big oddballs together?

[ryan]

It is not a good idea to mix most Plec species with any ganoid scaled fish like; Bichirs, Ropefish and Gars. Plecs take a liking to these fishes slime coating and will harass the fish trying to suck away at it. By removing some of the slime coating the fish is left open to bacterial infection which can often cause death.

 

[Paul_MTS]

darn, oh well!!!

on the other hand is there anything that could live with the smaller aroawna? in a 6x2x2....

 

[CFC]

The only fish i can safely recomend to be kept with a Scleropages jardini arowana are ones which are strictly nocturnal bottom dwellers, the only fish on your list which fits that catagory is the ornate bichir.
Of course you can try any number of different combinations with a jardini but by advise is not to keep anything with it that you would be very upset to lose.

 

[Paul_MTS]

Oh well was worth a thought....

guess I'll start saving my wages!!

cheers everyone

 

[Paul_MTS]

any reason not to put a small red tailed catfish in there for a while?

one of my work mates has one that he might not beable to house in the near future and i offered i could take care of it.

 

[CFC]

One very good reason, RTC have phenomenal growth rates and will quicly outgrow even a 180 gallon tank, we are talking about a time frame of 6 months or so here. These fish really need a tank which has a volume in the thousands of gallons, not hundreds. My advise would be to leave the giants to public aquariums and zoo's who can cope with them properly.

 

[Paul_MTS]

Yep, I know what you mean, there's 1 in a display tank at work which is leaving in a Rio 400, the staff I work with know he needs a bigger tank but can't deliver it!!

It was previously owned by 1 of the staff there who i just replaced as he left.

this ones 20" at the moment and is 4 years old. He gets dieing goldfish and a hand full frozen white bait fish. Atleast his tanks clean though, keeps vacummed and water changes every five days.

 

[digital_run]

I've always wanted a fire eel...or a few

 

[Paul_MTS]

lol...i was trying to convince the saturday boy that his tans too small for his large tyre track eel and that i would take it off his hands when i have my big tank. unfortuanately he thinks his vision 260 is big enough for it, which is packed full of other tank busters

 

[scottsbt1690]

i knew a fella who had a red tailed catfish, it must have been 4 ft long, and about 20 inch head, it wads bigger than any of my staffy dogs and i have big headed staffs let me tell you,it was in a tank with a massive pacu, 2 dolphin sharks around 2 ft, of which one was blind and a silver arrowana around 18 inches, arngy looking fookers aint they???

the tank they were in was massive must have been, easily 12 feet long, 3-4 ft high, and the same deep from the wall, but nothing in the tank for habitat etc, just a heater and a big filter, pretty poor

the RTC would eat anything, he even feed it dairy milk choclate bars, used to go mad for one, thrashing around when he seen it coming or smelt it dunno what

scott

 

[Paul_MTS]

thats the beuty with big fish you don't need to put deco in the tank, if you do they could thrash around and maybe injure themselfs on it.

at work the RTC has a large big of bogwood in them which gets psuhed to the cornerand he can jus flick it up under his nose if he wants a look under there!! no effect what so ever.

thats 1 hell of a tank.

 

[Paul_MTS]

ritey seeing as i have the tank now i thought i would resurrect this topic!!

I'ved got a fire eel saved at work for me so thats set.

I would still like the arowana in my tank which is a silver, how long would i have to get him a tank upgrade? around 10inch at the moment.

I'm not too sure where I'm going to source any birchirs from yet, is there a good time of year to shop for these in the UK?

I think a guyrs bringing in a larger BGK so I might swipe that. would a clown knife live along side the BGK or are there problems there?

After that I'll be looking out for some nice predactory catfish.

also I'm tempted by oscars now, i didn't like them before but after seeing some bigger ones they tickle my taste buds!!!

is there anything else I could consider?

 

[CFC]

You will have less than a year before the silver arowana outgrows the tank, silvers can get to 4 feet full grown and will easily reach 2 feet in a year or less, as with many of the large predatory fish they have a amazing growth rate. If you can find one a black arowana would be a better choice as these tend not to get so big in captivity and often max out at 2 feet though they can reach 4 feet in the wild.

The time for Bichirs is now, currently it is the season for West African imports so there should be a few of the harder to find species like P.palmas and P.endlicheri about if you look in the right places.

The clown knife fish is again a fish that really isnt aquarium suitable with a maximum adult size of around 4 feet, you do like your tank busters dont you
While 224 gallons sounds huge within a few weeks you will soon realise its not, i would stick to fish that are not quite so huge with max sizes of 18 to 20 inches.
Also be aware that many large oddball/predators are aggressive and territorial so choose your tanks inhabitants carefull and try to stick to fairly non aggressive fish, also most will grow very fast so try to buy fish that are already of a size that cannot be eaten by other fish, once a predator community is established it can be very difficult to find new suitable tankmates. The bichirs are a good choice (provided there are no smaller fish about) and oscars are usually ok in large fish communities with the rare exception for overly aggressive individuals. Other good choices are Sorubim lima shovelnoses which are quite common and easy to obtain, some pike Cichlids and if you are up to the challenge FW stingrays can be kept provided the water is kept good and there are no aggressive fish in the tank. there are also many other species of medium/large catfish that can be added as and when you find them.

 

[Paul_MTS]

Yep I love my tank busters!! there so beutiful!!

so for now when it's set up and running....

fire eel, BGK and i think i'll offer a part time home for the guys red tailed cat as it's only in a rekord 70 at the moment.

urm shall i add 5 guppies to cycle it how should i go about cycling it infact the media is all new apart from some green bio balls but it's all dried out anyways.

I love love a sting ray f some kind but that really does put the pressure on keeping the water in tip top condition, plus there pret expensive fish to mess up on even at trade price

 

[CFC]

If you get the RTC then i wouldnt bother getting anything else unless you intend it to be food, RTC will eat anything they share a tank with whether it be living or inanimate, the fire eel and BGK would slip down like spagettii. The only fish that can work with RTC are big Cichlids with tall/thick body shapes like oscars etc and large plecs like commons and gibbys but even these will only work until the fish reaches a foot or so and then they too are on the menu, of course you can house fish larger than the RTC with one but imagine the size of the tank needed to house multiple fish over 3 feet .