Our oscars were a bit much for my 50 gallon(which is 4 ft by 18 inches and 2 feet tall if I recall the measurments correctly. I always wanted a 180 gallon big sucker. but would have to OWN the house before taking that step. 6 ft long 2+ high. 2'wide. they are way lees expensive than most hobbies go.(hell paintball costs me close to 10,000 per year) but opne of my buddies has a nice 120 gallon one. ohh the envy. I dont know what the hell he is gonna do when he moves out. he graduates this year?? any hoo, happy hunting DOD ------------------ Hanta-Force Paintball www.hanta-force.com
I can tell the difference between female and male swordtails but how in the world do you tell the difference between female and male guppies and platys? ------------------ Arkansas' Biggest Rocket Fan!
Try to get a stand with a cabinet. It let's you put the pump inside so it makes even less noise, and gives you a place to hide all the crap that comes with an aquarium. ------------------ Stay Cool...
A little factoid for you non-fish tank guys: Female guppies can drop 50-100 babies every month for 6-8 months from one mating. Buy a pregnant female guppy and you'll have guppies forever. ------------------
I have a 50 gallon that sits atop a nicely finished oak stand. I don't change water all that often but after a while you pretty much have to clean the tank and perform a half-tank water change. If you do regular maintenance, then 1/4 tank water changes will do usually. But, I change the water maybe 2-3 times a year and just add water to replace evaporated water. I use a suction hose to rake over the gravel and suck out all the settled waste byproduct. I started with about 9 fish and now have only 3 including one big shark and 2 other ones...I don't recall their types. I think the other fish died from not changing the water often enough. Or maybe it was just old age . If you don't change the water often enough, the water turns toxic after a while and nothing will live in the tank. Some fish are more tolerant than others. I use powerheads to provide oxygen and power the undergravel filtration. I also have a nice big water filter as well. The whole operation is pretty low maintenance. The fish die...you flush them...no big whoop. Although, you don't want to leave a dead fish in the tank for too long....the smell, the rotting fish....yikes...its nasty. While I was on vacation a while back, a big sucker fish I had died and rotted in the tank. The other fish just had to suffer but the smell and the gross swarm of organisms eating away the sucker fish is a sight and smell I won't soon forget. Other times I have had worms growing in the tank...little worms everywhere. That sucks cleaning worms out of tanks. Don't know how they got there but they just do. Haven't had that problem in a while, though. If you go with a small tank, you will clean it more often depending on the # of fish and how much you feed. I personally would never go back to a 20 gallon tank as that is what I started with. I find the 50 gallon much more tolerable and less maintenance. But, again, it all depends on the # of fish you have. The more fish, the more they eat, the more chance you overfeed.....the more frequent you need to clean your tank. Although, if your tank gets sunlight, algae will grow in no time at all and you will be cleaning up that off the tank glass. I would determine how many fish you want and the size of the fish before you settle on a tank size. There is nothing worse than overstocking a small 20 gallon tank with fish. Some fish are territorial, others need lots of room, etc. . Think before you do...is all I'm saying. Also, word of warning, after having an established tank for a while, never ever lift up the undergravel filter when cleaning the tank as a cloud of wastes and crap will cloud the tank and kill all the fish. No telling what is under my undergravel filter right now...it gets pretty nasty under there no matter how much you rake the gravel with a suction hose. The only way to really clean a tank is to transfer the fish to a temporary area and really clean the tank from top to bottom. But, I have never done that with my 50 gallon tank. The 20 gallon, however, I did that on several occassions. I actually suffocated some of my fish from lifting the undergravel filter(stupid move on my part). Fish like to bounce around(especially big ones) when your cleaning. One time, a big shark bounce out of the tank and into my sink disposal. I had to stick my hands down in there to get that sucker out. I had thoughts of just turning the disposal on but that would have been nuts. I got it out alive. Also, I used to buy the little freshwater crab although they die in no time at all it seems. I had this pump powered windmill house where the bubbles turned the wheel. This crab used to grab on the wheel and go around and around in circles. The funniest damn thing I ever saw. Then, it would let go and catch the bubble ride around the tank. That crab would spin in circles really fast....man that was funny. It would do it for like 5 minutes and then let go. That crab was crazy . Beware the worms, Surf ------------------
