of before :-)
 
The website is tropicalfishdata.com but I see they have the size listed as 12" - I either didn't read it properly, mixed it up with a smaller loach or listened to the "expert" at the LFS.

I decided to test the "expert" today and asked him how big the bala and red tails get and here is his reply "They will only grow as big as your tank will allow them to grow ... +/- 12cm in a 3 foot tank" - Crazy!!! I guess he's more interested in selling me lots of fish than whether or not I can actually care for them.

I am going to look into your suggestions and take my time doing so!

Thanks again for all your help! :)
 
His answer is not a complete load of bs... but there are some details he has omitted. Yes, a small tank will limit the growth of a fish, but if this is allowed to take place for too long, it will cause severe internal complications for the fish, and ultimately result in the untimely and painful death of the animal. The easiest way to imagine it is over filling a water baloon. Basically, that's what you're doing to the fish if you have them in far too small of a tank, because stress levels from the small environment will stunt the growth of their body, but will not stunt the growth of their internal organs. More often than not when a fish is put into an aquarium far too small for it, it will be very lethargic, stay small, and not eat much. That should be a huge sign that something is wrong on the inside. Unfortunately, this damage is also irreparable. Once a fish is stunted, we cannot "un-stunt" it. Placing it in a larger environment may relieve some stress, but the fish will still suffer internal complications. A lot of lfs's I've been to are interested in one thing, and one thing only. Profit. It is not easy nor cheap to care for hundreds if not thousands of fish, and they want to maximize their profits due to the number of fish they cram into a limited space. Fish stores, especially small ones, take a lot of loss in the form of fish dying off in the store, so they try to compensate by convincing people to pay them for fish that will just remain in their fish and likely die, not caring whether or not that fish is getting passed on to a good home. They're like car salesmen... vultures. (no offense to anyone on here who happens to be a car salesman... this is just my personal experience, though I have admittedly met one car salesman who was not just after my money)

When I worked at petsmart, I was a well respected team member, not only by my co-workers and superiors, but also by the regular customers I had. I even had a host of customers who would come to the store and ask for me by name, and if I was not there, they would return on a day I was there. I don't know everything there is to know about fish keeping, not nearly, however, I do care about the fish and about their owners, and my aim was to make both happy, so I took the time to explain what fish and what setups would be a good or bad choice, and I would explain why. I even reffered a few customers to this web site when I could not provide them with all the answers I wanted them to have before they jump into something. I NEVER tried to sell someone a fish that I felt was too large for their environment, and even turned down some sales to people who insisted on putting an oscar into a 10g tank. My manager would always back me up if they would not listen to me, and I kinda miss working there. (though the incentive of nearly double my pay rate has made my new job worth it... it allowed me the latitude to buy a new car, new computer, etc.) Take everything you hear from your lfs for what its worth... but don't necessarily believe everything they tell you. Its always a safe call to go home and do some more research before you decide to buy the fish you're after. If they had 'em yesterday, they will likely have them again today and tomorrow. :-)
 
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