Will my fish work out in their tank?

fishie650 · Post by **fishie650** » 27 May 2007, 04:42

Currently, I have a pl*** in my tank. I'm considering getting two pictus catfish, maybe an asain bumblebee catfish, and perhaps some mollys. What do u think? Should I refrain from getting a species, or consider a different species? Or will they pretty much all get a long? Any advice would be deeply aprreciated. Thanks.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 27 May 2007, 10:12

Before being able to give you any advice, I (we) should know the dimensions of your tank. Could you provide them pls?

fishie650 · Post by **fishie650** » 28 May 2007, 03:40

oh sorry,

its a 20 gallon tank with dimensions of
approxiametly 50 x 25 X 30 cm^3

the fish in mind, are pictus catfish, upside down catfish, pl*co, redtail catfish, sun catfish, and guppies.

most likly i'm settling with pictus catfish, sun catfish, guppies, and my pl*co.

Danno · Post by **Danno** » 28 May 2007, 08:36

Do not put a red tail cat in a 20 gallon tank unless you planto buy a bigger one the best advice for you that i have is do a little research here before you buy you dont want to get somthing like pseudoplatystoma tigrinis that will grow 20 inches in a single year ther are a few large species that grow very slowly like the irridescent blue shark but even he over a long period of time up to 20 years can grow to 53 inches pimelodus pictus or ornate or the highfin bull arent too bad a choice the bumblebee also is good just don't put a species that won't fit in your tank in a year it is cruel to them and most likely will result in their death before you can find someone with a large enough tank or pond
Danno

fishie650 · Post by **fishie650** » 28 May 2007, 19:46

thanks

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 29 May 2007, 13:40

Pictus cats do best in a small group, more than two. They wll eat small fish.

Larger species of are not suitable in a 20g tank, in fact even P. pictus tend to get larger than what I would consider suitable for such a tank - my biggest one is a good 15cm/6" TL (total length), which is a bit bigger than 50cm/20" divided by four (12.5cm/5"). [I use the "rule" of 4L x 2L x 2L, where L = length of the fish to figure out the right size for the tank - so never keep fish that are longer than "long side divided by four" and "short side/height divided by two".]

I don't think Sun Catfish is a good candidate either.

There are plenty of other catfish that DO go well in small tanks. Cory's being the most prevalent and easy to keep (generally speaking, there are some more exotic varieties that require the owner to be vigilent with the water conditions).

Small varieties of Plecos Listed here up to around 5" would work well too. [That's using the search feature to look for "Loricariidae" and a size from 1mm to 120mm (the 1mm omits any that hasn't been registered with a size).

--
Mats

fishie650 · Post by **fishie650** » 03 Jun 2007, 19:08

thanks for the advice. when i saw the red tail catfish, i thought how great it would be to have him, but knew it wouldn't be the best of ideas. thanks for all of the advice.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 04 Jun 2007, 12:25

fishie650 wrote:thanks for the advice. when i saw the red tail catfish, i thought how great it would be to have him, but knew it wouldn't be the best of ideas. thanks for all of the advice.

Oh, sure, little red-tail kittens are very adorable. Just like tiger- or lion-cubs are. Unfortunately, in all three cases, the resulting adult is beyond what most people can care for, no matter how cute the young are. It's sad that the importers still order these fish, as there is so few people that can actually look after a 5ft/1.5m long fish properly.

--
Mats

Will my fish work out in their tank?

Will my fish work out in their tank?

Fish