New 5Ft Tank Journal

[ChilliPepper]

I ordered my new tank today from ND Aquatics It's a 5x2x2 Unfortunately I have to wait 9 weeks for them to make it So I should have it by early April, but we'll be in our new house by then so should work out nicely Hopefully baby O won't be tooo huge by then

Plans are as follows.

Stocking
1 x Red Tiger Oscar
1 x Green Terror (female)
1 x Severum
1 x Bichir
6 x Silver Dollars - probably red hooks

Substrate
Black sand - thinking of Caribsea black sand

Decor
Plenty of rocks and wood, some hardy plants like java fern/moss tied to wood. Silk plants.

So, there won't be any updates until the tank gets here but I have plenty of plans, and will probably note them down here. I am so excited at getting this tank

We're keeping my 190L as well The plan is to keep the rest of my stock in there, plus add some rainbowfish. I do plan to turn it into a marine next year, but of course that will be another journal...

 

[dave_oddballs]

i think you should stick to normal silver dollars, red hooks can and do get to 8" and above and a group of 6 would get crampt with a potential 18" oscar and a 8" green terror, both of which can be very aggressive, whereas red hooks and silver dollars are relatively peaceful fish and should be kept with other medium-large peaceful fish.
if you plan it properly first the result will be better.
nd aquatics make nice aquariums and im sure you'll end up with a nice set up. will look forward to seeing some pics when the time comes!!

 

[ChilliPepper]

i think you should stick to normal silver dollars, red hooks can and do get to 8" and above and a group of 6 would get crampt with a potential 18" oscar and a 8" green terror, both of which can be very aggressive, whereas red hooks and silver dollars are relatively peaceful fish and should be kept with other medium-large peaceful fish.
if you plan it properly first the result will be better.
nd aquatics make nice aquariums and im sure you'll end up with a nice set up. will look forward to seeing some pics when the time comes!!

Thanks. Maybe I will go with normal SD's or even something else. They are a bit cheaper than the red hooks. I am going to some fish shops today to suss out any possibilities and will be reporting back any ideas I've come away with

Can't wait to get my hands on this tank

 

[minxfishy]

The fun is in the planning

Are you getting ND's light system or are you going for something else?

Look forward to seeing it set up

 

[always4lora]

Don't take notice of there 9 weeks wait! i got mine with 2 weeks although they quoted me 6-8 weeks.

 

[ChilliPepper]

The fun is in the planning

Are you getting ND's light system or are you going for something else?

Look forward to seeing it set up

Thanks, no I am not going for ND's lights as think I can get some cheaper by shopping around. Not 100% sure what to get, but always4lora sent me some links to some which I may go for.

Not too sure what to get fishwise now. Saw a couple of small silver dollars but wasn't overly taken by them. Quite like the silver/bala sharks... Not sure if I could try a few of these?

Don't take notice of there 9 weeks wait! i got mine with 2 weeks although they quoted me 6-8 weeks.

I asked what the wait was for and they said sheer volume of orders. It would be nice for it to be ready earlier but we don't know when we're moving yet, so hopefully things will time themselves nicely!

 

[minxfishy]

5 bala sharks should be ok, ideally they need a 6ft but 5ft is the bare minimum for them. Have you considered tinfoil barbs at all?

 

[england]

See dave i have a spotted silver dollar who i was told was the bigger of the dollars group, mine is around dinner plate size,got told redhooks max round 6inch disc, could see 5 or six happier in the five foot than five or six bala sharks,

Tinfoil's id advise against, i gave mine away because they grew to big for my 5/2/2 and tank looked painfully small in the end, they never seemed to stop growing

what about and iam only saying what,ive never kept them but have heard of people keeping oscars with Hyphessobrycon anisitsi<Buenos Aires Tetra>

but out of the three bala/tinfoil and dollars id go with the dollars,so spotted mine seems to have maxed and i could imagine 5 there no problem

 

[ChilliPepper]

5 bala sharks should be ok, ideally they need a 6ft but 5ft is the bare minimum for them. Have you considered tinfoil barbs at all?

