600-700 Litre Stocking?

[laurac94]

Hi all!
Mum has just revealed that we are clearing out a room full of books in the house and that she will let me get a good sized tank. Won't be for a good few months but im so excited, was thinking of getting a 5-6ft tank by around 2 feet depending on space.

I love snakeheads, obviously a tank this size isn't big enough for the magnificent giant snakehead but I would love any ideas I was stunned when I went to see Matt's fish room at predator fish UK about 5 miles away from where I live, he sources predatory fish from all over the world. Hence why I own super reds born in the amazon.

Im also in love with catfish, any suggestions will be welcomed.

Plus, since in a newbie to all of this stuff I don't have the skill to look after high demand fish (YET!) so any info on care would be great too!!
Currently own a community tank and 2 red bellies so I have some experience (the reds won't be going in the tank)

 

[Mikey1]

a 6 foot tank is crying out for a nice shoal of bala sharks, or silver dollars

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

a 6 foot tank is crying out for a nice shoal of bala sharks, or silver dollars

 I would never put 30+cm adult Bala Sharks in my 6-footer, they need more than the minimum 6 to really settle and are far too active, I would not put them in less than 10-footer but 12+ would be better.
 
It is criminal that these poor fish are in the hobby, just like others such as Pangasius spp., as owners of such tanks make up such a tiny percentage. 

 

[yargnits]

f/w stingray  

 

[TallTree01]

Stingray? They'll need bigger I think.
I agree with NOTG that bala sharks shouldn't be as common as they are. I've yet to see a single LFS that didn't stock balas. I have to admit, I was at Melbourne Aquarium the other day and they had a massive tank with about 50 full grown balas and thought:
"geez, if only all the people who keep bala sharks incorrectly could see this... ".
They were so alive!

 

[laurac94]

I feel the same way about plecos, I've never kept bala sharks but I've got a sailfin pleco sold to me as a common and was told he would get to around 8 inches, he's currently at 13" and still growing! Another reason to upgrade my tank soon!

I am looking at keeping predators though, I've never been keen on keeping balas.

 

[Mikey1]

 I would never put 30+cm adult Bala Sharks in my 6-footer

 
i never suggested putting 30+cm adult bala sharks in your tank, where did you read that? they would never get that big in your tank
 
why not a school/shoal of 2-3 inchers?
 
they would live a much happier and healthier life in your 6 foot tank as opposed to a kid buying them for his 20 gallon tank, my balas are quiet happy in a 6 foot tank

 

[Iiriva]

I think people should always think about adult fish size when buying them. I hate to see big fish in too small tanks, and that's way too common around the globe. Clown loaches, goldfish and many large plecos are the most common mistake (and they are the ones to suffer!) and big predators are the other end. I understand why many people want to have big predators (it's mainly a show off),  but then, they usually are in a way too small of a tanks anyway. 
 
What ever you are getting, I think the most important things are that they will be confortable in that tank size even when full grown, like their enviroment and tank mates and have a good quality of water. They are thinking and feeling animals and deserve to be kept well and live a long life.

 

[laurac94]

Exactly, thats why I wanted peoples ideas before even selecting the exact size tank I want

I do not trust my lfs eventhough I know someone there who owns an 8ft predator tank, when he showed me the vid he had way too many fish in there. Including a 3ft red tail cat 2 near 3ft giant snakeheads and 3 peacock bass, all that with atleast 2 arowanas from what I can remember plus more!
I would rather my fish were comfortable

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

 I would never put 30+cm adult Bala Sharks in my 6-footer

 
i never suggested putting 30+cm adult bala sharks in your tank, where did you read that? they would never get that big in your tank
 
why not a school/shoal of 2-3 inchers?
 
they would live a much happier and healthier life in your 6 foot tank as opposed to a kid buying them for his 20 gallon tank, my balas are quiet happy in a 6 foot tank

The thing is Bala Sharks should reach 30+cm, they have a lovely school of huge adults at Marwell Zoo if I recall rightly in a huge indoor stream complex. If you cannot house a "tank buster" for life in a suitably sized tank, you should not be buying the "cute baby" in the first place.
 
I would not feel comfortable at all morally with housing Bala Sharks for life in my 6-footer. I do have "tank buster" fish of my own already, most of which are youngsters (Auchenoglanis cf. tchadensis; Chrisichthys ornatus; Euchilichthys spp.) and an almost fully grown ~23cm SL Synodontis notata, but none of these have a patch on the activity of Bala Sharks (most of mine are very sedatory) and so I have no qualm about housing these in either of my biggest two tanks, a 5x2x2 and a ~6x1.5x1.2 for life.

 

[snazy]

A 5-6 foot tank is not that big in reallity.  It can either house a few larger, but no so large specimens that will still be comfortable when fully grown, or it can house many small fish. I'd personally choose the second option.
And don't forget about filtration, if you really want the tank to run to full capacity and be fully stocked, then you'd need to filter it well.
For a 600L tank for example, you'd need 6000L/H filtration ideally, especially if you are going to stock with fish that potentially grow big.
 Even less than this would cost you enough on top of the price of the tank/substrate/lights, etc.. And if you don't filter it properly, then the choice and amount of fish is limited because otherwise one has to do a lot of water changes and this is no longer a small tank so that involves quite an effort and water! So plan ahead, research what type of filters and how many. There's not even one filter on the market big enough to filter a tank this size alone. You may get away with two of the biggest ones like FX5 or similar, depending on finance.
 
And be sensible. 5 clown loaches in a 300L(4f) tank will have twice as good water quality compared to 20 clown loaches in a 600L(6f) tank. So when stocking with tank busters, the recommendation is not to up the numbers of the fish, but have a lesser number of bigger fish which otherwise would not enjoy the dimensions of a smaller tank.

 

[the_lock_man]

they have a lovely school of huge adults at Marwell Zoo if I recall rightly in a huge indoor stream complex.

 
Note to self. Must take the kids to Marwell during half-term.

 

[DerpPH]

I can suggest peacock bass if you can cichla azul piquiti maybe??? or a single mbu puffer maybe?

 

[laurac94]

I was looking at peacock bass, I have access to buy blue azul and kelberi at about 3" when he has stock in, but ive read that they are quite hard to keep because they either eat eachother or jump. But I was thinking maybe one of those and an Oscar, my sailfin will be going in too

 

[Lunar Jetman]

I've seen lots of people recommending big fish but have you considered having lots of smaller ones? Imagine the shoal sizes you could have in that tank of smaller sized fish, e.g. Neons, Cardinals, Rummynose, et al. Would look quite impressive.