Self feeding fish tank

[joshbr32]

NEW TITLE: fish advice

I'm scrapping the old idea, now I'm just asking for different plants and animals that are passive towards each, colourful, freshwater, easy to feed and preferably some that lives in schools. Also some that are bottom feeders like the gold nugget pleco was nice.

Would like:
Plants
Fish
Crayfish/shrimp
Snails (do they come in types???)

Again the size of the tank is going to be pretty big but it doesn't have to be self sustaining

 

[Penguin]

I don't know what sub forum to put this in so change it if you have to.

I am going to make a real big fish tank maybe like 15ft long, 5ft wide and maybe 10ft tall at the LEAST to decorate my new custom built house, I don't care much about the prices but I need fish that can survive without m feeding them.
Can someone help me pick out the fish and the plants that they feed on and also if they are salt or fresh water please? Doesn't have to be just fish either, crabs/shrimp or whatever will be good too.

Criteria:
Colourful
Passive
Self feeding

Thanks for the help!

Edit: there will be a filter and everything, it's just that I can't feed them

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maybe you can do an earth eater geophagus, pictus cat, and a school of iranian or other rainbows? it all depends on how long it will be before you can feed them because some fish can go a little over a week without eating and some need to be fed daily.

 

[joshbr32]

maybe you can do an earth eater geophagus, pictus cat, and a school of iranian or other rainbows? it all depends on how long it will be before you can feed them because some fish can go a little over a week without eating and some need to be fed daily.

I need them to be self sustaining. Like if I can put a plant in the fish tank that they eat so they could eat that instead of fish food


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[Andy Sager]

I believe you are best looking towards artificial decor for this tank. All live animals in a closed system need some form of care in the way of water maintenance and/or feeding. The natural feeding can be done by means of living insects( most common are mosquito larvae) but do you really want insect colonies in your new house? Even live plants will need some form of feeding in the beginning until they take hold so I am not sure you can fulfill your desire to be totally hands off.
There are automatic feeders on the market that will help with some types of fish or you can hire a service to maintain your tank and your fish for you.
Just some things for you to consider.

 

[PassengerTN]

I don't see this being possible. First issue is why can't you feed them? It is by far the easiest thing to do when you own fish. Second, if you can't feed, how in the world are you going to be able to do water changes and maintenance? Lastly, I hope you have this space in your house for a monster tank heavily reinforced. A tank that size will hold 5,610.39 gallons. At 8.34lbs per gallon, that's 46,790lbs of water, not counting substrate or decor. Not trying to be a dream crusher, but you may need to reevaluate your goals here..

Jesse

 

[joshbr32]

I don't see this being possible. First issue is why can't you feed them? It is by far the easiest thing to do when you own fish. Second, if you can't feed, how in the world are you going to be able to do water changes and maintenance? Lastly, I hope you have this space in your house for a monster tank heavily reinforced. A tank that size will hold 5,610.39 gallons. At 8.34lbs per gallon, that's 46,790lbs of water, not counting substrate or decor. Not trying to be a dream crusher, but you may need to reevaluate your goals here..

Jesse

Don't worry about that I have a group of professionals building this tank and I understand the cost and space it will take, as for the reason why is because simply im too busy.


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[joshbr32]

I believe you are best looking towards artificial decor for this tank. All live animals in a closed system need some form of care in the way of water maintenance and/or feeding. The natural feeding can be done by means of living insects( most common are mosquito larvae) but do you really want insect colonies in your new house? Even live plants will need some form of feeding in the beginning until they take hold so I am not sure you can fulfill your desire to be totally hands off.
There are automatic feeders on the market that will help with some types of fish or you can hire a service to maintain your tank and your fish for you.
Just some things for you to consider.

Would the automatic fish feeder be able to feed multiple kinds of fish? Eg. If I was to add one I would want angel fish, discus, puffer, Malawi cichlid, Oscar, crayfish, shrimp, etc, etc.


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[PassengerTN]

Auto feeders will need to be refilled. No different than feeding the tank IMO. You wouldn't buy a dog if you didn't have time to care for it would you?

Jesse

 

[ScotJudd]

I would have thought if you had enough money to build such a tank, with all its equipment, decor, plants and fish that you could afford to pay someone to feed the fish. The viewing glass will need cleaning and the filters maintained on a regular basis, presumable not by yourself, so why not get them fed too.
The fish, shrimp etc will be a lot healthier as well.


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[CleverBs]

Would the automatic fish feeder be able to feed multiple kinds of fish? Eg. If I was to add one I would want angel fish, discus, puffer, Malawi cichlid, Oscar, crayfish, shrimp, etc, etc.


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If you have a group of people building this tank for you your best bet is to have them pick the fish and everything else as well. Based on your posts in this thread I can tell you are not an experienced fish keeper and deffinitly arnt when it comes to a tank this size. if you are to busy to feed them then whats the point of even having them because you wont even enjoy the fish. If you can sit down and look at the tank each day then you have time to toss some food in. Any people building a 5,000g tank in their home should have the experience to answer the questions you are asking. I really dont mean to be rude but you sound like you have no idea what you are doing and are just tossing money at something. This works for a new car but this doesnt work for something like this.

