PlanetCatfish.com

I tried searching for this subject, but I didn't find anything particularly useful. I'm sure if I knew exactly what words to search for I might find more good stuff, but I just said "Tank AND Recommendations", and found LOTS of things about "I've got a <some size> tank and I wonder what catfish your recommend", or similar.

What I'm asking for is:
I'm thinking of buying another tank, approximately 120 x 40 x 40 cm, or 48" x 16" x 16", making it about 200L/55Gal(US)/48Gal(UK). (Those are rough estimates, I've looked at tanks from 190 to 300L, so the size may be quite a few inches bigger in one or three directions).

I'm planning to buy it in the UK, so US recommendations are pretty much useless.

It seems that there are three or four brands to choose from:
- Juwel
- Eheim
- Fluval
- Clearseal

All come in slightly different shapes and sizes, and some are "pick together the pieces" and some come as complete kits with "everything you need".

On the one hand, I'm tempted to get the bits myself, as it's more flexible, but at the same time, it tends to cost more (but you get what you want...).

My current setup is a 100L/25Gal(US)/18Gal(UK) "coldwater" (23'C/74'F) tank with one goldfish, ten danios and one "pl*co" (which I still have to identify, but it looks like a bristlenose). This tank was a Eheim "budget" kit, and it seems to work quite well.

The plan for the new tank is to have a "mix" of fish, but the slightly bigger varieties, such as kissing gourami, gold/green barbs. And of course some cats, at least some sort of medium sized pl*co's. Some cory's might also go in there, if I can find ones that match up with size/water requirements of the rest of the fish.

Was for a while thinking of Cichlids, but they tend to be hard to mix with other fish, which means that you're more limited to what you can have... May still go with that

I'm sure this opens a big can of worms, because everyone has different ideas of what's good and not. But I'd like to hear your views...

Sorry for the rambling...

--
Mats

get pimelodus pictus
get 4
pictus are good

Oh and get either fluval or clearseal

pictus_man_77 wrote:get pimelodus pictus
get 4
pictus are good

Oh and get either fluval or clearseal

Thanks for the top on the "pim's".

A comment on why go for Fluval or Clearseal would be nice. Better quality, or just less expensive, or what? [Sorry, I'm like that, I don't just take peoples comments for granted, I want to know the why's...]

--
Mats

May be I am not reading you right, but I think a tank and its contents should be unique and reflect the taste of the person that has set it up . A tank of the dimensions you are proposing to buy leaves the scope wide open and my suggestions would be to firstly research the manufacturers information and weigh up all the options and balance them out to what you actually want or expect to get for your money. You name 4 companies. I could recommend one based on my requirements, which could be totally opposite to what yours are. Then when it does not work out to what you expect, I'm the one at fault for recommending it.

I think the first thing would be to make a positive decision as to the fish you would like to keep and then match the equipment to suit the fishes needs.

Ian

Coryman wrote:May be I am not reading you right, but I think a tank and its contents should be unique and reflect the taste of the person that has set it up . A tank of the dimensions you are proposing to buy leaves the scope wide open and my suggestions would be to firstly research the manufacturers information and weigh up all the options and balance them out to what you actually want or expect to get for your money. You name 4 companies. I could recommend one based on my requirements, which could be totally opposite to what yours are. Then when it does not work out to what you expect, I'm the one at fault for recommending it.

I think the first thing would be to make a positive decision as to the fish you would like to keep and then match the equipment to suit the fishes needs.

Ian

Thanks Ian,

What you say about reflecting the taste of the individual makes sense.

I thought that maybe some people could say that "I've had this and it's good because ...", or "I've had one of these, and I didn't like it because...". But perhaps that's too much to ask...

I guess what you're saying is that all of the brands I name are good at something (such as being good value for money or very stylish but costing a bit extra for the styling).

So, I'll think a bit more about what I'll keep in the tank, and then look at the requirements for what I need, and get the correct tank. It makes a lot of sense (when you think about it that way).

--
Mats

that is quite a big tank.......an amazon tank would be ace.
you could get 4 angels, 17 neons, a pleco on the bottomand a few hillstream loaches(they are strange but nice)
then get a few bits of bogwood and lots of reed-like plants and it would be a masterpiece.

Or
get 4 discus, four pims ,a pleco on the bottom and some kissing gouramis. then get some bogwood and stick it in and get some reed-like plants.

You could evn swap the pictus for a few zamora woodcats (which i had)

Whilst Angels are lovely fish, I'm not particularly keen on that particular specie. My personal opinion, of course.

I'm quite keen to have some larger fish, around 15-25 cm (6-10" for those non-metric). My current thoughts are along the lines of:
- Kissing Gourami
- Spanner (tee) Barb
- Longfin Barb
- Satanoperca Jurupari
- Pimelodus Pictus
- Medium/large Pl*co of some sort(s).

This is not attempting to replicate any particular habitat, since I'm not running an educational institution or public display, I think I can mix whatever I like, as long as the fish will mix reasonably well together.

I'm not saying that ALL of the above fish will go in the tank, it's just some of the ones that I've been thinking of.

I want a tank that has some big fish, and that is quite active, easy to manage, and nice to look at (i.e. not discus that MUST have RO water and even then are a bit fiddly to keep).

I've pretty much settled on a RIO 300 tank. It's a bit higher and wider for the same length, compared to the Fluval for example, which gives the fish a little bit more room to roam. The extra liters probably doesn't hurt either... I just need to either get the LFS to agree a better price (or some other deal), or go halfway across the country for a good price...

--
Mats

Hagen (Fluval) Tanks are really superb for the price and include some nice equipment. I have a 50 and a 57G hagen tank and they are really good.

However, is money is no issue Eheim and Rena make some gorgeous tanks.

Ben

bunjiweb wrote:Hagen (Fluval) Tanks are really superb for the price and include some nice equipment. I have a 50 and a 57G hagen tank and they are really good.

However, is money is no issue Eheim and Rena make some gorgeous tanks.

Ben

Yeah. I agree, they are good value tanks. As I stated in my previous post, the main objective for getting the RIO tank is that it's a bit bigger in width/height for the same length. The biggest fluval (216L/57 US gal, I think) is 1200 long x 400 wide x 450 high (measures in mm). The RIO 300 is 1210 x 510 x 620, so slightly taller and wider, which gives a bit more space for bigger fish.

As it stands, I'd be paying 320 pounds for the Fluval tank with stand (at a LFS), and the RIO is currently available (at a 200+ mile distance from my house, admittedly) at 375 pounds. For that, I get a bigger tank, nicer hood (beech hood as well as stand). I'm hoping that my LFS will give me a better price than his list price, and I'd be looking at 400 pounds. That's 80 pounds for another 90 liters, and better looking. Worth it for me, but we all have different priorities.

I did have a look at the Eheim tank at LFS, but the size of the tank is smaller than for instance the RIO, and more money on top of that. It does look lovely, so does the "Wave tank" that the LFS has as display tank.

They had some Rena tanks at Wye Vale garden centre in Woking where I went yesterday, but even just looking at the price made my bank-account shudder... I think the tank they had, some similar size to the one I've been looking at, was over 680 pounds. Sorry, I'm not that wealthy...

--
Mats