Any aquarium gurus out there?
 

I just jumped on the aquarium scene and I'm curios to see other people's setup..

my current setup is a 55 gallon freshwater, with 1-10" Red Tiger Oscar, 1-6" Red Tiger Oscar, 1-8" Blue Jack Dempsey. 1-6" Jack Dempsey.. unfortunately i'm still waiting for my brand new memory card for the camera so i can't take pics yet but i just have some rocks i picked up the beach along with some fake and real plants.

i'd love to see how your tanks look :thumbsup

first off you should read more on the fish before you buy them, the Dempsey will fight each other and hurt the Oscars. They are very aggressive and you have way to many fish in a 55 gallon tank for them kind of fish. Oscars grow very fast and a single oscar will eat 100 feeders every other day to stay healthy, now the next thing is the fish will rip thru the nutrients in the water and begin to get hole in the head, this will not kill your fish if you slow it down but it will never heal, so now you have fish with big ass craters all over their face. My theory on your tank is one the dempseys will fight and one will die, the other is that you will end up throwing the dempsey out because he will start to attack your oscars, if you read up on oscars they need 55gallons atleast to themselves, you have two which would need to be 110gallon tank to even give them proper growing room etc. As far as my tank goes i have 2 red oscars in a 110 gallon tank, very little decor as oscars will rip up anything in the tank and move shit around so no point in it, we go thru 1k or so in feeder fish every 3 to 4 days.

Damn, you really take this seriously, don't you?

lol he said guru man i was just telling him he is gonna have to upgrade soon

crazy shit people helping on gfy, i must stop and say sig spot right oh fuck i need a sig well fuck lol

yes i am currently trying to sell the smaller oscar and the two jack dempseys and rather keep the big oscar in there by himself

Im just trying to save you some trouble later man, better to know now then to wake up to a tank full of dead fish

ive already experienced heartbreaking fights between the fish.. i've lost a green terror and another oscar due to them fighting

god damn! who will be the first to die? Both types of fish are jumpers, and when attacked, can and will jump out of an uncovered tank. The dempseys in particular will go for the sides of the oscars, and each other, screaping off a lot of scales, which can lead to infection. It's likely one fish will begin systematically killing off the others over the next few weeks.

I have extensive knowledge of these two species. You have a bad combo going there in a tiny tank. 55 gallons is nothing. I've kept aquariums my whole life and actually worked at that aquarium at the local zoo. hit me up if you need advice and... good luck...:2 cents:

what i said :)

I'm glad to see you say that. Most aquarium shops will buy back fish and give you store credit for them...

I used to have dempseys way back when never saw them jump, but my oscars do it all the time

what petstores will buy back fish.. and do the fish have to come from that particular petstore to get credit back

people actually keep oscars in tanks, christ when i'm fishing i can catcht them all day long. They are a freakn nuisance.

send me what ya catch lol

I used to have the most gorgeous dempsey ever in a 55 to himself. forgot to put the glass lid back down ONE time, and lost him. I have also had them jump out during feeding time and been able to put them back in again.

no they don't have to come from that pet store. Usually the mom and pops do it, not petsmart, etc. Anyway it's better to shop at the mom and pops..Just grab your phone book or look online and call them up and ask them.

that i agree better fish there

lol c'mon down to so. fla. and you can have as many as you like.

i will call the local pet stores and see if they would want to buy them from... are they going to ask me to give them a price or will they offer me a price?

how big do you catch them bushwacker.. i am a huge fan of the Oscar fish and i'm willing to pay u for your catch when i get my bigger setups... hit me up icq 373 394 868 [email protected]

I've had a 60 gallon freshwater aquarium for years. Then one day my red belly pacus went carniverous and ate the tails off of my gold tinfoil barbs, I said thats enough of this shit... tossed the fish and emptied the tank.

Now its a saltwater tank with 2 Percula Clown Fish, 3 Green Chromos, 1 Orange Spotted Goby, 1 Scooter Blenny, 3 Peppermint Shrimp, 2 Emerald Crabs, 10 some kind of snails that burrow into the sand, and about 45 - 50 small hermit crabs. Currently have 15 pounds of live rock. Going to add more soon when i find a good supplier, the stuff at the local fish stores isnt exactly what I would call 'live' rock at all.

I picked up a 100 gallon 'cube' tank a couple of weeks ago with a very nice stand & canopy for $400. Only catch was that I had to finish the stand and canopy myself because it was just bare wood. But that turned out to be kinda fun. Put 2 coats of stain on it, then 2 coats of polyurethane and now it looks great. Going to order a 'package' reef setup from http://www.tampabaysaltwater.com because I read so much good stuff about them on aquarium forums. If thier stuff is as good as everyone says it is, then I'll order more live rock from them for my 60 gallon tank.

The cool thing about aquariums is that you're never 'done' with them unless you want to be. After I get this 100 gallon tank set up and running, I'm going to build simulated moonlight lightbars for both tanks using blue and white LEDs and set everything on timers. And maybe after thats done, I'll install ultraviolet sterilizers on both tanks and then I'll never have to worry about diseases or parasites. And then maybe I'll install water chillers so my water temp stays the same year round.

They will probably offer you a price. it will be considerably below retail, and probably will only be store credit, not cash. Its not much but it will buy you a plant or cool rock or some food or something, and it's better than letting them kill each other IMHO.

Your Oscar's and Jack will do fine..maybe a tad over stock, but will do fine.

