# Help me decide please



## Paige (Aug 7, 2008)

Ok so I currently have a 55 up and running a 10 as a QT an empy 1g and a 29 gallon.

This will get confusing so I hope it's not too hard to follow.

I have a 55 with a lace catfish, 2 dwarf gourmis, 8 guppies, 1 bristle nose, 1 chinese algae eater, 1 mystery snail, and some ghost shrimp

In the 10 QT I currently have 7 neon tetra that I plan to add to my 55.

My parents currently have a 29 with 2 angels, 1 pictus catfish, 1 rainbow shark, 1 ID shark, 1 chinese algae eater, and 1 comet (meant for food for the ID but he is just so peaceful...)

Obviously my parents need a larger tank and will be upgrading to a 55 very soon and I will be taking the 29 gallon.

So far its pretty easy to follow but now I'll probably start to confuse you...

I want to have an active 55 (it's kind of blah right now, the lace catfish stays in his driftwood until the lights go out and then he's fun to watch, the dwarf gouramis each have their own corner of the tank, the guppies stay at the top right hand corner of the tank, and the others are just whereever they want to be.) It's very blah and not much is happening I want some type of fish that will swim through the middle and back and forth not just hang out in a corner...so that's why I got the neons but obviously they are still in the QT and will not be put in until their 2 weeks is up (I have my share of livebearers and I'm not really a fan of mollies or swordtails) So if you can think of any fish that would get along well with my current fish then please let me know.

ALSO I was thinking of maybe taking the 29 gallon and using it to house my guppies and some other fish (help??) that way I could get some more active fish for my 55.

If I didn't do the guppy thing then what else could I put in the 29? I'm open to all ideas on this one.

Then I was thinking of taking my 10 and using it for a dwarf puffer tank or a crayfish tank, but honestly I can't decide!! I love the DP's they are so cute but vicious and I like the crayfish for the same reason!!
~For the crayfish I was thinking of trying sand in my tank but if I went with the puffers I would stick with gravel.
(In your opinion which one would YOU do of the two)

And my 1g would be used to house the snails or comets or w.e that I would feed to my DP or crayfish.

help!?!?!?! please


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## Sheryl (Jul 18, 2008)

im not sure how they would be with gouramis, but i have some giant danios in my 55 and they are very active schooling fish. they never stop moving! i have 4 of them and they always stay together and swim all over the tank. they would definately "jazz" up your tank


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## onefish2fish (Jul 22, 2008)

id personally go with the dwarf puffer just because im planning on getting one, just no rush..
they are sensitive to water conditions so make sure you have an established, cycled tank set up for best success (that is if you choose the puffer over the cray) 
ive heard of 3 going into a 10gallon as long as there is plenty of hiding spots and plants that obscure the puffers line of sight. i personally think that puffers have more of a personality then the crayfish that sits on the bottom (probally hiding under a rock) BUT HEY :thumbsup: your tank your rules.


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## jeaninel (Aug 24, 2007)

I love my Boesemani rainbows. They're very active and fun to watch. I think they would do fine with your current fish. However, they may go for your ghost shrimp.


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## Jo (Jun 10, 2008)

*Longfinned Rosey barbs and long finned tetras.*

These two types of fish are very lively, always on the go, you can't help but watch them in the tank. They swimm all over the tank.

I love mine !


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## Paige (Aug 7, 2008)

What type of fish are you talking about Jo?

Now my situation got even MORE complicated...

I bought a 55 (extremly dirty and crusty), stand (particle board and falling apart), 2 filters (both too small for tank), hood/lights (don't work), Air pump (dirty but works fine), some decor (dirty but still good), gravel (REALLY DIRTY), pictus catfish and red tail shark for my parents off craigslist for $50 in hopes of bringing it back and fixing it up, but we decided it would be cheaper just to buy a brand new setup!! GAH.

So then I went to pick up a FREE 55 gallon all wood stand from freecycle, but turns out it's a lot smaller than a 55 gallon stand, so no help there....

Then my mom was at work and one her coworkers was selling her complete setup for 200 and my mom talked to her about it and told her she would think about it and then the lady calls her back and tells her that if she wants to just come and get it for FREE...

So then we got ANOTHER 55 (clean) (so now we currently have 3 55's), gravel (clean) all wood stand in a cherry stain, lots of decor (clean), some tetra viquarium waterfall thing (this was also her filter, so we had to buy a new one), 1 gallon tank with like 30 guppy in it (so she could clean out the 55 and we could transport them easier, she said she started with 10!) 

So now, 

my 55 is the same

my parents 29 is currently housing:
~1 shark (Id or columbian or w/e)
~1 Red tail shark
~1 pictus catfish
~2 angelfish
~1 comet
~1 chinese algae eater
(these will be moved to the new 55 once it is cycled (we will be seeding it to speed up the process)

my 10 is the same

my 1 gallon is still empty

another 10 gallon with tons of guppy (been feeding some of the babies to my angelfish  )

So now I think my plan is to give all the new guppy except for maybe 2 or 3 to my boyfriend along with one of my dwarf gouramis (they are picking on each other too much now) 

Then turning my 29 into something of a guppy tank

Then turning my 10 into either a puffer or a crab tank (yeh I ruled out the crayfish and decided on puffer but I seen some really cool red claw crabs today, and then don't need much water)

Using my 1's for ????

GAH i dunno now!!

