Tank Size Suggestions by Species

[DJ-don]

personally i think it would be easy for everybody wanting to buy a new catfish to see in the cateloga section on the tank minimum tank size.
it would be good if it showed lenggth height and width and litres or gallons
it would really help everyone!
thanks

[Richard B]

personally i think it would be easy for everybody wanting to buy a new catfish to see in the cateloga section on the tank minimum tank size.
it would be good if it showed lenggth height and width and litres or gallons
it would really help everyone!
thanks

A lot of contributors to Planet Catfish work on the basis that if you look how big a fish will get, it needs a tank 4 times that length & twice that for width - this is a good basic guide but bigger still is better. There are some fish where slight exceptions can be made but equally some sp require more than this - this is dependant upon fish being slow movers, & not great swiimers - like Chaca as an example but some fish like platystomatichthys really could do with mega0huge tanks cos they can swim a lot & have long whiskers & get spooked when they are confined in aquaria & their whiskers constantly touch the glass.

As examples a syno that grows to 6" needs a minimum of 24 x 12" (60x30cm) but preferably bigger. A red tail cat that gets to four feet needs a tank minimum of 16 foot by 8 feet or bigger which in reality means a small pond is required.

Your suggestion is good but a lot of people can simply work it out - Mod's/Jools, your opinions please

[MatsP]

We've discussed this before, and it's a hard nut to crack, since there are so many different things that affect this, beyond the simple guidelines that Richard pointed out that most people use. There is no SIMPLE formula to calculate the necessary tank size - there are so many factors to take into account. Just as a simple example: A 4L x 2L x 2L rule would be fine for many fish, but a Pangasius hypothalmus that is a very active swimmer would need a BIGGER tank. On the other hand, something like a Banjo cat, that spends nearly all it's time sitting hidden in plants, leaf litter or in the sand substrate, would be fine to keep in a tank quite a bit smaller than the 4L x 2L x 2L.

The only way that REALLY works would be to manually enter something useful/meaningful to EVERY ONE of the 2300 species in the database. I have done that for (most of) the body of water data, so I know how much hard work that involves. And the problem isn't simply a data entry task, but actually figuring out "what is the right formula to use on this fish".

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Mats

[DJ-don]

oh ok i never thought of it that way..

[MatsP]

oh ok i never thought of it that way..

That's fine. I should point out that we'd rather have people suggest "daft" suggestions, rather than being afraid because it may not be a good suggestion. Because even if we didn't like the exact idea, it sometimes leads to other ideas that are of benefit. So next time you have an idea of an improvement to the site, do suggest it.

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Mats

[Jools]

Absolutely.

Jools

[MatsP]

Are we going to do anything about this?

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Mats

[Jools]

Well, I would like to but I don't know about the time to do it. I mean, say it's 2 minutes per species. That's 77 hours work... But, for now, I'd like to keep this one "open" for a later date.

Jools

[Sixgun]

This would be handy for those of us newbies trying to figure out what fits in our prospective tanks. Thanks for listening! Great site! Keep up the great work!

[Jools]

This would be handy for those of us newbies trying to figure out what fits in our prospective tanks. Thanks for listening! Great site! Keep up the great work!

It's a good suggestions and not the first time it's been mooted. I've merged your topic with the original.

Cheers,

Jools