Bit of advice if possible :)

Hayabusa · Post by **Hayabusa** » 07 Feb 2006, 03:21

Hello everyone, new to the site but been keaping fish for 15 years or so, maybe a bit of a long winded post coming up as my first, so I appolagise in advance heh.

Currently I have two 4 foot tanks, 18 inchs tall, 1 foot wide and a 6 foot by 2 foot by 2 foot tank.

In the one 4 foot I have a general community tank with a pleco and a nice blue catfish (its blue with white spots, apparantly from Cuba, it doesnt have a scientific name as apparantly its a fairly newly discovered species, their are also green specimens) ,the 6 foot houses 3 full grown Oscars, a 1 1/2 foot pleco 3 tinfoil barbs also around the 1 foot mark and a Quetzal (also known as redhead cichlid) and everyone gets on extremely well, even when the two Oscars lay eggs which happens fairly regular, but the pleco soon hoovers them up.

Now comes the interesting bit, the other 4 foot was kept running but empty as a hospital tank, but havnt had to use it for over a year, we visited my inlaws at Christmas and to my horror discovered they had been sold 3 parrot fish to go in their 2 foot community tank by a fairly newly opend fish shop near us, so I explained what they were (they had already eaten alot of the other inhabitants) and ended up bringing them home with me and putting them in the 4 foot tank.

Being a little annoyed at this I visited this fish shop to see for myself what they were selling and what they were like etc, unfotunately the owner wasnt there and their was just a snotty kid looking after the place who didnt have a clue what he was on about.

So I take a look at their fish and find a little tank with 2 serubim lima ,2 tiger shovelnose catfish, 2 rtc and some other albino looking catfish I didnt recognise, along with this their was 2 catfish 1 rtc and a tiger shovelnose floating half eaten on the surface.

I already knew a little about the limas so decided on a spur of the moment thing to try and well save them and brought them home with me and placed them in the 4 foot with the parrot fish.

So far they are getting on fine, have both eaten nps and settled in great, the parrot fish havnt bothered them in the slightest and vica versa.

Now I know they will outgrow this tank, as its only 12 inches front to back, and I guess they need at least 18 inches possibly 2 feet to be comfortable, I'm thinking once they get big enough to put them in with the Oscars etc in the 6 foot tank, but have read conflicting reports on how well they get on, some saying they are perfect others saying the Oscars will harrass them, can anyone give me any input as to what I shall do with them in the future, am I right in assuming the 4 foot tank will one day be too small? and what about adding them to the 6 foot?

If niether is acceptable I guess I'll have to buy them a tank of their own and find somewhere to fit it in my house heh.

Once again sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for any replys, any info, any advice etc, will be greatly appreciated

Hayabusa · Post by **Hayabusa** » 07 Feb 2006, 04:03

Just thought I'd add that atm the 2 limas are about 1 1/2 - 2inches long, and have read they grow slowly so I do have time (I believe) to decide what coarse to take, but I like to plan way in advance rather than waiting for them to be too big and then start planning

TiGrInUs · Post by **TiGrInUs** » 07 Feb 2006, 04:05

Yes the 4ft x 12" wide tank will eventually be too small. These pims can get up to 15"+...24" max. Once the limas get around 12-13" or so it should be able to hold its own against oscars.

Oh yeah and welcome to the site!

TiGrInUs · Post by **TiGrInUs** » 07 Feb 2006, 04:07

Ahh they are still babies...yes you will have some time before they outgrow your tank, however, like you mentioned it is best to plan ahead!

Hayabusa · Post by **Hayabusa** » 07 Feb 2006, 04:16

Thanks for the replys, and thanks for the welcome, some good advice on this site

So at 1 foot long they should be able to hold their own with the Oscars, thats good to know, my Oscars are pretty well behaved compared to some storys I have heard, had them for maybe 2-3 years now and after they got passed what I like to think of as the troublesome teens they settled down nicely.

As the tank they are in at the minute is only 1 foot wide would it be unreasonable to hold them in this tank untill they attain a size large enough to go in with the Oscars? kinda hope so as it would be a bit of a nightmare to have to buy a tank to house them for just a month or two before moving them into the large tank heh.