*~*If you're curious about the new 55 here is what we have done*~*

-We bought a new filter MarineLand Emperor 400 (which I have on my 55 also)

-Took my extra heater that I had and used it

-Sanded down and painted the stand black (to match the tank)

-Bought wood and cut it to size to make the bottom of the stand wood and not our floor and painted it black and also another piece that we attach with L brackets a little more than midway up (that way we can store the gravel vac extra filters, etc on the bottom and the food and chemicals on the shelf we created) and also painted it black, it looks really good!!  

-Bought Natural gravel, Top fin columns thing that bubbles in the center, and a bubble wand.

*We just finished painting it tonight and set up the tank already, so tomorrow morning we will put the tank on the stand and all we have to do is fill it up, plug everything in, seed it, and let it start to cycle. YAY!!


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## jeaninel (Aug 24, 2007)

Wow! That's a good dilemma. Got any pics?


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## mac (Aug 3, 2008)

*Hi*

Hi,
There is one thing I think might give you trouble in the future would be the Chinese Algae Eater. Is it the Algae eater, a Golden Chinese Algae eater. If so they can get very territorial the older they get. And you might find that it might give hell to the Guppies.

Now if you want active fish, I would suggest you get some Rianbow fish. I would suggest the Lake Kutubu Rainbows. They are hardy colorful and active. Trust me I have 6 of them.

Hope this helps,
mac


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

I hate to break it to you (or rather your parents) but they're in for some trouble with their fish tank in the future. The pictus cat is probably ok, but would prefer more swimming space than the 30" of a 29g tank. The comet goldfish will eventually get to 18" so is going to outgrow that tank, not to mention that it's a coldwater fish so really should be housed with the others (which are all tropical). The red tail shark is fine. As mac already pointed out, Chinese algae eaters tend to get really aggressive as they get older, so that guy could be a problem. Some say angels are too big for a 29g, but that one's a little more controversial. The biggest problem though is the iridescent shark, which will eventually break three feet in length (longer than the tank!) These fish are really hard to keep, since they prefer to be in schools. This means they should be kept in tanks on the order of hundreds of gallons. When they're not in schools, they tend to freak out if startled and are known to break tanks. They're also predatory; I've seen them eat fish almost as big as themselves.


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## Paige (Aug 7, 2008)

Well my parents tank is now a 55 we are just having to wait for it to be cycled. When I move out I'm taking my ID shark with me and I am getting a VERY LARGE tank, I'm not sure how large, but probably the largest I can find. The comet was meant to be food for the ID shark (I actually bought two and the angels ate the smaller one, but no one has toughed the 1 incher (and my shark is 9 inches already) ) I have noticed the algae eater is slightly territorial but I'm actually really suprised with all these fish actually, because they all seem to get along really well, they are bugging each other right now because there are no hiding places (like I said earlier we are in the process of upgrading them all to a larger tank). As for the algae eater in with my guppy I'm actually thinking about moving the guppy but I've also read that fish tend to get along better if they literally grew up together, which would be the case with my algae eater and the guppy, but I'm not positive.

Oh also about the ID shark and schools, I bought him, when I was about 7 years old so I didn't really know much about him except that he looked cool and he was like a miniture shark (hahaha, not any more!!) but That was when my parents first started keeping fish and they didn't know about the size tanks fish would need, real novice mistake but we live and we learn. By the time I became interested in keeping my own tanks I started to try and figure out what he was so that I could get him a bigger tank cuz obivously 9 inches is getting a bit big for a 29, thats when I realized if he is indeed an ID shark that they like schools but at this point in time it'd be too late because I wouldn't be able to find any his size much less have a tank big enough for all of them until I move out... I orginally bought my 55 for him, but I bought the full grown lace catfish as my first fish because he was soo pretty and cheap for an adult ($10) and then once my tank was fully cycled and such I tried to add my shark but my catfish picked on my shark!!! Of all things I thought it would be the other way around! 

I will see if I can get some pictures of all the tanks (lol)


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

What you said about fish growing up together being less aggressive towards one another is certainly true of a lot of fish. I didn't mean to say that you'll definitely have aggression problems, but rather that some of your fish have a tendency to become aggressive. Chinese algae eaters are especially known to start out as docile algae eaters, but later in life can turn into jerks. 

Honestly, I wouldn't even begin to know how much water you'd need to keep a school of adult iridescent sharks, but definitely in the multiple thousands of gallons. They're hard to keep as adults because they get just as big as adult koi (three feet or more) but they can't deal with cold water, so can't be kept in outdoor ponds in most parts of the U.S. and certainly nowhere in Canada or the UK. They're also more predatory and much more active. Even for a single fish, I wouldn't keep it in anything less than 720 gallons (8' x 4' x 4') for the long term. I'd be even happier if he had something in the thousands so that he'd have more than a few times his body length in swimming room. If you plan on keeping him long-term, your best option might be some sort of indoor pond. I'll be honest, some of my first fish were a pair of iridescent sharks. I had no idea how big they got. The sign at Petsmart read 6" adult length and recommended a 20 gallon tank! After finding out how big they really get, I returned them right away.


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## okiemavis (Nov 10, 2007)

> Chinese algae eaters are especially known to start out as docile algae eaters, but later in life can turn into jerks.


The CAE is gonna have to go eventually. I have one, and, unfortunately, they all inevitably get quite aggressive as they age. However, it's a nice chance to do a pretty river biotope!


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