40 g. Fresh tank

[Joseph]

Hello,

I have a 40g. Long fresh water tank in my office. With live plants
and a large substrate (pebble size) everything is looking quite nice.
I currently have a couple of Raphael Cats, 2 otto cats, and 7 rainbows
(3 bosami and 4 aust.)

At first I planned on finishing the tank with a total of 13 rainbows
(of various species) and a small school of tetras. According to my
calculations this wouldn't over stock the tank. But. . .

I think I want something different, but I'm not sure what. Does
anybody have any ideas? I think I want one fish that will stand out
and make people go WOW, but it has to get along with the Rainbows (I'm
very fond of them).

I was thinking a pumpkin seed fish, but I don't know how well that
will work (I'm not sure of their temperament).

Any suggestions?

[Victor Martinez]

Joseph wrote:
> At first I planned on finishing the tank with a total of 13 rainbows
> (of various species) and a small school of tetras. According to my
> calculations this wouldn't over stock the tank. But. . .

You realize that many rainbows get to be over 4 inches long?

--
Victor Martinez
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Email me here:

[Joseph]

I do, and with what I've read the water usage is from 2 - 4 gal. for a
4 to 5 inch fish...

Are rainbows an exception to this?

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 22:48:16 GMT, Victor Martinez >
wrote:

>Joseph wrote:
>> At first I planned on finishing the tank with a total of 13 rainbows
>> (of various species) and a small school of tetras. According to my
>> calculations this wouldn't over stock the tank. But. . .
>
>You realize that many rainbows get to be over 4 inches long?

[Victor Martinez]

Joseph wrote:
> I do, and with what I've read the water usage is from 2 - 4 gal. for a
> 4 to 5 inch fish...

There's no hard rule, the typical one is 1 gallon per inch of fish. It
depends on a lot of things, but in general if you have healthy plants
you can have more fish than if you have a non-planted tank.

--
Victor Martinez
Send your spam here:
Email me here:

[0rion]

"Joseph" > wrote in message
...
> Hello,
>
> I have a 40g. Long fresh water tank in my office. With live plants
> and a large substrate (pebble size) everything is looking quite nice.
> I currently have a couple of Raphael Cats, 2 otto cats, and 7 rainbows
> (3 bosami and 4 aust.)
>
> At first I planned on finishing the tank with a total of 13 rainbows
> (of various species) and a small school of tetras. According to my
> calculations this wouldn't over stock the tank. But. . .
>
> I think I want something different, but I'm not sure what. Does
> anybody have any ideas? I think I want one fish that will stand out
> and make people go WOW, but it has to get along with the Rainbows (I'm
> very fond of them).
>
> I was thinking a pumpkin seed fish, but I don't know how well that
> will work (I'm not sure of their temperament).
>
> Any suggestions?

i'm particularly biased towards african butterfly fish (Pantodon buchholzi).
they're not too big, and some of them like to hide behind
powerheads/filters, however if you get one that loves to be out in the open
they're a perfect 'wow' centerpiece fish in a tank that doesn't have
anything bigger than 3-4 inches. they have long draping pelvic fins, huge
butterfly-wing pectoral fins, and these long caudal fins that remind me of a
chinese 'junk' type boat except with an invisible membrane rather than a
solid fin. they stay at the top of the water and go crazy for crickets at
feeding time... they also look much more like wild animals than some betta
or gourami would. their eyes and mouths remind me of arowanas.


i've yet to see a good picture on the internet that shows them in their full
glory- the delicate fins, large piercing eye, or flecks of shining gold that
color their black and brown bodies.

here's an ok one: http://www.plantedtank.net/butterflyfish.html


mine doesn't bother cories that come nudge it nor does it compete with my
harlequins at the survace. i feed it hikari carnivore food sticks, and
crickets when i get the chance.


for further testimonials: http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/gpantodon.html



good luck

[J Cox]

I can say DO NOT GET PUMPKIN SEED FISH!! They are really beautiful, and make
great aquarium fish. But they are also very aggressive and will eat anything
they can fit into their mouths. I would recommend them in a species tank
only. I can't really help you with the WOW fish, it's all according to taste
and tank setup. I've had people say WOW with a simple danio/whitecloud tank.
There are some books that may help, like the Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium
Fishes by Dr. Axelrod. Hope this helps, but I think you may already have a
great tank as is. I love rainbows! Good luck.

