thinking about getting an aquarium

brownsfan222 · #1 (**permalink**) 05-03-2006, 07:52 PM

i have thought about getting an aquarium for a while now and have just started to really like the idea lol. i would like a fish that isnt like impossible to care for lol i would like it to be an agressive fish that eats goldfish and other feeder fish as well and pellet food. i was thinking of oscars, piranhas, or other agressive fish. any information on oscars or piranhas is appreciated. i would appreciate it if someone could reccomend other types of fish also.

gjmccag · #2 (**permalink**) 05-03-2006, 08:04 PM

oscars are very easy to take care of as long as you have the aquarium set up. i have heard piranhas are not bad either, i would go with the piranhas, they are cool and you can have large groups for them and they dont get to big, like oscars.

brownsfan222 · #3 (**permalink**) 05-03-2006, 08:37 PM

how many piranhas can be kept in a 55 gallon? a 20 gallon? the ones i seen were less than 2 inches long so i will get them and keep them in the 20 gallon and save up to get new stuff for the 55. how many oscars can be kept in a 55 gallon? a 20 gallon lol? btw what do oscars and piranhas eat besides other fish

amercnwmn · #4 (**permalink**) 05-03-2006, 09:18 PM

Ham cubes, flakes, pellet food, cichlid sticks, your fingers...

brownsfan222 · #5 (**permalink**) 05-03-2006, 09:37 PM

i sort of knew what the oscars eat but piranhas can eat food pellets and flakes too? i will probably put two piranhas into a 20 gallon aquarium and when there too big i will upgrade them to a 55 or 75 gallon and use the 20 for feeder fish. but i will also feed bits of meat and maybe even mice (someone told me they like mice)

gjmccag · #6 (**permalink**) 05-03-2006, 09:44 PM

not sure about mice for food. I know that you will be able to have many more piranhas in a 55 than oscars. Oscars can grow up to a foot long if i am not mistaken. you might even be able to have 3-4 piranhas in a 20 when they are small, but dont quote me on that.

amercnwmn · #7 (**permalink**) 05-03-2006, 09:47 PM

Sorry, I dotn know about pirhanas..i was responding to the Oscars. I had one, boy they will foul up your filters FAST. I had to run 3 in a 55gal..LOL
Nasty things

But very cool when they eat from your hands, not so cool when they try to eat your hands...

brownsfan222 · #8 (**permalink**) 05-03-2006, 10:30 PM

im sure quite a few babies can be held in a 20 because they are only around 2 inches long. but i was just wondering if they would fight if there was more than 2 of them?

gjmccag · #9 (**permalink**) 05-03-2006, 11:09 PM

no, i had a friend that had several, i dont think it will be a problem.

brownsfan222 · #10 (**permalink**) 05-03-2006, 11:28 PM

sweet then im buying 3 lol maybe just 2 but as of now im planning on getting three babies

mpgt · #11 (**permalink**) 05-04-2006, 12:28 AM

I had 20 baby pirhanas in a 65-gallon tank once. They were OK. They can get pretty big too, depending on the species. I think red bellies are the most common, and I've seen some pretty big (6-8"?) ones in captivity. They are not cordial with one another, and often mistake their buddies as food even in large public aquariums. I never fed mine a mouse, though friends tried to talk me into it. I think the mess would be bad for the filter. My opinion? Go with African cichlids. Do a lot more research first. The cichlids are more colorful, very hardy, smaller and more interesting to watch. There are lots more reasons...

brownsfan222 · #12 (**permalink**) 05-04-2006, 12:44 AM

most of my research is done i know how to take care of them, what im worried about is how many can i get and what they eat but now im fine and im getting them by the end of this month hopefully

Ratsicles · #13 (**permalink**) 05-05-2006, 12:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brownsfan222

how many piranhas can be kept in a 55 gallon? a 20 gallon? the ones i seen were less than 2 inches long so i will get them and keep them in the 20 gallon and save up to get new stuff for the 55. how many oscars can be kept in a 55 gallon? a 20 gallon lol? btw what do oscars and piranhas eat besides other fish

Pacu are what are usually found in pet stores and sold as "piranahs". Both Pacu and Oscars will easily exceed 14".

A 55 gallon aquarium is 13" wide. That means that neither fish would be able to even turn around in a 55 gallon tank after 2 years. Both fish are long lived. I think the Oscar can live up to 13 years. A 20 gallon would be outgrown by juvenile fish in 3 months. A 90g will work for 2 oscars or Pacu ... but once they get over 14" you should move them to a 6' long tank.

Both fish are extremely messy eaters (wether it be pellets, meat chunks, or feeder fish). You will need to put at least 2 filters on your tank ... and still do weekly water changes.

With oscars too much protein causes a disease called "hole in the head" this is literally holes in the fishes head. You shouldnt feed feeders more than once a month You need to get a good South American pellet for either fish. Here is a site I used to buy from ... scroll about half way down to the HBH Oscar grow or show.

Most fish feeders are extremely poor quality and are often infected with Ich or parasites.

I had 2 oscars that I bought when they were 2" long. In under a year they were 10" long and had eaten pretty much every fish in the tank (including cories and emerald green catfish). The only fish I found that could go with them were giant danios, tinfoil barbs, and silver dollars.

Large fish are extremely hard to give away (notice I didnt say sell). Most of them will have to be euthanized if you decide you no longer want them.

After all this bad stuff I must say that my favorite fish was an oscar named Guido. Every night he would let me know when it was feeding time by surfacing and hitting my glass canopy with his head so that it would slam back down. He would also surface when feeding trying to take all the food I was dropping in without sharing with his tank mates. He also bit me once ... It hurt worse than a snake bite, but not as bad as a rat bite.

