need suggestions for 100gal.........

[juanitoman]

what is the largest sized cat i can add to my 100gallon fish tank??
i know i can add pictus, 4line pim, sun cats,syns, banjos,
but i was looking for maybe something different if any one gots any suggestions.........
-thanks-

[plecomanpat]

How about a redtail cat,but he will eat everything.Maybe a planaceps

[MatsP]

How about a redtail cat,but he will eat everything.Maybe a planaceps

Anything called redtailed catfish (aside from possibly

Synodontis clarias

) will be far too large for a 100g tank.

The largest fish, assuming "normal" activity levels, would be the smallest size of either a quarter of the longest or half the shortest side of the tank. So if the tank is, say 6ft x 19 x 20, the longest side divided by four is 18", the shorter sides halved is 9.5" and 10" respectively. So the max size for this shape tank is 9.5". If on the other hand the tank is a 120g, 4ft x 2ft x 2ft, the largest size is 12".

For active fish, the swimming area needs to be bigger, so the max size may be 1/6 of the longest or 1/3 of the shortest side.

--
Mats

[Richard B]

A 100G tank would be ridiculously small for Redtail or Planiceps (& if i'm honest a little disappointed they would be sugested!) Anyway back to the original question....

Firstly some questions ... What would you like to achieve? Do you want a single individual? a single species? a certain amount of activity with fishes visible? (what is different for one person might be the norm for someone else).

How about a breeding group of Platystacus? Or a species tank of Chrysichthys Ornatus? Or maybe a well planted tank with a shoal of 40 glass cats or 40 otocinclus?
The possibilities are huge but without your input on preferences we might be suggesting things that don't interest you.

[juanitoman]

well thats why i want suggestions. i want different opinions. i dont mind much the activity i just want some or just one nice catfish(s) for my 100gal. ima be stuck with it for maybe another year or two, then ima try to get something bigger....
all suggestions are appreciated

[MatsP]

The problem with suggestions is that what someone thinks is a perfect group of catfish, another person will think that it's not particularly good idea.

The obvious choices are:
1. Large group of corys - you'll have lots of enjoyment of them wizzing around looking for food - in 100gal tank, you can keep a fairly large number of them - depending on size, 30-50 would probably work. Examples:

Corydoras robineae

,

Brochis splendens

,

Corydoras habrosus

- there are hundreds of others...

2. Medium size group of smaller plecos. Again, with a large group, 10-20 of them (of one or two species) there will probably be some fish on show at any given time. Some examples:

Peckoltia compta

,

Hypancistrus sp(L201)

,

Ancistrus cf_cirrhosus

- agaain, many hundreds of others.

3. Small group of medium plecos. As above, but smaller group. Examples

Hemiancistrus subviridis

,

Peckoltia sabaji

- several dozen others...

4. Community synodontis tank: small or medium sized Synos - 6 to 20 depending on which you go for,

Synodontis nigriventris

,

Synodontis alberti

,

Synodontis flavitaeniata

,

Synodontis lucipinnis

, and many others.

5. Small Pimelodus tank: a group of around 10

Pimelodus pictus

?

6. Woodcats setup: small or medium sized Woodcats, such as

Liosomadoras oncinus

,

Auchenipterichthys coracoideus

,

Centromochlus perugiae

- and a whole number of others. These will probably hide most of the time...

These are but a few examples of what you could do... After all, there are 2700 species in the database, and I'd expect about 1000 of those would work in a 100 gal tank...

--
Mats

[Proteus]

My answer for the largest cat you can do in a 100g tank depends on its footprint of the tank itself and the size of the tankmates it's going to have.


Keep in mind about those two factors when trying to figure out which cat strikes your fancy. Some cats can't be with fish the same size as them as they will eat them with no problems, just have to figure out what the tank mates are going to be in the tank with them or are you planning on having it by itself for life?


Also some cats you will never ever see unless you're redecorating your tank or it's very dark and you're feeding them in the middle of the night.

[juanitoman]

well its 60" long 20.5" high & 19" wide.
and well i wanted to add some Cichlids not too aggressive.
and yea i know i use too have some south american bumble bee & rafael cats that i hardly ever saw except for when i would turn on the lights at time during the middle of the night. also use to have a medium sized sun cat which loves to hide, but i would see him a little more often.
i had him with a 9" four lined pictus and 12" oscar.
now that i got a bigger tank im looking for something different.......

[MatsP]

I take it someone has told you that a 12" Oscar is too big to be suitable in the tank you have now, right?

--
Mats

[juanitoman]

i dont got the oscar anymore or any of my other fish.
just a common pleco at the moment & my mud turtle