Help with new tank for Natives!

[Benny]

hey everyone,
im over plain old tetras and want to get some natives.
Just wondering if i could one of these natives in a 3 foot.
Aussie Bass, Barramundi, Spangled Perch, Silver Perch, Sleepy Cod, Murray Cod or Sooty Grunter. Is this tank a good size? Or should a buy a 4 footer. Also what would be some good accessories to put in the tank? Plants, Ornaments, Driftwood, etc. And does it need a air pump.
Please help as im really worried :P
Thanks Benny:D

[cichlidboy]

you want to put all of them or just one of them...
a three footer would be a good grow out tank, for about six months...
then they'd need something bigger.
My bass seem to take a while to grow, same goes for my perches and grunters.
But a murray cod would definitely need something bigger by the end of the first year.
probably sooner.
Most natives tend to leave plants alone which is awesome.
My tank is heavily planted with large peices of driftwood.
Set up for natives are exactly the same.
You have to think of proper filtration for your soon to be monster, proper lighting and feeding. Only thing you don't need, is a heart. Although I would recommend it, or at least for the first six months. (Low temps, small natives take forever to grow and they tend to refuse food frequently in low temps)

[Benny]

Cichlid Boy,
Thanks for the quick reply im only 15 and just one of them would suit me any ideas of which is best?
Also wheres a good place to get some good rocks for them. DO i need a heater??

[Benny]

please someone i really need help there most be someone out there who knows a bit!
:)
cheers,
Ben :---:

[SMCK001]

currently i have a 4ft tank inside my house which is unheated and my native do fine in it, as long as u get them feeding in the first few days and u get all fish of the same size in the beggining they will do fine.

i currently have 2 x spangled perch, 2 x silver perch, 2 x bass and 1 x tandanus catfish in the tank and all fish are about 7cm, they do fine with each other. although i did initially have 2 x golden perch in with them but they died as they were a bit small and would not eat properly :(

in my setup i have a internal filter which does about 1200 lt/hr i think and a double t5 light and also a undergravel filter. in the tank i have a lot of drift wood and a few coldwater plants. this setup is simple and runs effectively also gives them a lot of places to hide from each other.

i would not recommend getting a murray cod or barramundi as these grow extremely quickly and will outgrow ur tank in the near future.

also i bought my fish when they were about <5cm and i intend to grow them until they are about 15 cm or so and then sell them as i wanted to have a variety of fish in my tank but new if i wanted to keep them until they were fully grown i would need a massive tank, so i just sell them when they get to big and then start again, this is my second lot of fish and it works well and they are worth a lot more than when u buy them. eg. $10 when u buy at 5cm and worth $30+ at 15+cm. they will prob last in the tank about 1yr or so and as i dont have a heater this slows there growing down and in there natural env. like the murray river the water temp would be about the same as room i have without the heater.

if u want to ask any more questions just ask and ill see if can answer them :)

[Benny]

Sounds great thanks heaps,
do they fight at all, so you dont have any rocks??
what do you feed them?
DO you have Australain Bass,
If theres anything else i need to know please tell me
cheers, benny:D

[Benny]

sorry but do ou have any pictures you could show me??
btw how often should i change me lights do you have fluroscent??
cheers benny

[Woodsy]

Hey Benny,
Changing your flouro tubes is only really going to be important if you're trying to grow plants. A sandy substrate (gravel) is going to stop them eating it and allows them to dig around as they are wont to do. Large river pebbles should be available from your local store for decor, as well as some driftwood.
If you're got your filter and your water conditioners, test kits ect, then that should be all you need to get started mate. Good luck with it :)

[cichlidboy]

i agree with Smck0001 that a murray cod wouldn't suit your tank, seeming that you're fifteen I'm guessing upgrading your tank to something like a 6 x 2 x 2 would be a bit too expensive.
I'm only a year older than you and it took me years to find a 4 x 2 x 2 tank that was in my budget.



Barramundi and bass grow extremely slow, my last Barra was at least 4 months old and only grew 2cm....10cm before I gave him away.


RIght now, I've got 2 sooties, 2 Aussie Bass and 2 Tandanus cats.
A heater isn't required, and natives in my view are tough as nails.
My camera isn't working, but my tank has a dark foam background to it and LOTS of plants, with heaps of driftwood in one corner and lava rocks on the other side.
It's got silica sand as a substrate (which looks AWESOME)

My oppinion, go with the sooty grunters, although they are EXTREMELY violent and territorial (massive territories) they are one of the easiest to get feeding.
All natives take much longer to aclimatize than cichlids for example.

As far as rocks go, it would be safest to get them off your lfs.
But I've always gotten my rocks from my local park and just boiled them for a couple of hours, and added math blue in to kill all remaining parasites and bacteria.

can't wait to have another native addict!
really really cool fish.
oh yeah, and my bass are 2 months old and they haven't grown a bit!

