David K. Bradley;4593122; said:In my experience that I had raising my Oscars (1 Albino and 1 Tiger) along with my 2 Banjo Pleco's, I have to agree once again with packer43064. These fish are discustingly messy. I had to clean my tanks twice a week (every Wednesday and Sunday) to keep it spotlessly clean and the water polished, for them, with water changes on the second cleaning of their tanks. I was running 3 Marine Land Bio-Wheel 440's per tank. And their tanks were still horibly messy as each day progressed after cleaning. I then took to lightly vaccuming their tanks every other day, just to try and keep up with the bio-load, with maintaining the bi-weekly maintenance.
When I could not acquire a tank larger than a 55 gallon, I knew eventually I would have to do something about getting a larger tank for my fish. I was looking for no less than a 90 gallon tank to house 1 Oscar and 1 Banjo Pleco. At the time, I was ignorant to the exhistance of the MFK website, nevr thought of building my own DIY tanks for them. DUH! I really didn't know what to do other than sell them. So, I put a for sale sign down at my LFS and in our local penny ad's paper (does the term "Penny Saver" ring a bell with anyone?). Within 3 days, I had a interested buyer contact me.
Unknown to me at the time, he was an Oscar breeder and was looking for a couple of male Oscars for his females that he owned. At the time of the sales transaction, my 2 male Oscars had reached a length of 21 inches a piece (tip to tail), and my 2 Banjo Pleco's had reached a length of 24 inches each (tip to tail)
and pleased
my Oscars were as big as they were. My Banjo Pleco's as well. He purchased all 4 of them and took them home and put them in respective tanks to mate with his female Oscars and kept the Banjo Pleco's with the Oscars they grew up with. The 4 of them ended up into separate 350 gallon tank each, which the breeder used for breeding tanks for his Oscars and eventually when the Oscars spawned, the breeder immediately moved the Banjo Pleco's into a 500 gal. tank with some other 8 to 10 inch cichlids he owned). I had bought my Oscars from (believe it or not) the Wal-Mart Store - Pet Department, in Show Low, AZ when they were 2.5" long. My Oscars were only in my possession for 14 months and grew to the monsterous sizes they were at the time of sale. I only wish I was able to purchased at least 2 - 90 gallon or 125 gallon tanks. I'd probably have them still to this day.
Once again packer43064 hits the nail on the head! Give the man a prize! I couldn't agree more. But as mentioned earlier, for your 75, I'd stock it with cichlids that get 3 to 5 inches in size. Port Acara's and the Rams are 2 of my favorites, next to Mbuna's.
I hope all of this helps with your discission making process. Keep us posted on what you decide. I'm anxiously awaiting for hopefully some updates and photo's.
Subscribed.
~David
Thanks.
