New to the game, advice needed.

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Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 27, 2010
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Australia
I have just set up my first tank. Its 80L, 2.9M long but fairly narrow. My plan is to have a mixture of Oscars, Jaguars & Green Acari. When they get a bit too big trade them back to the LFS and get some smaller ones and start again. Trouble is the new fish I have introduced to the tank (namely the oscars, 4 small ones 3") are attacking the 2 other Albino Oscars I already had in the tank. The ones being attacked are bigger than the new ones? There seems to be one of the "new" ones being the ring leader. Could this be an alpha male situation going on? The Jaguars & Green Acari seem to be getting along fine with every one and the Oscars are leaving them alone. What should I do?

Any help is appreciated, go easy im a beginner :)
 
Could you please tell us the exact dimensions of your tank? Your tank is really overstocked. I wouldn't keep more than one Oscar in an 80 gallon tank. I know yours are small, but 6 juvie Oscars, plus Jags and "Green Acari", is still way too many fish for one tank of that size. I'm not at all surprised that you have bullying. American cichlids are simply not friendly, community fish, even as juveniles. Jags especially are extremely aggressive.

You will have better success if you stock the tank with a species that can comfortably live in that tank for life. The fish you have just aren't going to get along for any length of time. If you let us know the dimensions of the tank, we can help you with stocking it correctly.

Also, are you familiar with cycling a tank? Please let us know... it's very important to the health of your fish.
 
The tank I have was birthday gift from my girlfriend. While I understand its a bit "wanky" its all I have if & until I can convince her to get a "proper" tank. Trouble with the tank is its pretty long so it just looks bare unless there are 10+ fish in it and I have a real soft spot for the fish I have just got.


This is the tank I have.

http://www.piqua.com.au/products-page/wall-mounted-aquariums/titanic/

I assume the heath of my set up is good because the last fish I had (which I traded in for the new ones) all thrived. I had 4 electric yellows & 2 electric blues which all got to a good size and the yellows had mated and had 3 babies. :)

I welcome your feed back.
 
Okay, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but this tank is entirely too small for the species you have selected for it. I did the math and the size of this tank is:

length: 94 inches
width: 4.5 inches
height: 18 inches
The website states that the tank's capacity is 65 liters, which is 17 gallons.

Jags reach 15 inches in length, Oscars 12-14 inches, and Acaras about 8-9 inches. This tank is very inappropriate for all three of these species. I can't really say much else other than you need to return the fish or upgrade to a tank that is at least 500 gallons (or roughly 2000 liters) to expect to house all of them.

I'm really confused as to why you said you will return them once they get too big, but you're already attached to them. Do you understand why they won't work? The tank is only 4.5 inches from front to back, which leaves barely any room to turn around. That size tank is not intended for New World cichlids. Oscars and Jags grow at roughly 1" per month, and having all of these small fish in a 17 gallon tank is already very bad for their health.

Please turn them in and choose fish that are appropriate for this tank. Small schooling fish such as tetras or barbs would be a much better choice.
 
Those are some weird dimensions. I wouldn't put anything larger than platys in there. Only 11.5cm to turn around means that a fish bigger than 11.5 cm wont be able to turn around. Also Oscars get longer and higher than 11.5cm meaning they will not be able to turn around at all.
 
Something aint adding up, the tank I nearly 8' long but the depth is so small an adult male arm is to big to fit far enough to reach the bottom
 
I've seen these tanks before and they're basically like a fish bowl just stretched really long. They're marketed as "bookshelf" type tanks.
 
They are "wall mount" aquariums, meaning you can hang them on the wall like a flat-panel television or artwork. In my opinion they're just novelty tanks and are probably inappropriate for most types of fish.
 
It's a worthless tank for cichlid keeping and your plan to trade them in is horrible too. My lfs' won't even take Oscar trades because there's too many of them on the market and they can't get rid of them. If you keep this tank and try to carry on with your plans, you'll probably fall into the statistics of the 9 out of 10 new hobbyists who quit in their first year anyway so I guess it won't matter. At 4.5" wide, you could try and keep some guppies or something but as for cichlids, I don't think it would be fair to even the little apisto's or rams....get a new tank that's made for the large fish you're interested in keeping.
 
Agreed on this, it just isn't the tank made for these kind of fish. And that tank is supremely overstocked, those fish are probably already hating life b/c it must be difficult for them to turn even now, imagine what you would put them through as they try to grow.

I could put you into a coffin, yea it would be comfy, but you probably wouldn't be able to turn or anything. Think that would get old quick? And on top of that you would be able to eat nothing but chili, hardcore chili that churns your bowels somethin fierce and you can't get out. That's what you have going on with so many heavy bioload fish. Think of them in that situation.
 
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