[deathwalkr]

@Swift_guy: The tank size you have mentioned is a regular sized tank only. Has it been used throughout or is it lying dry? If being used throughout then am sure you dont need to meddle around with it.

only get the plecos if you are sure you can exchange them. oh wait, does the guy have these 3 big plecos in that tank? :((

congrats. its a nice tank size to start with you have good options to select. just curious, what 3 fishes have you decided?

[swift_guy]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

@Swift_guy: The tank size you have mentioned is a regular sized tank only. Has it been used throughout or is it lying dry? If being used throughout then am sure you dont need to meddle around with it.

congrats. its a nice tank size to start with you have good options to select. just curious, what 3 fishes have you decided?

I am waiting for that person to respond. He was asking 2.3k and I have offered him 2k, waiting for his reply now. Used aquariums don't fetch much and I feel 2k is also high (1.5k would be fine).

It was used throughout. Sadly that person doesn't know a thing about fishkeeping (very much like me). He said that he had 7 goldfish and 3 plecos in it in the beginning and only 3 plecos are left now (). He is a young chap going to hostel for higher studies and is selling the aquarium for this reason.

For me, this tank would be good enough as I would have got nothing more than a 4 ft tank in near future. And considering it would have costed ~8k, I am thinking of this idea to spend the saved amount on fish care and creating a good environment for them (which otherwise would have been a low budget setup).

I will need help to decide new fish and will not do "this-looks-nice" shopping this time. I will get one pleco (a light orange one, don't know breed name), 1 goldfish and one betta I think (?). I have talked about exchange already. The person who will take these big plecos has massive aquariums at his place for show (no sale) purpose and I am sure they will be happy there.

[deathwalkr]

nice to know the plecos will be offloaded to a bigger place

please confirm what the orange pleco is before buying. post pic if possible. goldfish and betta? not sure if its a good idea.

[swift_guy]

It looks like this. Albino sailfin pleco I think. Same as the sailfin pleco you have, with a different colour.



I will be taking (a lot of) advice before getting new fish this time. One decent sized regular goldfish and a pleco is final, need to decide on 1 small fish, that will not nip/trouble other fish and be quite tolerant to temperature and water condition changes. Want a peaceful environment only. :P

I will update if I can get that 3 ft. tank. I will get fish, plants, filter and gravel after discussing here.

[deathwalkr]

Get the pleco only if your friend agrees to pick them up for his big tanks later on. Sailfins can get upto one and a half feet in size

[swift_guy]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Get the pleco only if your friend agrees to pick them up for his big tanks later on. Sailfins can get upto one and a half feet in size

Yes, he has no problems in taking big fishes and giving smaller ones in exchange. He has a fish store with two big aquariums for display (more than 6' I think) and another giant 7' tank at his home.

My thinking was that plecos don't need much space to roam around. I may be wrong though.

[deathwalkr]

nice to have friends with big tanks

oh and most plecos are crazy fishes. getting large, requiring lots of room, they are massive waste generators and also require heavy filtration.

lfs sells the common plecos as tank cleaners. true when they are small they do help control algae a bit but as they grow they produce more waste than what they clean.

sites like this are a good start:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...21&pcatid=1021

or planet catfish

[swift_guy]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

nice to have friends with big tanks

oh and most plecos are crazy fishes. getting large, requiring lots of room, they are massive waste generators and also require heavy filtration.

Yes I read that already. Giant plecos produce more waste than they clean. Fish stores here say that these don't require food and survive on fish poop.

Algae isn't formed in home aquariums, is it so?

[deathwalkr]

Alage is formed in home aquariums

[tiger_stripes]

Wow. I always had this mental bias that there would not be many aquarium hobbyists on this forum because they would be busy driving. Boy, was I wrong! Am truly impressed with some of the setups.

The last aquarium I had was a small tank with java fern and neon tetras. My main issue was keeping them fed when we were out of town for few weeks. Reviews of automatic feeders were ambiguous, so never got to buying one. What is the feedback of people who are using them. Are they effective or do they end up dirtying the water with excess feed? Also how do you take care of the plants? I assume you cannot keep the lights on for so many days.

[deathwalkr]

@tiger stripes: i have not had much experience with auto feeders but as for the lights, you can set up timers.

[swift_guy]

You can move the aquarium to a place where sunlight enters (through door/windows) during the time you can not manually switch the lights. It will act as a light with auto timer.

[RajeswaranK7]

Originally Posted by swift_guy

You can move the aquarium to a place where sunlight enters (through door/windows) during the time you can not manually switch the lights. It will act as a light with auto timer.

@swift_guy

Sunlight will cause the aquarium to heat up and induce algae growth. It is a general rule not to place the aquarium near door/windows as it will lead to fluctuations in water temperature especially with smaller aquariums due to less water volume.

[swift_guy]

Originally Posted by RajeswaranK7

@swift_guy

Sunlight will cause the aquarium to heat up and induce algae growth. It is a general rule not to place the aquarium near door/windows as it will lead to fluctuations in water temperature especially with smaller aquariums due to less water volume.

Oh, I didn't knew that. Thanks for clarifying.

Mine isn't placed near doors/windows BTW.

[petrol_power]

Originally Posted by tiger_stripes

My main issue was keeping them fed when we were out of town for few weeks. Reviews of automatic feeders were ambiguous, so never got to buying one. What is the feedback of people who are using them. Are they effective or do they end up dirtying the water with excess feed?

I have been using the automatic food feeder on very regular basis as every month atleast 10 - 12 days I will be out of town with no one to take care of my fish (I stay alone from the last few months). I have a primitive looking food feeder with a difficult position for the correct aperture/opening size through which the food falls. If I keep it in position 3, very less food falls and position 4 leads to huge quantity of disposal (wrt the regular quantity I feed my fish), so keeping it b/w 3and 4 was difficult, but I have somehow managed that position and now my water never gets dirty by over feeding, neither fish has to remain in hunger

There are lot of automatic feeders now with lot of options. So I guess selecting a decent one will eliminate my problems of the quantity disposed. Plus buying food pellet of different size can also eliminate the issue for me, but I saw that all my fish like one particular type of food and I stick to that.