Some questions on polypterus.

[snakefin]

Good afternoon all of you professional keepers! I have been browsing your forum for some time as a guest, and given that I have retaken the notion of keeping polypterus, I've decided to join the forum and learn a little bit more on what I'm getting into. About two years ago, I got myself two ropefish and a twenty gallon tank (60x40x40)cm, planted with plastic plants, with no substrate. They have now grown to more than 12 inches each, and I realise that they will need an upgrade soon, along with substrate and perhaps another piece of driftwood. Therefore, my question is, are there any recommendations as to how big I should upgrade my tank to? Will a 50 gallon suffice?

After I am done with all the necessary upgrades, I also intend to get a tank or so of other polypterids, namely either or both the ornates and delhezis. I have read up that they may require tanks exceeding 100 gallons. If so, how many may I stock into each tank for either species? Will mixing be wise?

Thanks for all your help!

 

[iloveoscars702]

Good afternoon all of you professional keepers! I have been browsing your forum for some time as a guest, and given that I have retaken the notion of keeping polypterus, I've decided to join the forum and learn a little bit more on what I'm getting into. About two years ago, I got myself two ropefish and a twenty gallon tank (60x40x40)cm, planted with plastic plants, with no substrate. They have now grown to more than 12 inches each, and I realise that they will need an upgrade soon, along with substrate and perhaps another piece of driftwood. Therefore, my question is, are there any recommendations as to how big I should upgrade my tank to? Will a 50 gallon suffice?

After I am done with all the necessary upgrades, I also intend to get a tank or so of other polypterids, namely either or both the ornates and delhezis. I have read up that they may require tanks exceeding 100 gallons. If so, how many may I stock into each tank for either species? Will mixing be wise?

Thanks for all your help!

well the biggest ornate ive seen was 15" if you go with a 100 gal you can put sens, dels, polli, beutikeforil, palmas palmas, etc.

 

[spwd]

Firstly,welcome buddy.
Ornates get alot bigger than 15",ive got one bigger than that and if you do a search on hereyou should find some bigger ones.
If you wanted a few id get a 180g for those and you could keep some other species like endli,laps etc but im pretty sure the ropefish would be food in there so for them id get something like a 75g and keep some senegals and palmas with them,but they still may get bother from the bichirs,but someone will be along soon to give you some more advice.



Steve

 

[snakefin]

Thank you for your replies. Actually my intention is to isolate the pair of ropefishes entirely because they have been pretty good things to watch for the past two years and I really won't want anything to happen to them. Whereas, I intend to get a new tank or so for bichirs, likely to be either ornates or delhezis as mentioned in my first post but I wonder if they can live well enough in a 50 gallon tank, and if so, how many can I put in? I don't exactly have much of a "authority" so I can only stick around with smaller tanks.

 

[spwd]

A 50g is a no no for an ornate other than a baby,if you can only go that then you are very limited,either senegals or other smaller species.



Steve

 

[snakefin]

Pity. Those are really nice creatures. Alright, would delhezis do better in a fifty gallon?

 

[spwd]

Whats the footprint of the 50g?
You may get away with one del and a few sens or two dels,wait till other people chime in.


Steve

 

[snakefin]

I see your point. I'm giving an estimate of 90x60x60 cm. About there. Stereotype tanks over here.

 

[spwd]

That works out about 85g according to the conversions at the top of the page,but you did say around that size.



Steve

 

[snakefin]

Yea. Perhaps I've gotten the measurements wrong. I think 90x50x50 cm would be much more accurate.