Jason


"Joseph" > wrote in message
...
> Hello,
>
> I have a 40g. Long fresh water tank in my office. With live plants
> and a large substrate (pebble size) everything is looking quite nice.
> I currently have a couple of Raphael Cats, 2 otto cats, and 7 rainbows
> (3 bosami and 4 aust.)
>
> At first I planned on finishing the tank with a total of 13 rainbows
> (of various species) and a small school of tetras. According to my
> calculations this wouldn't over stock the tank. But. . .
>
> I think I want something different, but I'm not sure what. Does
> anybody have any ideas? I think I want one fish that will stand out
> and make people go WOW, but it has to get along with the Rainbows (I'm
> very fond of them).
>
> I was thinking a pumpkin seed fish, but I don't know how well that
> will work (I'm not sure of their temperament).
>
> Any suggestions?

[Joseph]

Victor,

The way I learned the guidline was as you said it, and also with this
additional advice below:

One of the flaws with the inch / gal guideline is that it fails to
hold true past fish longer then 3 inches. This is because it doesn't
take into account the breadth or height of the fish. If you buy a
fish which doubles it's length when it reaches mature size, it's mass
and volume are cubed.

So, keeping this in mind a 5 inch fish is equivalent to 125 one inch
fish and will account for about 4 gal. of water usage.

Would you say thisis fairly accurate?

On Mon, 08 Dec 2003 04:29:07 GMT, Victor Martinez >
wrote:

>Joseph wrote:
>> I do, and with what I've read the water usage is from 2 - 4 gal. for a
>> 4 to 5 inch fish...
>
>There's no hard rule, the typical one is 1 gallon per inch of fish. It
>depends on a lot of things, but in general if you have healthy plants
>you can have more fish than if you have a non-planted tank.

[Victor Martinez]

Joseph wrote:
> So, keeping this in mind a 5 inch fish is equivalent to 125 one inch
> fish and will account for about 4 gal. of water usage.
>
> Would you say thisis fairly accurate?

Not really. I doubt one 5 inch fish will eat as much as 125 one inch
fish and thus produce 125 times as many poop. You can't just extrapolate
with living organisms.
Besides, the ammount of poop produced by a 5 inch pl*co is quite
different from that produced by a 5 inch Kuhli loach. :)

--
Victor Martinez
Send your spam here:
Email me here:

[Rick]

"J Cox" > wrote in message
gy.com...
> I can say DO NOT GET PUMPKIN SEED FISH!! They are really beautiful, and
make
> great aquarium fish. But they are also very aggressive and will eat
anything
> they can fit into their mouths. I would recommend them in a species tank
> only. I can't really help you with the WOW fish, it's all according to
taste
> and tank setup. I've had people say WOW with a simple danio/whitecloud
tank.
> There are some books that may help, like the Atlas of Freshwater Aquarium
> Fishes by Dr. Axelrod. Hope this helps, but I think you may already have a
> great tank as is. I love rainbows! Good luck.
>
> Jason
>
>
yes I would agree with Jason on this one. I have a dozen Alabama longears
(Lepomis megalotis) in a species tank right now. They will grow to about 6"
and as Jason says will eat anything they can fit into their mouths. They
will become increasingly aggressive at spawning time.

Rick

[Joseph]

Okay.

I will let go of the pumpkin seed fish idea until I graduate... Or at
least until I can afford a new tank... **sigh**

I hate having to choose if the tank or the university gets my
financial aid...

Thanks all.

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 21:09:03 GMT, Joseph
> wrote:

>Hello,
>
>I have a 40g. Long fresh water tank in my office. With live plants
>and a large substrate (pebble size) everything is looking quite nice.
>I currently have a couple of Raphael Cats, 2 otto cats, and 7 rainbows
>(3 bosami and 4 aust.)
>
>At first I planned on finishing the tank with a total of 13 rainbows
>(of various species) and a small school of tetras. According to my
>calculations this wouldn't over stock the tank. But. . .
>
>I think I want something different, but I'm not sure what. Does
>anybody have any ideas? I think I want one fish that will stand out
>and make people go WOW, but it has to get along with the Rainbows (I'm
>very fond of them).
>
>I was thinking a pumpkin seed fish, but I don't know how well that
>will work (I'm not sure of their temperament).
>
>Any suggestions?