colorful fish?

[osis62]

I have two tinfoil barbs, two bala sharks and one angel fish. They seem to get along well. I have a 55 gallon tank heated and well filtered. I am looking to get some color in the tank. Is there any colorful fish that i can add to the tank. I figured i have around 11 inches on fish left to add. Thanks for your help.

 

[fishboy444]

Um the bala sharks get to about 14" unless you are considering to upgrade (and you should!)The tinfoil barbs get big as well JMO.

 

[mfdrookie516]

I have two tinfoil barbs, two bala sharks and one angel fish. They seem to get along well. I have a 55 gallon tank heated and well filtered. I am looking to get some color in the tank. Is there any colorful fish that i can add to the tank. I figured i have around 11 inches on fish left to add.

you are way overstocked. you need at bare minimum a 6' tank for those fish, and that wont even last very long... can you rehome the fish? thats the only way youre going to add anything else to the tank

 

[osis62]

overstocked?

2 tinfoil barbs 16"
2 bala sharks 24-28"
1 angel 6"

50" of fish 55 gallon tank

i thought it is 1 inch of fish to every gallon of water. I was looking to get some small schooling fish or another angel. If not what i have is good.

 

[DragonFish71]

1 inch per gallon is BS. It's a myth perpetuated by fish stores to sell more product. They know you will either buy fish for the 1 inch per gallon rule and have to keep buying them as they die off from water conditions or aggression, or you will be back for a new, larger tank set up. Either way they win.

You get a fish at 1 inch, like an oscar, once it reaches full growth at about 14inches (which sadly, because it's in a 10 it won't, but this is an example) it has obviously out grown the 1 inch per gallon rule. That's cutting the quality of life for the fish. Is that fair? That's akin to you living in a dog kennel. Not a fun thought right?


Bigger fish like those need the room to swim freely, hide, eat, etc without bumping against another fish. Eventually you will start noticing aggressive behavior because they are in close quarters.



We're in the process of setting up a new, larger tank to re-home our fish that will be out growing our 55g.

 

[mfdrookie516]

50" of fish 55 gallon tank

i thought it is 1 inch of fish to every gallon of water.

no, not at all. the one inch per gallon rule is based off the adult size of the fish, and it not a good rule to follow at all... you have to look at the bioload of the fish. For your fish, its more like 1" per 5 gallons of water. And again, those fish will continue to grow and outgrow that tank, which id say they already have based on your measurements.

 

[osis62]

The fish i have are small. One barb is 1.5 inches long. other one is 4 inches long. The angel is 4 inches long. The bala sharks are small they are 2 inches each.. I was going by the adult size

 

[mfdrookie516]

regardless of how big or small they are now, they WILL outgrow the tank. plain and simple.

 

[Etunes]

Ya, way over stocked for the ultimate bioload your gonna have, you need to either upgrade once they gorw or rehome the fish before they get too big. I would rehome them and start over.

 

[Mudfrog]

Minimum tank width should also be 18" for those guys.. that's a minimum, 24" width or wider would work best as their bodies do not bend much while turning.

 

[cabezon]

how many years will it take to get a bala to 12"? because i had several in a 55 in my office for about 2 years and they never got to 5"

 

[Mudfrog]

how many years will it take to get a bala to 12"? because i had several in a 55 in my office for about 2 years and they never got to 5"

Not sure, never owned them. But in 2 years they should be over 5".

 

[cabezon]

Not sure, never owned them. But in 2 years they should be over 5".

:-|

It just seems a little overboard for people to jump on this kid and tell him he is horribly overstocked when he has five fish in a 55 gallon. In the years it takes for these fish to reach ginormous proportions he may buy another tank.

could we possibly allow him a dwarf gouramis?

 

[DragonFish71]

Let's put it like this, a common pleco can get well over 12inches. I got one for our 29g, it was about 2 inches long. He is now in our 55 and is about 9inches. He going to be moved to a 120. This growth was in a year.

We were going to give him to our LFS but just couldn't do it, so we're going for a larger tank instead (suckers huh!)

 

[mfdrookie516]

:-|

It just seems a little overboard for people to jump on this kid and tell him he is horribly overstocked when he has five fish in a 55 gallon. In the years it takes for these fish to reach ginormous proportions he may buy another tank.

could we possibly allow him a dwarf gouramis?

its the point of the matter. the fish are not meant to be in a tank that size, plain and simple. when i started my first aquarium i had bala sharks too. i fed mine and they grew, they grew big. i bought them at 4" and they were every bit of 8" when i gave them to somebody with a bigger tank. the tinfoil barbs are just plan nasty fish. They eat like hogs and require massive filtration to keep the water parameters in shape. why not fix the problem now before the fish suffer, than to wait until the fish are not even able to turn around?

 

[cabezon]

isnt there a watch list of fish that are no good for the beginner/small tank?

why is it that everybody buys a pleco? do they think that it is going to clean the tank? They have some in a manatee tank with other huge fish at a local zoo. at least 18"

i think PetCo is to blame for most of this. They market the barbs, balas, and my biggest pet peeve (pun intended) the red belly Pacu. a LFS had a 200+ gallon tank with 4 pacus. they were huge! They had an article cut out and pasted to the tank, warning people not to buy pacus. They did not sell them. They had a 3' long catfish and an arrowana.

So i agree with you MFD that there are certain fish that should not be in the trade and available to consumers. So lets encourage osis to trade in/barter these fish for other more appropriate fish. Until the MTS kicks in an he gets that 180 gallon.

 

[DragonFish71]

I buy plecos because I like them and was well aware of the sizing. I've never had an issue with them cleaning algae, I only give wafers once a week, so they have no choice but to supplement their diet. And yes, some actually DO clean the tank.


I also have an albino-chocolate that is only 3 inches and has been for 4 years. He also cleans his tank.


But I do mostly agree with chain stores not educating people about the fish they might be buying. I do know that our chains out here are required to put up place cards detailing the habitat, size and care of fish. But that doesn't mean the John Doe buying a dragon goby is going to make a brackish tank for the fish, since it came from a fresh water tank, it MUST be ok in FW and not need salt at all. BS! As responsible pet owners we also need to educate ourselves.

 

[mfdrookie516]

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forum...ould-come-with-a-legal-disclaimer-118394.html

 

[dkpate]

+1 for all of your comments.
I didn't know any of this when I started in August. I bought a BGK and a 20G tank....no one told me he would get GINORMOUS! Thankfully I was able to get a free 75G tank, and he is in there now, and has grown 4 inches in 4 months.
In my 75G I only have 2 fish. One is 7 inches (BGK) and one is around 2 inches (Dwarf Gourami). I will not be putting any other fish in there because once the BGK gets bigger, he will need all of the space he can get, and I don't want to deal with re-homing any other ones. When you think you need more fish, just go buy another tank! I had 4 until today, now I have 5 lol.

 

[cabezon]

the knife is definitely one of those fish that sneak up on people. Do you have a glass tube for him, or a PVC one?