Tiger fish info newbie :-)

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Jamie.D90

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 21, 2013
22
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England
Hi everyone this is my first post so hello from sunny England.... I am just in the process off buying a 5x2x2 ft aquarium & stand I think it's 550 litres ? With 2 x 2000lph external filters so altogether with tank & filtration it's about 600 litres :-) this isn't my first predator tank, but I haven't had any fish tanks in a few years, and just want some input from you guys here, I'm thinking about having 2 maybe 3 vivvatus tiger fish (hope that's the correct name) they are currently 5 inches long, what I want to know is what is ideal tank set-up and temps and also if my tank is adequate ? Thanks in advance for your help !
 
That tank will work for a while as long as you have a powerful powerhead. Eventually you will want to go with a much longer tank. Get some cheap teacher fish to get them on non live foods also.

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Thanks for your reply, which tiger fish species would you recommend for my 5ft tank? Or am I best re-thinking to a different fish. Which I don't really want to do :-( the person I am buying the tiger fish from only has vivvatus tiger fish at roughly 5 inch
 
Siddons11 said:
That tank will work for a while as long as you have a powerful powerhead. Eventually you will want to go with a much longer tank. Get some cheap teacher fish to get them on non live foods also.

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brilliant! That's made me feel better, how long would it take these fish outgrow my 5ft tank and would 3 be okay together in my tank? Or am I best with solitary one on its own?
 
Jamie.D90 said:
Thanks for your reply, which tiger fish species would you recommend for my 5ft tank? Or am I best re-thinking to a different fish. Which I don't really want to do :-( the person I am buying the tiger fish from only has vivvatus tiger fish at roughly 5 inch
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Trust me on this. Your 5' tank is only good for a year or so at most if you get a vittatus. That is WITH running tons of current. That being said, there is a very real chance that the fish you're considering buying aren't even vittatus. This past year there were a whole bunch of brevis and forskahlii brought in with very, very few vittatus.

Try to post pics so we can ID them.

A forskahlii tiger fish will work for you for life in that tank. ONE forskhalii. But you'll need tons of current, you'll need dramatic over filtering and you'll need very little furniture in the tank.
 
Thanks for everybody's input what will I need water temperature wise? And serious current? I have a couple of 5000lph wave makers if that's any good? But can buy some more if needed, my tank is on order ATM and should be arriving within a few days, obviously I will need go through the tank cycle and all that, just want as much info of peoples own experiences of keeping these fish I'm going in blind really this is the only bit of research i have done, but that said I. Have got a few months to do my homework on these fish!


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Jamie.D90 said:
Thanks for everybody's input what will I need water temperature wise? And serious current? I have a couple of 5000lph wave makers if that's any good? But can buy some more if needed, my tank is on order ATM and should be arriving within a few days, obviously I will need go through the tank cycle and all that, just want as much info of peoples own experiences of keeping these fish I'm going in blind really this is the only bit of research i have done, but that said I. Have got a few months to do my homework on these fish!


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IF you're serious about keeping these fish, the first piece of advice would be since you're having a custom tank built, to scrap the 5x2x2 and go BIG. 8x3x2 at a bare minimum. Unless you're willing to stick to just ONE Hydrocynus forskahlii, that tank will be too small. Even for one FATF that's really cutting it close. It'd be better if you had a 180 at least.

The current you're planning to run is no where near enough for the fish. 5000 lph is 1300 gph. A 5x2x2 is 150 gallons. For a tank of that size, you should be running 5-7000 GALLONs per hour. That's in the ballpark of 25,000 lph. Never mind the ridiculous over-filtration you're going to have to run to keep this fish healthy...
 
Thanks for replying! The only problem I have got is the area in my lounge this tank is going to be placed is 5.5ft so the tank is a snug fit! The only other option I have got is keep the fish in the 5ft tank for a year, then invest in a larger more long term home for them? I used too keep northern pike in a massive 12000 gallon pond, but for this fish I would need a reliable source of heating and cover, as we get very harsh cold winters here in Britain :-( and my pike could survive these low temps easily, I still have the pond ATM with koi in there, maybe in a years time I can add a nice tiger fish ? See how the wife reacts to a heated pond lol! ( electricity bill through the roof!) but I'm going to attempt these fish as my heart is set on keeping 1/2 of these tigerfish in this 5ft tank, see how it goes ? Thanks everybody for the info! Great site!


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Jamie.D90 said:
Thanks for replying! The only problem I have got is the area in my lounge this tank is going to be placed is 5.5ft so the tank is a snug fit! The only other option I have got is keep the fish in the 5ft tank for a year, then invest in a larger more long term home for them? I used too keep northern pike in a massive 12000 gallon pond, but for this fish I would need a reliable source of heating and cover, as we get very harsh cold winters here in Britain :-( and my pike could survive these low temps easily, I still have the pond ATM with koi in there, maybe in a years time I can add a nice tiger fish ? See how the wife reacts to a heated pond lol! ( electricity bill through the roof!) but I'm going to attempt these fish as my heart is set on keeping 1/2 of these tigerfish in this 5ft tank, see how it goes ? Thanks everybody for the info! Great site!


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One would be fine for a while. If you get a FATF (Hydrocynus forskahlii), you'll be fine essentially indefinitely. FATF are pretty much a 'dwarf' species. Two tigerfish is a no-go. They'll target each other and fight. Your best bet is to have one centerpiece fish with some smaller, expendable dither fish as tankmates. I don't think the pond idea will work, these are equatorial fish after all. Unless you're a Lord, I think heating the pond might be prohibitively expensive! lol
 
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