Please help the newbie...me!

[thebigzoo]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and to owning an aquarium. I have a question regarding my current tank and its catfish inhabitants.

I currently have a 12 gallon acrylic tank in my work office. Pictures of it are here: http://www.geocities.com/the_big_zoo/1aquarium.html

This small tank was going to hold some nice, small freshwater somethings, but right now it is housing the office Oscar, 2 blue channel cats, a White Tipped Shark Cat (aka Colombian Shark?), and one snail.

Obviously, this is NOT ideal. These fish were meant to be in the office 30 gallon tank, which started leaking and they were transferred to my newly purchased 12 gallon as an emergency holding tank. The 30 gallon has since leaked twice more and is still under repair. And, due to this pain-in-the-butt experience with a large leaking aquarium, the other folk in the office are discouraged with the whole fishy affair and no one is rushing about to get a new tank.

So, my question is... how long can I reasonably expect to be able to maintain these 4 fish in my small 12 gallon tank? I did some research and I understand the potential size they will attain, but am unsure how quickly they will begin to outgrow the tank.

Amazingly, everyone currently seems happy and healthy (the fish I mean, the office folk are still cranky). I made one change to the tank that is not in the picture, and that is that I traded the stump pictured for one that is less open and squatter to the gravel, so it provides hiding space inside and underneath for the catfish -- as they do get harrassed on and off by the Oscar.

In addition, it sounds like even if we put these fish into the 30 gallon eventually, the cats will also outgrow that? How quickly will that happen? What does one do with these fish when they outgrow your capacity to maintain them? In an office environment, we can't go pver a 30 gallon tank and be practical. A couple of the guys I work with have suggested freeing the blue channel cats into an appropriate Florida river -- is that an option? As for the white-tip shark, everybody just looked around at each other and shrugged in a clueless fashion.

Any and all advice and suggestions are welcome! Advice is much needed, actually!!!

Thanks for your time,

Michelle

[general-sherman]

where to start...
a) the 30 gallon tank will well and truly be too small for that mix of fish.
b) all of the species in there right now have a growth rate of about an inch a month. so they grow fast and can't be housed in the twelve gallon for long.
c) columbian sharks grow up to be a saltwater fish...or at least brackish.
d) i'm not too sure but i belive channel cats get HUGE. 24inches?

i wouldn't dump the cats in a river, despite being native (well, i don't know if they're native to florida...) they could be carrying diseases lethal to local fish populations. i'd take them back to the lfs before they get too big. same for the columbian shark. a 55 gallon tank at least will be required for the oscar when it grows up.

[Silurus]

Channel cats will grow about 4-5" per year, so I'm guessing they can only last two years at most in a 30-gallon.
The issue of diseases aside, purists might argue that you are screwing up the gene pool by throwing the fishes into a local water body, since you have no idea where the fishes came from.

[general-sherman]

sorry! i had no idea channel cats grew so slowy

[S. Allen]

heh, yeah, the 30's going to be way too small soon, and the 12 already is... I'd suggest slowing down feeding, stepping up water changes, and getting the people at the office to forget the 30 and just go with a non-leaky 55 gallon or higher. you could keep the fish there maybe 2 years, but probably not comfortably. The catfish are most likely doomed, simply because lots of people don't know what they're getting into and a foot long channel cat or 8 inch arius isn't a sellable item, unless it's on the food market. Ponds are about the only answer for the former, the latter, well unless you can find someone with a huge brackish tank that needs something to keep his molly population from getting to high... he'll probably die from an infection of some sort or an LFS might take him and freeze him after you leave. That's the skinny on him. Not many people can come up for a need for a 15 inch brackish catfish, considering most of the commonly kept brackish fish are mid sized, scats, archerfish, monos, mollies... all fine in a 55 or less... he won't be.

Channel catfish
http://www.planetcatfish.com/cotm/1998-01.htm

Arius
http://www.planetcatfish.com/cotm/1998-06.htm

odd they're the same year... as well as tiger shovelnoses... seems that year lent itself to fish not suited to average aquaria

[FatCat]

He said he had 2 Blue Channel Catfish(Ictalurus Furcatis)! Not the Ictalurus Punctatus that I think everyone must be speaking of. Ive had one of these babies grow up to 12 inches long in 10 months. And he has 2! Also the oscar will need a 55 minimum to house a single oscar. Unless you are willing to have up to 200 gallons of water and more care that id bet you can provide for an office aquarium, I recomend taking all those fish back to the pet store. Ask a few more questions and little more research to find the perfect inhabitants for your 30 gal aquarium that will never outgrow it. Chalk thise one up to a learning experience.