Tommy

[SMCK001]

well i ahve gravel on the bottom of the tank with a few larger river pebbles scattered around the bottom which adds some interest. i dont exactly have any large rocks in there.
they dont seem to fight at all as they are all about the same size which i think is the key to stopping them fighting which is why i dont recommend getting a cod ad they grow fast and will soon eat the others.
i had a 12cm cod in with them for a few hrs when i first got the other natvies but he tried to eat a 5cm tandanus and i caught him with it just sticking out of his mouth. so i quickly shifted him to another tank.
i have 2 x australian bass (great fish).
i just feed them pellets i would reccomend sinking pellets so that the catfish can get some.
but i feed mine a mix of sinking and floating pellets, nothing special just something that you would feed goldfish. i also feed mine frozen blood worm about once a week to give them something different but this doesnt really matter. you can also feed them feeder fish but this is expensive and i would only do it as a special treat :) as they cost about $1 each.

ill try and get some photos up later tonight if i can.

[Benny]

Thanks everyone that really helps:)
so i'm now thinking of getting for my 4 foot Aussie Bass x1, Archer Fish x 2 and maybe a sooty or sleepy cod. Does that sound good or too over crowded? Any other fish that would be better then what i have thought of please reply thanks heaps:)
so all i need basically is: sandy gravel substrats, river pebbles, driftwood, and maybe plants, and is it basically the same as tropicals when it comes to testing??
And are normal aquariums lights fine or??
One other thing if i were to buy archer's i was wondering if anyone knew how to setup a branch or like log above water so that when feeding i cansee their pistol thing in ation??

[Benny]

anyone ever had trout cod??

[Benny]

btw cichlid boy,
how big is your tank and all your fish. Haha yes another native man:)

[cichlidboy]

btw cichlid boy,
how big is your tank and all your fish. Haha yes another native man:)

well first of all, my tank is 4 x 2 x 2 but i will hopefully be upgrading to something much bigger (project in progress)

As for the archers, the sooty grunter and bass might be a problem in the near future. Archers are very placid, very very placid. I remember my old Archer use to be able to school with mollies and it was big enough to eat a couple of them.
Having more than one archer in the same tank, might be a problem too.
Too little space, too much territory.
Someone, or even more than one will make everyone else their beeetch.
But, it all seems good.
You can't always get a good mix.
Heck...my tank is far from perfect as far as I'm concerned.
But no one is beating anyone else up yet.

Tommy

[cichlidboy]

Thanks everyone that really helps:)
so i'm now thinking of getting for my 4 foot Aussie Bass x1, Archer Fish x 2 and maybe a sooty or sleepy cod. Does that sound good or too over crowded? Any other fish that would be better then what i have thought of please reply thanks heaps:)
so all i need basically is: sandy gravel substrats, river pebbles, driftwood, and maybe plants, and is it basically the same as tropicals when it comes to testing??
And are normal aquariums lights fine or??
One other thing if i were to buy archer's i was wondering if anyone knew how to setup a branch or like log above water so that when feeding i cansee their pistol thing in ation??

oh yeah, i forgot about the pistol branch thing.
see i've tried with that a couple of times but it all seems a bit too messy.
and if it's too close to the water, they start to get the habit of jumping for their food. (the food also never stays in the spot you want them to stay in)
Once they have the habit of jumping, it will be continuous broken glass when they hit 15-20 cm.

There are many ways to set up a log.
Depending which suits you more.

-You could build a massive (sturdy!!) mountain of rocks on two ends of the tank and silicone a branch on.

-You could tie a branch at both ends to the top of the tank so it hangs there.

-Or you could just have a piece of driftwood that's tall enough to have a nice bit sticking out of the water.

Tommy

[Benny]

cichlid boy thanks for that,
btw what would be a better set up then that then
not two archers??

[SMCK001]

anyone ever had trout cod??

it is illegal to keep trout cod in victoria as they are classified as endangered and are therfore not allowed to be kept in aquariums. i enquired about this a while ago and was disapointed as i really wanted 1.

[cichlidboy]

cichlid boy thanks for that,
btw what would be a better set up then that then
not two archers??

Theres not really a "better" set up.
It's just whatever suits you.
It's all about whether you'd still be interested in them after a year or two.
but as far as keeping aggression on the low.
You could try staying away from the murray cod, and sooty grunters.
And if you do want one, then just put one of them in the tank.
Ive seen many archers kept together, but the tanks are the size of small cars!
Check out Amazing Amazon's native tank sometime. It'll give you an idea.
barramundi tend to mix well with any fish, until it's tank mates become bite size pieces.
tandanus cats are really friendly, that bite size pieces thing applies to ALL fish.
You know, you could have one or two yabbies in your tank just to give it more of a Native feel.
my sooties seem to ignore tandanus cats.
but they try and beat up on my aussie bass and each other.
try too looking through some websites on native fish profiles.
most of them tell you of their aggression and whats best.

