When a 240g becomes 'small'

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Steve_Henderson

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 24, 2008
42
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New Jersey
So waaaaaay back in the day when I decided to get into keeping fish, I always wanted an arowana. Within a year or two, I had a 55 gallon set up with a few random fish in it, and found a baby 5" silver arowana for sale for 25$ at a somewhat local fish store. Doing some reading online, everyone said I would need at LEAST a 150 gallon tank to keep him when he grows up. I thought no problem, since I had the room and could fit it. Down the road, when he got to be over 16" in my 55g, I knew it was time to upgrade. We made a hike up to NY (about 3 hours away) to pick up an all glass 240g for $450~. I set it up, and transfered him over (which by this time he had a clown knife as a tank mate who was turning out to be equally as big). He's been in there for a good 4 years now, however this 240g has become 'small'. He's probably around 24" now, and the clown knife is around 20".

When people find out I have a fish tank, they go "oh really? How big and what do you have in it?". My response is always "well I have a 240g, with a 2 foot arowana and clown knife that's a little smaller than him, among some other fish." They always react to 240g as being a 'huge' fish tank, but lately as I gaze upon my 1 ton~ case of water in my room, it just seems too small. Anyone else have this problem? I'm still living at home (being 21 of course) and really don't have the room to make anything larger. I thought about knocking out a partial wall and doing a diy 10x3.5x3 tank, though I'm not really sure of the cost of this, and it would REALLY take up a good portion of what living space I have left. Currently I have an 8x2x2.5(?). Not really a point to this post, just to see if anyone else has run into a problem like this.
 
Every time my non-fish keeping friends tell me they saw a huge tank, it always ends up being a 50g-60g tank :ROFL: And when they say they had some big fish in it, they're usually under 10" :ROFL: When they come over and see my 75g and my fish (at the time, they were 10"-12"), they thought I was nuts for having such a big tank with huge fish. :ROFL:
 
lol i have cichlids in mine, i to want an arowana.
i'm pretty young aswell, 16.
my cichlids are all around 10" and they're growing everyday, i can actually see the growth lol.
getting fatter, taller, longer, more colourful.
their in a 120 and yes the tank does get smaller every second you stare at it.
before i know it my midas and oscar will be chilling at 14" in a 120 gallon lol.

i plan to get a 240+ gallon and put my dovii in my 120 and SACA's in my 240+.
then eventually i'll probably put my dovii in my 240+ and just keep my midas in my 120
and raise some fry in my 77.
it seems like the hobby just keeps going and going forever and ever, til you have no room.
i remember when i thought my 77 gallon was big lol.
now i'm thinking of purchasing tanks bigger than a 240 gallon ha.
 
I know what you mean. So many non fish hobbyists think anything over 10 or 20 gallons is big. A girl at work a few weeks ago mentioned thinking about getting some angels (or discus!-that thought really horrified me) for her BIG 30 gallon. And here I am in the back of my head mulling over plans for an 8-10'X3-4'X2-3' tank that I hope to build within the next couple years to upgrade the fish in my tiny 75 gallon to
 
When I first got my 75g, I thought it was a good start for a "big" tank. But once I got it home, I already knew I wanted bigger:ROFL:
 
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