Need some advice on aquariums (1 Viewer)

[antipop]

do not get an Oscar

those things live too long and get way too big to keep anything else in the tank

go for something that gets no bigger than 4"-5"

 

[ClayT101]

I figure now is a good time to plug my site: www.selas.us

Craigslist is probably the best place to find cheap aquariums.

For fish, if you are in to Africans, best be t is 50 Fathoms. Tropicals and other "fragile" fish, Aquatic Specialties.

 

[Taurus]

do not get an Oscar

those things live too long and get way too big to keep anything else in the tank

go for something that gets no bigger than 4"-5"

Unless you want a big 'ol display fish.

In which case, don't get an Oscar. Dovii or Managuense cichlids are much prettier and way, way more aggressive.

 

[Lon Huang]

do not get an Oscar

those things live too long and get way too big to keep anything else in the tank

go for something that gets no bigger than 4"-5"

Oscars are awesome. I had a red tiger and he get very huge. Kids name him Grouchy because he didnt like other fish. I dont have the tank anymore but I have the Fluval. I sure do love me some Fluval.

 

[Snakehead]

Get an Arowana. Your limited in which kind you can buy living in the states, but a nice Silver Arowana make beautiful fish and are awesome just to look at. They also eat everything except cichlids so be careful what you put in there with it. Usually fish that stay near the bottom are good to go with it as he will patrol the top of the tank. You can feed them anything you want, but don't waste your money on goldfish as they are garbage to feed to your fish. I liked feeding mine crickets when he was young as he grew extremely fast, then once he got big I just fed him frogs, snakes, shiners, crawfish, lizards, etc.

BTW, for those of you that are also fans of Arowanas I now live in Japan and I can actually buy the beautiful Asian Arowanas species over here. I don't have the money to spend on one, but it is cool to go to the pet store over here and see them. When I finally move to the Philippines I will have my Asian Arowanas.

 

[Snakehead]

Unless you want a big 'ol display fish.

In which case, don't get an Oscar. Dovii or Managuense cichlids are much prettier and way, way more aggressive.

Agreed. Do not get an Oscar. They are like a pig in the water. I like theManaguense as it's an awesome looking fish and it's hard to find a fish more aggressive than that one. Oscars aren't that aggressive when compared against other cichlids, but they are nastier.

 

[antipop]

Unless you want a big 'ol display fish.

In which case, don't get an Oscar. Dovii or Managuense cichlids are much prettier and way, way more aggressive.

man, my oscar lived through katrina....without a filter and food for a few days

and he was only in a 30g

he was getting close to 10" in length when i gave him away to a friend who promptly killed him in about 2 weeks

but i decided if i ever do another aquarium, i am going with some smaller cichlids

 

[The Unrest Cure]

Get an Arowana.

BTW, for those of you that are also fans of Arowanas I now live in Japan and I can actually buy the beautiful Asian Arowanas species over here. I don't have the money to spend on one, but it is cool to go to the pet store over here and see them. When I finally move to the Philippines I will have my Asian Arowanas.

Aros are great fish, just make certain that you are able to get an appropriately sized aquarium for a fish that can and will get 36" in a ridiculously short time, and you are prepared to deal with a fish that can easily live 15+ years when kept appropriately.

And you can get Asian aros in the US. You just have to know where to look.

And be prepared to drop some major dosh.

I wouldn't recommend the Craigslist angle; for the most part Louisianians want you to pay premium price for used equipment. For that headache and minimal discount, just shop around and get the advantage of an educated staff to help and a warranty. A good LFS is worth its weight in gold, IMO.

 

[St. Widge]

man, my oscar lived through katrina....without a filter and food for a few days

and he was only in a 30g

he was getting close to 10" in length when i gave him away to a friend who promptly killed him in about 2 weeks

but i decided if i ever do another aquarium, i am going with some smaller cichlids

I had Oscars when I was a kid. They're okay, but at some point they get pretty boring since they don't do much and you can only really have one in a tank. Africans are a lot more interesting since you can put more in the tank.

 

[BoatsNBeer]

If you're looking at doing cichlids and buying more than 5 or 6 fish you should really look at buying from a big place on-line and have them shipped. You get a better selection and you get a better price even with the shipping. You can expect to pay $6 on-line for a small fish that will cost you $12-18 in a local store. If you were looking at large fish, $25-35 online, and $50+ in the store (if you can find anything worth having)

I have 3 tanks (2 at home and one in my office), and I am always looking for new fish. The problem though is going into the local places they rarely have anything other than the hobby "staples". And even if they have something nicer they usually only have one type. This is a problem with cichlids b/c you need to introduce 3-5 fish at a time to avoid the established fish killing the new ones. The only drawback to buying online is that you can't see the actual fish you are getting beforehand. But I have used the site in my post above twice now and was extremely pleased with the quality of the fish. Really top-notch.

 

[antipop]

just curious, how are live fish shipped??

 

[St. Widge]

If you're looking at doing cichlids and buying more than 5 or 6 fish you should really look at buying from a big place on-line and have them shipped. You get a better selection and you get a better price even with the shipping. You can expect to pay $6 on-line for a small fish that will cost you $12-18 in a local store. If you were looking at large fish, $25-35 online, and $50+ in the store (if you can find anything worth having)

I have 3 tanks (2 at home and one in my office), and I am always looking for new fish. The problem though is going into the local places they rarely have anything other than the hobby "staples". And even if they have something nicer they usually only have one type. This is a problem with cichlids b/c you need to introduce 3-5 fish at a time to avoid the established fish killing the new ones. The only drawback to buying online is that you can't see the actual fish you are getting beforehand. But I have used the site in my post above twice now and was extremely pleased with the quality of the fish. Really top-notch.

Yeah, liveaquaria.com is a good option if you are buying a lot of fish to get started. On line fish prices and variety are much better than local price and selection. The overnight shipping is expensive, but worth it since you save so much on the cost of the fish. And, like you said, you get a much bigger selection of available fish. Lots of other good sites to buy from on line. The problem is that it's risky to put that many fish in at the same time since it will be difficult for the take to handle a large biomass at one time. I did it with about 18 fish to start, but I used Marine Land's Bio-Spira to kick start the cycle to do it. It worked, but it was a tense few weeks waiting for the tank to cycle properly.

If I had it to do all over again, I'd fill my tank with Demasoni and Yellow labs.

 

[St. Widge]

just curious, how are live fish shipped??

They send them overnight by air. You can either pick them up at the airport or just have them delivered. They send them in a large box with big bags of water that are well oxygenated. Sometimes they also put a sedative in the water to keep them calm. It's odd to think that you can do that, but it works really well.

 

[Soundwave]

How's my tank room?

 

[Det. Brees]

I bought a fluval FX5 for my 100 gal. its over kill but it filters 1000 gals a hour and cuts down on work for me. They are around $400.00 but I'll post a site later tonight that sells them for $190.00.