Quite like the tinfoils... Wouldn't they get too big at maximum 14" each, baring in mind I'd need at least 5? I guess they'd certainly be OK for a while, and maybe not get to 14" anyway.

what about and iam only saying what,ive never kept them but have heard of people keeping oscars with Hyphessobrycon anisitsi<Buenos Aires Tetra>

Think they'd maybe be too small at 3" each - my oscar is very greedy and I think the GT may fancy them as a snack as well...? I suppose they are pretty quick as tetras, but wouldn't want them to be seen as food.

 

[minxfishy]

After reading nelly's post about the size the tinfoils get to, then I would say, probably not a good idea. I had 4 balas in my 5ft and they grew very quickly, 1" a month, I rehomed them in the end, great fish but ideally a 6ft tank as I said, although my tank isnt as wide as yours will be.

 

[ChilliPepper]

After reading nelly's post about the size the tinfoils get to, then I would say, probably not a good idea. I had 4 balas in my 5ft and they grew very quickly, 1" a month, I rehomed them in the end, great fish but ideally a 6ft tank as I said, although my tank isnt as wide as yours will be.

Might be pushing the bioload a little. Would like to try and get away with one Fluval FX5 if I can. Will keep an eye on it and get another if I need to, but hoping it will be enough.

What about a red tailed or rainbow shark? Just one on its own as I know they are territorial.

Or a few pictus cats? I like these.

 

[minxfishy]

Large enough pictus could work, although there are stories of Oscars trying to eat them and getting their barbles stuck in their mouths, thus killing the pictus and leaving the Oscar with a large hole in their mouth. If they are large enough though they would probably leave them alone, I tried it and my Oscar didnt like the look of them and left them well alone, although the GT hated them and harrassed them at every given moment.

One FX5 should be plenty to filter that tank size, nelly uses a single FX5 on his 5x2x2. And he's kept several Oscars at one point.

 

[ChilliPepper]

Large enough pictus could work, although there are stories of Oscars trying to eat them and getting their barbles stuck in their mouths, thus killing the pictus and leaving the Oscar with a large hole in their mouth. If they are large enough though they would probably leave them alone, I tried it and my Oscar didnt like the look of them and left them well alone, although the GT hated them and harrassed them at every given moment.

One FX5 should be plenty to filter that tank size, nelly uses a single FX5 on his 5x2x2. And he's kept several Oscars at one point.

Thanks. I thought the one FX5 would be OK as it's supposed to be fine for tanks up to 1500 litres, so my 566l is pretty well under that.

I really am stuck with what else to go with. Normally filling a larger tank would be easy, but with a greedy oscar and possibly aggressive GT it is difficult. She's started harrassing my Keyhole now that all my tetras and barbs have been rehomed.

 

[gug54321]

hi there, just a warning i had a pictus catfish in with my oscars and got very big very quick, roughly about 12" in 8 months, if these are the same catfish as you are talking about(Leiarius pictus). i found that when i put the catfish in the tank he was about 4" and had pleny of hiding spots where the oscars couldnt get to him. The main problem i had was feeding the little fella as anything you put in the tank the oscars wanted too leading to one very messy tank, but a lovely catfish but get somewhere in the region of 30" in quite a short space of time. unfornately i lost my catfish due to my fluval playing up overnight, but the oscars survived ( im amazed what conditions oscars dont get grump at) ive had heater play up to both high temp and low temps and all the oscars seem to do is just get a bit sulky lol.

cheers

 

[ChilliPepper]

hi there, just a warning i had a pictus catfish in with my oscars and got very big very quick, roughly about 12" in 8 months, if these are the same catfish as you are talking about(Leiarius pictus). i found that when i put the catfish in the tank he was about 4" and had pleny of hiding spots where the oscars couldnt get to him. The main problem i had was feeding the little fella as anything you put in the tank the oscars wanted too leading to one very messy tank, but a lovely catfish but get somewhere in the region of 30" in quite a short space of time. unfornately i lost my catfish due to my fluval playing up overnight, but the oscars survived ( im amazed what conditions oscars dont get grump at) ive had heater play up to both high temp and low temps and all the oscars seem to do is just get a bit sulky lol.

cheers

Did you just have the one catfish? Are they OK on their own or do they need to be in a group? If OK on their own, getting big quickly wouldn't be such a problem.