new 12inch red in his 187g

[justarn]

Heres my new red, after previously owning 2 juvi reds in my cichlid community which I moved on I took the step and dedicated a large tank to this guy, few hundered pounds later and a budget stand and lid build and here I am! Not feeding yet but I guess he needs to settle, he ate some of my fish while in my cichlid comm, an a piece of white fish which he was only interested in when another fish picked it up which is odd?. Drove for hour and a half to get him to find him with a wound on his side that I wasn't told about, seems to be healing tho! If he doesn't eat I've been thinking of feeders, maybe a shoul of convicts with lots of hiding places, wonder if they could breed enough to continue at least some live fish, I had them before an they bred like rabbits?

 

[fish042099]

That tank looks way smaller than it is

 

[tokyogasmask]

2 problems here.
187gal, with an incredibly messy fish and that is all the filtration?

And what are you going to do in 6 months time when he needs much more space?

 

[justarn]

There's always one! I'll eat it an buy a smaller one Again lol, at that size that 1200lph filter will do for a week or two until I get another fx5! And seriously if I still want it I'll build a ply pond in my garage, if not a give it to my mate for one of his 8x3x3's! Its sometimes like bloody fish greenpiece on here sometimes... Chances are in the wild it would be dead a long time ago, an the guy I bought it off had it in a 100g with a 24inch one and a jag! I really don't care if you wanna keep a snakehead or dovii in a 100g good luck to ya, as long as the waters clean and its fed! What about all the feeders that get eaten start a campaign for them become a veggie too! Lol rant over!

 

[justarn]

Sorry tokyo, instead of rudely bullet pointing me you coulda been a bit more subtle!-) I personally believe they grow much slower than lots of people make out, I've owned a few now! Someone on another post tried to tell me my dovii would hit 18inch in a year... What a joke! A lot of reds never get over 2.5-3ft a friend of mine had one for ten years in a 300g and it stayed 2ft! Depends on the fish. A lot of dovii never get past 18inch although most sites say they hit 28 even 30 plus inch, maybe very rarely in the wild... You might be 5 foot I might be 7 who knows. I will keep my tanks clean and I wouldn't have a fish in a tank it was as long as is wide! Tank came up cheap owes me inc stand all in 245 pounds, 500 dollars! That's two days wages. Tank is 5x2x3

 

[tokyogasmask]

Didn't mean to come across rude.
I have been a Channa enthusiast for a long time, and drill it in to myself to keep my fish in suitable housing.
IMO an 8ft tank is not near enough for a Micropeltes.
I kept both of mine in that till they were big enough for the pond.

After a while in the pond, it became rather boring (end expensive) feeding them but not being able to actually see them, so they were given to the wetlands, rivers, and invasives centre which I frequent.
Mine all grew very fast, and if kept in CORRECT environments, they should very easily hit the 2.5ft plus size.

It's a forum, we all have opinions. My opinion is Micropeltes and Marulius are only suitable for ponds or tanks of that size.

Cheers.

 

[justarn]

Thanks, so it seems I'll probably be learning the same way you did!-) I haven't got a problem taking fish back to the store or selling it if it outgrows its tank, I recently sold my 15inch arowana and aa few months before my old red which I grew to 8inch and my red tailed cat which I grew from a kitten to 8 inch. I respect peoples views too, when I am posting pics of a foot long red tail in a 3 foot tank tell me of then... I have researched every fish I've bought and could reel of just about every species of american cichild inc latin names lol, max size diet ect! Sad really lol! Cheers.

 

[chronick]

i must agree with tokyo; I love that you have started with a very reasonably sized tank for your micro but if it is housed in the proper conditions, almost all micros should exceed 2.5feet

 

[everlastace]

I don't know enough to really chime in here, but that is a wicked cool fish!

Sent from my LG-P509 using MonsterAquariaNetwork App

 

[justarn]

Thanks chronik, I have been thinking about a plywood tank there's an old post of mine on here. I was split before I got this tank set up maybe I should have but hey this ones set up for now. The fish has a brighter future than it did have! Cheers everlast!-)