Whew!

Eric Schreiber wrote:

Looks like you now have room for more fish.

That's what I'm thinking, too. The question is, what kind? It's a
heavily planted 20 gallon community tank.

Something that occurred to me is that I often see (in my LFS)
Pelvicachromis taeniatus or Pelvicachromis pulcher cichlids in the
community tanks, and both are mentioned as being ok for community tanks
on various web sites. Thoughts, anyone? Because of their coloration,
these have long been on my "fish wish list".


--
Eric Schreiber
www.ericschreiber.com

On Mon, 13 Dec 2004 20:22:05 -0600, "Eric Schreiber" eric at
ericschreiber dot com wrote:

Some time ago I'd bought three nice, small, SAEs for my plated 20
gallon, to help keep the algea I was battling at the time under control.

They didn't stay small for long. Within a year they were each five
inches long, very robust (fat, even), highly energetic, and constantly
banging into the walls of the tank. No way was 20 gallons big enough
for three of those things. What they really needed was a quarter mile
or so of running room.

My LFS let me donate them today, so I no longer have those oversize
beasties in my tank. I figure I reduced the bio load by at least 50%,
probably more.

Now the other fish should be able to relax without having to constantly
be on guard lest they get run over or smooshed against the glass.

There must be more to the story. I have one 4 inch SAE in a 10 gallon
tank along with 2 three inch Clown Loaches and 4 platties. I have 6
more SAEs in a 29 gallon tank, and 11 in a 75 gallon tank. I see no
difference in their behavior patterns.

I do feel sorry that I have the one in the 10 because the larger
groupings stay together much of the time, just as Clown Loaches do,
but it has been there for months and seems very content with it room
mates.

dick

Dick wrote:

There must be more to the story.

No, not really. Three five-inch-long SAEs in a planted 20 gallon is
about it. They loved to race around and chase one another, but there
wasn't enough room - they kept banging into the glass. They weren't
deliberately terrorizing the other, smaller fish, but their
rambunctious behavior tended to send everyone else racing for cover.


--
Eric Schreiber
www.ericschreiber.com

"Eric Schreiber" eric at ericschreiber dot com wrote in message
...
Some time ago I'd bought three nice, small, SAEs for my plated 20
gallon, to help keep the algea I was battling at the time under control.

They didn't stay small for long. Within a year they were each five
inches long, very robust (fat, even), highly energetic, and constantly
banging into the walls of the tank. No way was 20 gallons big enough
for three of those things. What they really needed was a quarter mile
or so of running room.

My LFS let me donate them today,


don't "donate" fish to the lfs. Trade them in for store credit. It is much
more worthwhile ;o)

--

Margolis
http://web.archive.org/web/200302152...qs/AGQ2FAQ.htm
http://www.unrealtower.org/faq

Margolis wrote:

don't "donate" fish to the lfs. Trade them in for store credit. It
is much more worthwhile ;o)

I was so grateful that they were willing to take them off my hands that
I didn't want to quibble.

--
Eric Schreiber
www.ericschreiber.com