I have a red oscar, tiger oscar, Jack, green terror and a pleco in a 125 Gallon. Used to also have a real nice 9" Arowana, it died a couple weeks ago.

Ray

incredibly the fish are doing fine, only the big 10" oscar really swims around and the other fish just stay in their spots either by a rock or a plant.. but when food comes they all come out and feed without any problems with each other.

Every fish dies. Not every fish really lives. (William Wallace, Braveheart)

i've caught some fairly big ones, i will hit you up next time i go.

Nope its not too small at all. Filtration and knowledge has come a long ways in the past few years. Pretty much all I do is add fresh water to keep the tank topped off, scrape the algae off the glass and clean the filters once a week.

When the tank is going thru its cycle its much more intensive, you have to really monitor the ammonia and nitrite levels daily and keep salt water ready to change if the levels are too high, or you risk killing alot of stuff in the tank. But after those levels drop and the nitrate level comes up, its pretty easy.

29 gallon 'nano reef' tanks are becoming quite popular now. Some people even report keeping 15 gallon nano reef tanks.

You are on drugs man, in that size of a tank they cant make claim their own spot with out fighting, let him keep them in there for another month or so and write back. I bet there are oscars left but in bad shape, and the dempsy that is left he will flush down the toilet for the fact it killed one and beat up his other oscars, google it and see

Genius fucking genius

i think the pet store must have known all these fish would kill each other - a fish loves to eat fish - these are killers - no space and they will not last long

I've had Dempseys wih Oscars before.

As long as the Oscars are big enough, they can work it out.

They might fight a little at first to stand their ground and claim their space.

Of course putting in the tank at the same time helps, rather then adding the Oscars after the Dempseys. To restore some balance in the tank if there are issues, do a water change (no more then 25%) and change the tank around so they feel like it's a new environment. Leave the lights off afterwards so they don't over stress.

That's my experience.

Once my Oscars got a little too aggressive with the other fish, so I bought a Red Devil to knock some sense into him.

Yes, I ran a hit on my fish.

Then I returned the Red Devil after 2 or 3 days and the tank had peace and harmony again.

That's some gangsta shit right there.

err.. you 2 are passing a bong back and forth right now arent you.... and i need some of what you are smoking.

fish systematically killing off other fish?
1000 feeders every 3-4 days?

ive got a 210 freshwater with the following

large male green terror - medium female green terror - breeding pair. have had 4 sets of babies.

black convicts - about 9 of them. smallest and most agressive of the tank.

jack dempseys, 2 males - large

firemouth - medium

oscar - medium and growing

red ear slider (turtle). about 6 inches across/ 8 inches long

also have a 29 gallon with ~30 of the green terror babies from the last batch.

Male Green Terror
http://www.bitav.net/tank/gt1.jpg

Red Ear Slider
http://www.bitav.net/tank/mrt.jpg

full tank
http://www.bitav.net/tank/full.jpg

bunch of other pics here http://www.bitav.net/tank/
these are some older ones.. moving from the 75gallon to the 210 last year.. some of the babies, etc

and some video of the fish last year in the 75 gallon, both the green terrors and black convicts had babies in this clip http://www.bitav.net/fish.wmv

There is a big difference between a 55 and a 210, first of all. As far as the truth of what I said, I stick by it. I have seen it happen with my own eyes. You can keep large aggressive fish together if certain conditions are met, yes, but this 55 gallon is nowhere near large enough. a 210, I can see working with proper set up.

nice setup bitaudio

mine were in a 75 gallon for a year before i got the 210. did they "argue" a little bit? sure! thats why i bought agressive fish... i like to see them stand each other down.

with proper filtration (a good cycled wet-dry + mechanical) he can support the fish he has. probably not if he feeds them 1000 feeders a week as suggested. fish eat 1x a day or every other day.. and very little at that. an 8.8oz bag of fish food lasts me more than a month.

ofcourse i think his fish will be happier in a larger tank.. or less fish in the current tank.. but just go to a pet store and see how many oscars they have in a 20 gallon tank sometimes...

ive always heard the rull of thumb is 1" of fish per gallon
55gallon tank = 55x1" fish or 10x5" fish or 5x10" fish

yes more agressive fish will want more territory but hes got

1 10" oscar + 1 6" oscar + 1 8" jack dempsey + 1 6" jack dempsey
10+6+8+6 = 30 gallons minimum

Aquarium keeping is like a religion. Everybody has their own way of doing things. I'm just giving my experience and what's worked for me.

my roommate has a beta in a cup!

one day i'm going to see if my new spidey will eat it, haha. i am setting up my aquarium (terrarium i guess) at the moment as i wait for him to arrive. he shpuld get here wednesday/thursday now. i got a 5gallon tank, with a 3" substrate mixture of coco fibre and peat. a nice big chunk of driftwood for him to climbup and web on, with some grapevine wrapped around it. a clay pot half buried in the sustrate for a hide, with a nice covering of mood moss over the hide andpartial area of the flooring. as well as a small waterdish for hydration. camera is dead, but i'll snap a pic when he gets here and is getting comfy in his new home.

poecilotheria regalis
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d7...c/d34d5126.jpg

Saltwater
 

I have a 110 gallon saltwater tank, had freshwater coons age ago 99% of the fish are ugly as shit. Have a blue hippo tang, sail fin, 2 clowns, blue line wrasse, blood shrimp. And a goby with pistol shrimp. And about 5 hundred pound of live rock. What was the question again? :clown