New Member, Big Freshwater Tank And "temporary" Saltwater

[Racerchic478]

Hi all! I'm new to the forum, seeing as though it's summer and I'm a college kid, so I have a lot more time to kill. My husband and I have 5 tanks at home, one at work, and one sitting in the garage in case we decide we need yet another tank in the house. The following are some pics of our tanks/fish.

We have one 240 gallon for our South babies. We feed them 100 large feeder goldfish every week, sometimes 50 on Wednesdays if they're looking especially hungry. In this tank, we have two peacock bass (10" and 7"), one alligator gar (12") one clown knife (17"), one shovel nose catfish (22"), one arowana (19"), one Siamese tiger datnoid (9.5") and yes... a red tail catfish (19"). They have lived very harmoniously in this tank for over 3 years. We lost one peacock bass and one manganese when we went on vacation and housesitters forgot to feed the fish. Beyond that, our red tail is very well-fed and lazy, so he generally does not bother the other fish in the tank. When we build our next house in a few years, we will be putting an 800-900 gallon tank in the wall to accomodate the growth of our babies.

My "favorite," if I were to have to choose. My Siamese tiger dat. I heard these were hard to come by? We got him for only $70, because our fish people love us!

Lazy Red Tail

"Jar Jar" the Shovel Nose and gar hanging out

"Big Ugly" the clown knife.

Arowana and peacock bass tend to swim around the top. The bass are a little rough because they bicker over the same spot in the tank some days.

Red tail and shovel nose, swimming together

Just hanging out

Whole tank. (excuse the water marks, these guys like to splash!)

In another tank, we are temporarily housing 6 salt fish and one sea star in a 55 gallon until their 150 gallon home can be replaced next Thursday. On Monday, my husband and I were home and heard a small leaking noise, which grew to a waterfall noise in less than 20 seconds. We rushed into the front room to find our large saltwater tank gushing water at the bottom seams. We were able to save about 140 gallons of water, everything in the sump, all of the rocks, and all of the fish. I am worried about my Majestic angel, however. If you look at his picture, he has a small amount of ich and is discolored. He also refuses to eat at this point. I will be really upset if I lose him. Due to the odd measurements of the aquarium, we had to special order the new tank. I will post photos when we get it set up.

Temporary refuge while the other tank is replaced. (Using 150 gal filtration system anyway, for water quality.)

Threadfin butterfly, 5"

Happiest Stars & Stripes puffer you'll ever meet, 7"

Worried about this one. My 6.5" Majestic Angel, who is not eating and has signs of ich and discoloration, despite low salinity levels and water treatment. Any suggestions? He won't eat anything!

Speedy Naso Tang, 7"

Scopas Tang, 5", refuses to smile for the camera.

Our friendly Picasso Trigger, 3.5-4". Sorry for quality, had to pan to catch him.

I hear he's called an African Sea Star. Anyone else have one of these? He's pretty fast - often makes qualifying laps around the tank. He and puffer are buddies. He's about 6-7" across.

This is our 90 gallon show (tall) African Cichlid tank. We have too many fish to count now, but among my favorites are our red empress, venustus, and a fiesty zebra obliquiden.

Not shown: the 150 gallon saltwater setup (because it is now in pieces in our garage) and the 55 gallon tank dedicated to "Nubbin'," our tail-free demasoni. I found him huddled in a pack of cichlids when he was only about the size of my gnawed-off pinky nail. I paid half-price for him because he was "half a fish." Nubbin' is very dear to us, obviously. He is also camera shy.

 

[Ace Of Spades]

 

[Tsi_User]

Very cool tanks, but damn that clown knife is ugly

 

[kj23502]

to the forum!!

Nice pics. I really love your fish.

Hope the salties end up pulling through the ordeal

 

[catfish101]

very cool tanks sorry to hear about the leak and I hope the angel is ok the red tail looks funny. I'v always wanted one but my biggest tank is a 240 and i cant imagine upgrading anytime soon

 

[invader]

Nice monsters, but do you only feed them goldfish??

I would love to have a Datnoid that nice and big.

 

[Racerchic478]

Pictures don't really do the RTC justice. He does have tiny-ish eyes, though. But he sure recognizes me when I come up to the glass!

Our arowana and TSN came to us almost that big, and eating only feeders. We used to do a mixed diet, but those two refused anything but goldfish. So when we fed them, the other fish got a taste for goldfish. We've tried other types of food, but none of them will hear any of it. It doesn't mess the tank up too badly, we have a pretty massive sump that clears the water of "glitter" in about 5-8 minutes, and I scrape the large waste out with what looks like a tiny lawn rake.

Thanks for all the compliments! I actually didn't know anything about the tiger dat until after I had decided I "HAD TO" have him. Invader, do you know how to tell the difference between an Indo and a Wide-bar? I was told mine is a wide-bar, but I'm not totally convinced. He has equally sized bands on his anal fin section. What do you think?

Update on angel: I tried something. We normally keep the salinity levels at 1.018-019 seeing as it's a "fish-only" tank.h But my LFS told me I could lower it to 1.016 safely to remove stubborn ich. I did so, after checking with several other sources, and he seems to look better already. Still not interested in food, however.

 

[piranha_tim]

Wow ... I don't know what to say other then very impressive.

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

Very very nice fish!

I do want to say that you should try and convert them off goldfish, because they really are bad. I know that they are healthy now and everything, but a diet of just goldfish can really cause problems later down the line. At least try and convert to feeders that aren't goldfish, like convicts or something. I also want to say good job keeping those large fish in such clean water before all the flamers come.

