hi mate , good questions
the bare minimum size tank i would house 1 adult micro in for long term is 6 foot by 3ft by 2ft
the bare minimum i would house 3 micros in at adult size long term is 9ft by 4ft by 4ft
again these are bare minimum sizes in my opinion, you need to remember if you want your micros to look there best and maintain there great sheen on the body ,then they must feel secure, to feel secure they will highly apprechiate floating cover and some structure in there in the form of large wood roots ect. so the bigger the better
there is a micro in a shop near where i live in a 8x2x2 and it looks crammped , it is also in a bare tank and there is no sheen to the body at all , the fish was rescued by the shop from a customer who had it in a juwel trigon , (the fish is 3ft ,juwel trigons are 3ft corner tanks) this shows no matter what people think or how they keep them ,micros will reach 3ft in the aquarium, a nine foot tank only allows the fish to move three times its body length if it reaches the minimum expected size in a aquarium.
i strongly belive a tank should have a bare minimum width equal to lenght of the fish, considering the expected lenght of a captive micro being 3ft something. then 4ft width would more than likley be sufficiant. of course if you could provide more than this then that is better
200-300 gal. would work out the absolute bare minimum anyone should consider for one micro personally i would not keep one in such a small tank at adult size ,and think that at that size you would be forced to keep it in a bare tank due to space restrictions.
a decent tank say 9x3x2 would work out at around the 400gal mark and is what i would recomend for one micro
a decent tank for 3 micros say 10x4x4 would work out at around 1100gal
at these sizes a plywood tank is a very real alternitive to a glass tank, in fact at this size you will find arcrylic will be around the same price as glass. and would also be better in such a large size.
when building a plywood tank i would also prefer to use arcrylic as the viewing window for safty reasons.
if useing a glass tank there is a slight chance of a micro going it , they certainly have the capability ,but this decreases with glass thickness , going for 12mm all round minimum would reduce this risk , also micros that are grown from juviniles in captivity useally do not ram the glass , a wild caught adult will ram the glass a lot. allway use perspex ect for the top covers as this is the part most likley to get smashed.
a ply wood tank is not better than a glass tank just as a plastic tank is not better or worse than either of the others , they all have pros and cons, the cheepest way to get a huge tank is without doubt plywood , unless you can find a second hand glass tank.
cleaning a plywood tank would be easy , as only the front viewing glass would need cleaning and you could just stick a scrapper on it . on a glass tank personally i would fit some of the juwel structured background on the back and sides , this is arounf 2" thick in places , as well as taking any blows delt by the fish ,stopping any breakages ,it would also not need to be cleaned (mine been fitted for two years now and have not cleanrd it yet ,if fact it just looks more realistic as time goes on) leaving just the front panel to clean again ,which could be taken care of via a magnetic scrapper.
personally i would have no worries putting my hand in to clean a tank with big micros in , unless they had paired up. i useally find if you put in a peice of wood first ,they will attack that and sharply realise its not food , as soon as they have realosed then put your arm in and clen as req.d , the main reason a micro will bite is because they get used to attacking anything that breaks the surface thinking its food , as soon as they realise its not food time they loose interest.
cheers col