None of the fish you listed will even get along or be healthy in the tank together. angel fish, discus, puffer, Malawi cichlid, Oscar, crayfish, shrimp. Angels, discus, shrimp, puffers all require low PH water, Oscars, Cichlids from Malawi, crayfish require high ph water. Puffers will eat any shrimp and crayfish, oscars will eat the puffer fish, attack the angels. For a tank this size you cant just toss in what ever fish and expect it to be a community tank. you need to do a Biotope or say ok I am only going to have huge fish in this tank like Pike, Oscars, Awoana, or do lake fish like Crappie, blue gills, bass, catfish or other things like that.

In your first post you said something about fresh or saltwater. A saltwater tank this size will cost 100x the price of a freshwater tank and will cost 50x the price per month if not more. you need to figure out what you are doing then think of a tank. Decide this is what I want to keep then build the tank around that.

 

[biondoa]

If you have time to brush your teeth, you have time to feed fish. If you are away from home for any length of time, it sounds like you could afford to hire someone savvy enough to feed them in your absence.

 

[coralbandit]

IMO this is spam!

 

[Andy Sager]

Would the automatic fish feeder be able to feed multiple kinds of fish? Eg. If I was to add one I would want angel fish, discus, puffer, Malawi cichlid, Oscar, crayfish, shrimp, etc, etc.


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The short answer is "Depending on what types of food you are talking about." But, as stated by another member, all the fish you mentioned will not get along in a tank together no matter how large. ( within reason ) PLUS, they do require different environments. PLUS, some of them are known food sources for other ones. So once the one fish has eaten the other, then what?
I have dealt with many large tanks and systems over my career and in all practicality, you are asking something that is not really possible without intervention. It will have a very short time of success ( if you want to call it that. )

If money is not an option, there is a way I can think of that you may be able to do with little feeding on your part but will require more maintenance and that would be a saltwater coral reef tank with only corals that primarily feed from the sugars produced by the zooxanthella ( algae) they have inside them. This will require particular lighting and filtering and constant monitoring for water quality. Fish will be extremely limited to only the types that can survive only on the algae produced by the lights on the decorations. We did a tank similar to this in Brasil in the 1990s but the tank had to be computerized to keep everything running smoothly. In all honesty, the tank was a little boring( in my opinion) to look at as the selections were few. The owner eventually hired a service to care for the tank so they could add more movement to the tank. So I offer this as an option but would not be my #1 option.
Hope this helps

 

[dmobley]

IMO this is spam!

+1 this is fake ?

 

[joshbr32]

Yes to be honest im not too familiar with the fish, to me if I have to feed it I would spend an hour there trying to coax each fish into getting its food. The only reason I'm getting the fish is because they remind my dad of where he is from in the tropics. If that means spending hundreds of thousands of dollars or even a million or two I wouldn't care because I would know my father every time he passes by this "wall" it would remind him of home. And before anyone asks why he can't just go back its a rather long emotional story that i rather not tell.


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[Andy Sager]

While the notion is nice, it's not practical for freshwater on the premise you posted. Sorry

 

[Mebbid]

A self feeding tank is a very delicate system that can easily crash without the appropriate care. If i were you, i would just hire a person to maintain a normal tank for you.

 

[Nils]

Hey there. Let's think this through before you throw $2,000,000 out the window for something that might not even succeed (Wish I had that kind of money)


First off, please don't be just pulling our legs. Ding dong ditching is one thing, but posting this and having people here typing things up and posting it just for your fun isn't nice.


Second, a self sustaining tank is IMO almost impossible without some human intervention for feeding, caring and cleaning. Plus, a tank this size would probably require someone to get in some waders, stand in the tank and clean. Some private owners need to scuba dive to clean.


Have you even done any research? (Nitrogen cycle, fish sizes, tank lights, filters etc?)


You might want to start off smaller IMO. Just to make sure that you like it before you spend as much money as you said you have on a tank this size. A 55 gallon would be nice to start off with. Lots of fish options and easier to take care of than that huge system. Everything is cheaper too. Lots of LFS's offer tank maintenance for a monthly fee, and you could do this if you don't like the hobby.


Sounds to me like this is a troll. Just stop if you're not serious, this kind of stuff ticks off people like me. Sure, it could be real but just because of your ignorance and the fact that you aren't really willing to even feed your fish gives me the impression that you're faking it. Please do some research and let us know when you really want to do this or not.

 

[joshbr32]

I was originally planning to get the people from a TV show called "tanked" to create the aquarium for me, I can't share the photo because the forum doesn't allow it. So Imma scrap this and change it to something different

And @nils no im not trolling im actually looking for advice, about the money, when you start with nothing it motivates you. My father came to Canada with $1.39 spare change. He is now the founder of a multi million landscaping business. Why do you think it's the Indians who are so rich? They experienced having lived with nothing so they respect everything. But back on topic, thanks for the advice everyone

But no I have not done any research what's or ever, I just want to lay pick out some nice fish then I would search up the requirements for them then build the custom tank around them focusing on what theme makes them look good
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[biondoa]

Research first is a smarter way to go. Also, you don't have to spend an hour coaxing fish to eat. They eat instinctively.