Those are some monster fish, good luck!

 

[invader]

I looks like a widebar to me, but I'm no expert. Many an indo has confused me. The best person to ask is T1KARMANN. He has kept many different datnoids and he is good at recognizing the different species.

I agree with space monkey about the goldfish. They are really a bad choice in food for any fish. I would consider changing the fish over to chopped market shrimp from any supermarket and a good pellet food. Variety is better, but start easy for now.

Good luck with those monsters. Many of them are going to get huge! I hope you have a permanent home set up for them.

 

[Racerchic478]

We've actually had most of the Souths since they were tiny. They have grown, and we've upgraded tanks each time. The last time was actually a downgrade, as we used to have a 450 DAS tank with a cool canopy (logs and vines and jungly looking stuff) ... but she sprung a nasty leak we could never iron out. So we gave it to some hopeful for $100. I bet it has turtles in it by now. The next time we move (building our "it" home in the next few years) our red tail is going to have his own 800-900 gallon tank to play in. We'll see how the other "monsters" fare in there, but I'm not chancing him eating anything.

And as far as the goldfish go.... we learned that we couldn't wean them off goldfish the hard way. They ignored pellets, shrimp or any other chopped food... and soon turned on each other. I'd rather have my RTC eating goldfish than my Tiger Datnoid anyday, I believe. We have a separate outdoor tank that we raise our goldfish in. We buy our goldfish direct from a breeder. I would never feed them PetSmart (or comparable) selections. They live here for several weeks to a month in a filtered stock tank on koi pellets and then we pick out the good ones to feed. We give the "weak" fish to our turtle. We only feed what the fish will eat in about a 5 minute timeframe. I figure we've had some of the Souths for 6 years, and if they haven't had any troubles on goldfish yet, there won't be any issues "down the road." In fact, I read somewhere that the redtail would eat chicken liver? We tried that.... he sat on it. I had to scoop it out. Seems ours like the thrill of the chase. I do realize some catfish are different, however. One of our older red tails liked to (attempt to) snack on rocks as well as his "healthier" options. I will say, however, that I wish our red tail had a ...well....a redder tail. Any ideas on live food to enhance color in his tail?

The clear water comes from having a 75 gallon wet/dry sump with 2.5 lbs crushed coral and 2.5 lbs ammo chips and a MagDrive 18 pump. We put a TurboTwist 400 UV sterilizer in after we changed blinds and found they allowed more light in and thus caused algae to bloom. So that pump turns a 240 gallon tank over nearly 9 times an hour. We do 15-20% water change every two weeks, and like I said, I scoop poo after every feeding.

'Scuse the mess. It's water-change day tomorrow. Think I'm going to do a little maintenance to the sump as well.


PS - RTC wanted a photo-redo, on account of someone saying he looked funny.

edited to add photos

 

[andywg]

The question is, what will you do with the RTC ocne it outgrows the 800-900 gallon tank? I have swam in such a tank (with an 8x6 footprint) and know for a fact it would not be large enough for a fully grown RTC (though you will have plenty of time to upgrade such a tank).

And as for goldfish, consider this post by nmonks and in particular:

A third disadvantage is that some feeder fish (notably goldfish and rosy-red minnows) contain large amounts of the enzyme thiaminase. This breaks down thiamin (vitamin B1) and over time this will lead to serious health problems.

Just because they aren't sick yet doesn't mean they won't be. The RTC hasn't finished its main growing phase until it is past 4 feet and approaching 5. So at the very leat try and find a better feeder source.

 

[Bigpig]

How big do the redtailed catfish get?

I saw one in a tinny tank in a shop round town. He was almost the length of it.

Lets just say I refuse to buy anything in the shop not even food or meds I will travel longer to get what I need.

 

[JenCliBee]

How big do the redtailed catfish get?

I saw one in a tinny tank in a shop round town. He was almost the length of it.

Lets just say I refuse to buy anything in the shop not even food or meds I will travel longer to get what I need.

average is around 4 foot but can get 2 6 if i remeber correctly definitley not recommended in any home aquarium IMO

 

[Racerchic478]

The question is, what will you do with the RTC ocne it outgrows the 800-900 gallon tank? I have swam in such a tank (with an 8x6 footprint) and know for a fact it would not be large enough for a fully grown RTC (though you will have plenty of time to upgrade such a tank).

In the amount of time it takes for him to get to be that big, it'll be my (future) kid's issue to deal with.

In all reality, we know what it takes to house our big fish, and we'll always be willing to grow with them. I don't live in an apartment or loft or anything - it's Texas, we have land.

And we have plenty of wholesale friendships who will always be there to make suggestions on habitat.

Just because they aren't sick yet doesn't mean they won't be. The RTC hasn't finished its main growing phase until it is past 4 feet and approaching 5. So at the very leat try and find a better feeder source.

I trust that if my fish get sick after 6 years of a diet, I will surely try changing their diet - that is, after I move anything with a big mouth away from my bass, gar, clown knife and datnoid.

"At the very least try finding a different feeder source." - Would you suggest a better feeder source than what I have already? Straight from breeder to grow and be watched in my feeder stock tank, with a diet of koi pellets and a heavy filtration system? If there's some kind of small pellet that would be beneficial to feeding the goldfish in terms of getting extra nutrients to my monster fish, please suggest something to me, as I'm open to changing the goldfish diet. Pretty sure they'll eat anything!



Thanks for everyone's input