Broken Rules.

[brewyn]

I have just broken every rule in my book today and added none malawi fish to my happs tank. I have added 2 archer fish and 3 red tail catfish. the archer fish will be fine, but has anyone else ever kept these potentialy large cats in with there malawis. keep in mind they will be with large happs, assuming they get there skates on, and have a growing spurt. the cats are only a few inches at the moment.

 

[breezer40]

3 redtail catfish How big is the tank? The minimum tank size for one is 8*3*3

 

[brewyn]

its 6x2x2, was told this would be fine. I can always move them into bigger tank somewhere down the line.

 

[mamafish68]

got a pool brwyn?? cuz hun, your gonna need one in the near future!!!! red tails will eat your haps, they will crash your tank. even 1 is a headache, much less 3!!!!!!!!!!! what were you thinking

 

[brewyn]

I was thinking I never got much sleep last night lol

 

[CFC]

Got space for 3 of these?

I didnt think so, you should return them to the store ASAP, if people stopped buying these then shops would stop selling them and leave them in the Amazon where they belong. The absolute minimum sized tank for a single adult RTC is 12x4x3 feet, the only good thing about them is they eat pesky fish like Cichlids

Archer fish are brackish fish, in freshwater they will fade and eventually die, again not the greatest choice in the world unless you have a brackish tank.

 

[AMS]

I have added 2 archer fish and 3 red tail catfish. the archer fish will be fine,

What makes you think the archers will be fine? There are many species of archers, most are brackish some are almost exclusively freshwater. 99% of the archers in the aquarium trade will probably need a brackish aquarium, and will become very disease prone and most likely die without brackish water.

 

[rixy]

hi brewyn,the redtails are monsters.i'd take them back to the shop straight away if i were you.i've seen plenty of redtails in the past and beleive me,at feeding time,NOTHING in your tank stands a chance.if fed properly,their growth rate is unbelievable.

 

[brewyn]

I do like a challenge, so rather than remove them I may just build a heated pond, plenty of space so that wont be a problem, and I will have a good 18 months to save the pennies. well worth keeping if possible as that photo looks like one magnificent fish, and if I do remove them, someone else will only neglect them, atleast I will give it a shot.
with regards to the archers, I had a few some years ago in my community tank, they lived for some years and grew to several inches, if all else fails my wife keeps a brackish tank full of mollies etc, so could put them into that if they start to deteriorate.

 

[CFC]

Do you really have the space and finances to build and maintain a 20x10 foot indoor pond? Please be honest with yourself about this, most zoos and public aquariums struggle to provide adequate housing for 3 redtail catfish let alone afford the costs of feeding 3 such fish. In 18 months time you will have 3 catfish around the 2 foot long mark which will still be going through their period of rapid growth and requiring huge ammounts of food, think along the lines of giving them 2 whole trout each once a week, they will also have eaten their way through all and every fish you currently have.

 

[brewyn]

I do appreciate that they will eventually eat all my fish and will need housing on there own, preferably before they decide to demolish my happs. We were looking at building a 20x10x3 koi pond (in the garden) to try and fill the garden a bit, but I'm thinking of upgrading now to the heated version instead. I believe It takes a 1kw heater to heat a 1000 gallons of water. I wont even begin to argue with what you are saying as you are correct in what you say, but In my defence I was under the impression they grew to 18 inches.
let me ask you a question: if you could afford to have a heated pond in your garden, with 3 magnificent cats in, be able to afford to heat it and feed them, WOULD YOU?

plus like I said, this was a spare of the moment thing, well away from home, and if I had of had a chance to do a bit of reaearch on them, then NO, I would not have bought them!!!

 

[brewyn]

this is a link from a not so clever fish forum were the girl built an outside heated pond, I have seen the finished pond but cant find the post!!!!

http/www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/foru...wtopic_2986.php

 

[CFC]

Outdoor heated ponds are a impossible dream here in England, our cold wet weather makes heating difficult to say the least. It takes a 2000w heater to heat my 18x8x10 fish room which is insulated on all sides, to heat a 20x10x4' (thats a shade under 6000 gallons) pond will require around 14960 watts of heating at ambient room temperatures, to combat the chilling effects of rain, wind and snow you can expect to tripple that, i was going to figure the cost of the heating bill alone but the PFK website is down so i'll get back to that. What is needed is a building errected over the pond which is kept at a constant 28c, a outbuilding of this size requires planning permission from the local authority and needs to be built to current building regulations and passed by the local authority buildings inspector before it is legal.

 

[brewyn]

did you have a look at the pond that debs built??? plus I have been reading that you can run your heating directly from the central heating system. this has seriously got me interested now!!! and when its done you can come to sunny southport, sit next to my red tailed cat pond, and have a beer!! LOL

CFC, how did you work out that your 72x24x24 came to a 180 gallons, mine is the same size and its only 150 gallons, one of us must have it wrong?

 

[breezer40]

Outdoor heated ponds are a impossible dream here in England, our cold wet weather makes heating difficult to say the least. It takes a 2000w heater to heat my 18x8x10 fish room which is insulated on all sides, to heat a 20x10x4' (thats a shade under 6000 gallons) pond will require around 14960 watts of heating at ambient room temperatures, to combat the chilling effects of rain, wind and snow you can expect to tripple that, i was going to figure the cost of the heating bill alone but the PFK website is down so i'll get back to that. What is needed is a building errected over the pond which is kept at a constant 28c, a outbuilding of this size requires planning permission from the local authority and needs to be built to current building regulations and passed by the local authority buildings inspector before it is legal.

I have my own program that works out the cost of electricity and 14960watts will cost £3894.58 per year if you used it for 12 hrs a day