Bryan

brownsfan222 · #14 (**permalink**) 05-06-2006, 09:08 PM

a friend of mine has suggested smaller agressive cichlids that im looking into now, i didnt even know about them until now. i wouldnt even be able to feed feeders more than once a month anyways so no worries there. i just love to have fish and i love to watch them. i just saw a 55 gallon in the paper with a hood 2 filters and 2 heaters for 50 bucks so i think im gettin that

brownsfan222 · #15 (**permalink**) 05-07-2006, 08:29 PM

does anyone reccomend any kinds of smaller (less than 10") african cichlids? i was thinking about terrors, red devils, firemouths, ive also heard about some blue fish with a lump on there heads i think there called electric blues. anyone had any experience with these kind of fish?

bigballin · #16 (**permalink**) 05-07-2006, 09:13 PM

first of all, it is unfair to the fish if you dont buy an appropriate sized aquarium that would suit them for life. you mentioned red devils, oscars, pirhanas and green terrors. seriously, to be fair to the fish, you can only fit ONE of these fish in a single 75g. the fish you mentioned require large aquaria, and massive amounts of filtration. 6 years of fish keeping has taught me that you can never have a tank that is too big or a tank with too much filtration when keeping the fish you have mentioned. i would recommend buying a 75 or 90 gallon tank, slap on 2 fluval 404 canister filters, and keeping a single red devil, midas or jaguar cichlid. these are considered wet pets and respond to you very well. they can be mean, but thats what you wanted right?
and never feed goldfish because they are raised in a high level of copper and carry many diseases that will be transferred to your precious fish. instead, feed frozen beefheart, frozen bloodworm, and pellets as a staple. nightcrawlers, frozen fish, and frozen shrimp can be fed as well.

brownsfan222 · #17 (**permalink**) 05-07-2006, 10:39 PM

i have a friend that had 5 or 6 smaller cichlids in a 90 gallon aquarium. im only looking for 2 or 3. the cichlids wont be crowded because i know many experienced people that have had 3 or 4 smaller ones in a 55. the 55 is only a starter tank anyways if get into the hobby more which im sure i will i will get a 90 gallon or maybe one thats much bigger (i plan on getting a 180 in the future)

Ratsicles · #18 (**permalink**) 05-08-2006, 03:35 AM

If you are looking for a smaller group of somewhat aggressive cichlids look into the peacocks, electric blues or electric yellows. The peacocks normally only get to about 6" long and come in many varied colors. Electric blues and yellows get to 4-5".
When looking into africans you need to be careful about which lake they came from. Tanganikans generally require lower protein levels (electric blues and yellows excluded). Malawi generally take a higher protein level.
I had a 90 with 7 Auloncara Maisoni, 5 yellow labs (electric yellows), 3 copadichromis mloto (yellow princess) and 5 giant danios. I had an Aqua Clear (AC) 500 and AC 300 running on that tank. For heat I used an Ebo-Jager 250 watt TS (totally submersible) Heater. Lighting was 240 w JBJ PC lighting. It had around 120 lbs of texas holey rock.
Tanks 003.jpg
The one thing that I messed up doing was buying cheap equipment. I went through 5 filters, 2 heaters, and 3 pc lights before coming up with that combo, the wasted equipment was close to $600.

amercnwmn · #19 (**permalink**) 05-08-2006, 03:55 AM

I had a red devil and it ate everything in my tank! Ive seen people keep them, and do fine, I guess I got a meanie! You should check out a Pseudotropheus Zebra (red) they get good sized, very pretty orange, very aggressive, but never killed off my tank!

When I had my africans, I had a pH at about 7.2-7.4 straight out of the tap. They like the more alkaline water, nothing over 7.6 though. I kept it at 78 degrees. Had an undergravel filtration, and two bio filters running at once. They like clean water. Make sure chlorides are low though, I wiped out a 75gal tank FULL of NOT CHEAP Lake Malawis and a 55 of Vic's NOT HAPPY!!! I gave up fishkeeping after that, I have a Betta I rescued from an apartment I cleaned..LOL

Anyways back to Cichlids...GREAT fish, very colorful, hardy and aggressive.
Being aggressive, best to buy several at one time 3 or more, shut off lights, and rearrange tank before adding new members to existing community. You will have one BIG GUY who rules the tank. Make sure you have plenty of rocky areas, plants and hiding spots for the smaller guys. MR BIG GUY cant claim them ALL, although he will try.
I had mostly Pseudotropheus Socolofi, an Albino P.S. , Red Zebra, Jewels (never would live for me) Turquoise Jewels (lost 4..dont know WHERE they went?!) Bumblebees, Auratus and Synodontis (lace catfish) Im sure Im forgetting some...Labs, I had some electric yellow labs..All mine were small when I got them and I had them till some were 8".

brownsfan222 · #20 (**permalink**) 05-08-2006, 07:35 PM

my best friend used to have the electric blues and he used to breed them, so if i ever decide to breed then i will have him help me. he knows a good bit about cichlids and hes the one that suggested the electric blues. btw how much should i expect to pay for an electric blue? if i have a water softner on my water supply does it still have a lot of chlorine? i also have a reverse osmosis but it would take forever to fill up a tank that big with it. im getting a bunch of guppies and im buying a little 2.5 gallon and breeding them. but my friend said he used to breed the electric blues and when the babies got to size he used to trade them in for supplies. his dad got a 300 dollar filter for a bunch of cichlids but that was when he switched to a reef tank.

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