GOTTA GO TO SCHOOL!

[STONEMAN]

Hi guys, Im a newbie here but I have been visiting this site for a few weeks now. i love my natives, I've got a 6x2x2 with a barra, sleepy cod, spangled perch, aussie bass and salmontail catfish. Benny I reckon you gotta get a sleepy cod in there somewhere mines about 45cm big now and sometimes hechanges colour (I think he's sleeping), I reckon you could go a barra (I started mine in a 4x2x2 when he was about 5cm long but he did outgrow that in about 6 months that's why I upgraded to my 6 footer) I now keep platies, mollies, swords and sailfins in my 4 footer. these breed quickly and when there are too many I throw some in my big tank. I only feed mine twice a week, pellets and frozen prawns during the week and live food (goldfish gudgeons crays and shrimp) on saturdays. I dont have any real plants, only plastic ones( they kept ripping them out)I've got 2 driftwood logs so they can hide, small pebble sustrate with some shell grit. I'm running an external filter and 2 internal filters, one has purigen in it to remove the colour from the logsand both help with water circulation, being in qld though I reckon in summer your gunna need a chiller or lots of ice bricks

[SMCK001]

wow stoneman thats sounds like a great setup: do u have ne pics to show us?

[Benny]

sounds like a good setup stoneman,
ive decided on maybe a sleepy cod, aussie bass, archie fish all x1 anyone think this is a bad setup please tel me.
And maybe driftwood, some plants maybe plastic ive always used real but they sound okay, and river pebbles.

[Benny]

it is illegal to keep trout cod in victoria as they are classified as endangered and are therfore not allowed to be kept in aquariums. i enquired about this a while ago and was disapointed as i really wanted 1.
nice tank setup SMCK001 that is mad. are those river pebbles??
btw what fish were in their other then the bass??

[SMCK001]

nice tank setup SMCK001 that is mad. are those river pebbles??
btw what fish were in their other then the bass??


yer the larger rocks are river pebbles i just went to bunnings a got a small bag for about $2 which adds some more colour and interest to the tank there are also a few larger ones which i found around the place.

in the second pic there is 1 bass at the bottom and 2 silver perch.
in the third pic there is a spangled perch in the middle.
in the fourth pic there is 2 bass and a spangled perch on th right.
bit hard to see in the pic's becasue they are bad and they dont stay still for long enough to get good pics.

[SMCK001]

here are some more pics of some fish i had last year:

[STONEMAN]

thanks guys, as soon as I get a decent camera I will post some. sounds like a good staring point benny but i can assure you that once you start with natives you wont want to stop cause there are quite a few different species that you can get

[Benny]

sound good stoneman,
nic aussie bass and perch smck001 they look good,
i bought 20kg of river sand today before i get me 4 foot tamoz.

[SMCK001]

how much did that river sand cost u as i need something like that 4 a new tank im setin up?

[Benny]

$25 for 20kg but this is the cheapest ive seen it so not sure
what type new tank you setting up?? size breeds??

[SMCK001]

well im setting up a small 4ft tank which is not very wide.
i found this tank that someone was throwing out along with some wood and snapped it up and built sort of a cabinet thing that covers 3 sides and has a top on it. so far i have bought a filter, but i still need a light, some gravel and a stand.
i was hoping to put a single murray cod in it and sell it once it got to big and hope he grow's slowly.

[Benny]

:confused:ok sounds like a good setup.
Tha'ts anotherthing seeing as im getting my first decen size aquarium (4)ft what would be a good filter i get an internal 1200 with my tank is that all i need or something else??:cool::eek:

[SMCK001]

yer that should be a good enough filter :) thats wat im putting im my new 1

[wombat1100]

I would be going for an external canister filter, 1200lt should be fine, a canister filter gives you a larger container for filter medium and for bio balls etc for the "good bacteria" to grow in, as for brands it personal preference, theres a lot of discussion on this forum about pros and cons of the different brands

[Benny]

hey i ended up getting an aqua one cannister are cannisters hard to setup??
or easy and how much mainetenace is involed??

[cichlidboy]

has anyone had any experience with Fx5's?
I want to know if it's worth getting one for a 6 x 2 x 2
rating out of ten?
better for bio or mech filtration?

[cichlidboy]

hey i ended up getting an aqua one cannister are cannisters hard to setup??
or easy and how much mainetenace is involed??

Canisters can be confusing the set up at first. but after you get used to it, it's all smooth sailing. Cleaning out the filter media can be a bummer, since it's so tedious to disconnect everything, and theres bound to be a small spillage. I only use my canisters for biological filtration, and each of them only have a thin layer of filter wool in them. All my mechanical filtration is done by internals power filters. So, I only clean out my canisters one every few months.