capekate

Im not sure what site you read that incorrect information from. An adult Oscar cannot live in a 30g tank and be very happy. Sure you can keep any fish in any size tank, but that does not mean its the right thing to do.

Alessa

Darkfin,

First of all a ed bellied pacu is a HUGE fish that needs tons of swimming space. It is not ok to keep it in a small tank... If you have been to a public aquarium you'd see how huge they get and the swimming space they need.

Second, Fishlore lists the fish you can keep in schools because THEY NEED to be in a school. They do not live happily alone.

Yes, a common pleco can live in a small tank... but did you know it is cruel? did you know it being stunted, feeling horrible pains because its internal organs grow too big for its body size?

Third, an oscar cannot live happily in a 30 gallon. It can survive and will die young and/or in a horrible death because they are huge fish and also huge waste producers, in a 75 gallon you'd even need to move them eventually if you are humane; fish need room to swim. A red tailed shark is a very territorial fish that will get very agressive with age, therefore it is recomended that it is kept in a 55 gallon, not because it does not fit, because it needs a large territory so it will not become mourderous with other fish.


Fishlore writes the fish requirements to live a comfortable, long life. If you want to listen to the advice that other people is giving you in the other pages, regardless of it being inappropiate or cruel to the life of the animals that is ok, it is your desicion but that does not mean that the pages in FL are wrong just because we try to provide people with the proper living requirements of a creature that needs attention and understanding.

Also, like jgon_ said, the people in the internet are not exempt of saying things that are wrong... but what makes more sense? keeping a fish that would, in its natural environment grow to be 18inches + in a 10 gallon tank, or just believing that it is ok, because the truth is hard to accept?


It is not about "if the fish fits at the begining then it is ok", there are many things about keeping fish so that they can live a long healthy life, not being stunted, live and die a painful death. So before you get angry at people for trying to guide others to do what is right for a living creature, think about the reason why we do it... fish are living things that need room to swim and appropiate living condionts, not objects.

jgon_

Rainbow sharks are agressive and need a larger aquarium to feel secure with lot of hiding places and an area it can claim for its own. In a 10g, that would spell heck for your other fish.

platy ben

Rainbow sharks need a large tank so they can have there own territory, if they were kept in small tanks they would attack any fish in their territory and their territory is normally large so most of the fish would be attacked in a small tank.

Butterfly

Swordtail has a small body mass and low bioload.
A rainbow shark has a larger body mass, heavier waste producer . also needs more swimming room.
These are a few of the things that need to be considered when choosing tank size for fish, not just over all length. When measuring fish you don't measure the caudal fin (tail) so in this case there would be more body to a RS than ST.
carol
Ok I just read the profile for the Hillstream Loach. As I have kept them before I thought 55g per fish was a little odd also. But the way I read the profile a group needs to be kept in a tank at least 55g.
From my own experience they need fast moving water, lower temps and hiding places. There are critters called aufwach that grow in algae and on plants and rocks. They don't actually eat the algae but these critters that grow in them.

suemvb

You beat me to the punch Alessa, I was going to suggest that dark fin go to the zoo, see some full grown red belly pacus, and see if that changes his mind.

dark fin, are you sure that is a common pleco you have had in that tiny aquarium for 8 years? I stupidly allowed my little boy to pick out a cute little 1 1/2 inch pleco for my 75 gallon and after about 9 months I had to find him a new home because he was 10 inches long.

I think it's best not to overcomplicate things with talk of water composition and just ask you this: how about if we stick you in a glass elevator-sized box for a few years or so and see how a full-grown Oscar feels in a 30 gallon? I bet you’ll survive.

Could you post links to the references you found on the web?

Mike

I find it better to be conservative when recommending a minimum tank size for the fish profiles - taking into account their temperament, future adult size, schooling needs, water flow, decor, etc. I'm sure some have kept oscars in a 30 gallon tank, but I think it would be a disservice to the Oscar and to the new fishkeeper to recommend a 30 gallon tank for long term success.

The profile pages are simply recommendations given what we know about the species. Folks are going to do what they wanna do. We just try to give as much info as possible to help them make the best decisions for their fish and to make the hobby more enjoyable for them as fishkeepers.

agabr123

if you do a little more research, you will find that it is NOT just fishlore that recommends these size tanks for these fish......

Hillstream Loach - a little hard to find on the link, but at least a 3 foot long tank is required in order to create a "rivertank" which is supported by the second link
http://www.loaches.com/articles/hill...-the-fast-lane
http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fres...Loach.htm#Care

Pacu - first link has it in liters but it comes out to 260 gallons, second link has it at 300 gallons
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_pacu2.php
http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/prof...bellypacu.html

Ranbow Shark - again second link comes out to 52 gallons (listed in liters), note on 3rd link that juvenile sharks can be kept in a 20, but adult sharks should be kept in a 55
http://www.peteducation.com/article....+1953&aid=2602
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_frenatus.php
http://www.elmersaquarium.com/10shark_redrainbow.htm

Swordtail - liters on second link come out to 15 gallons, and on the first link the "20 inches long" for the aquarium size is in the range of a 10-15 gallon tank
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile27.html
http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_sword.php

Finally, the Oscar - liters on the first link come out to 529 gallons (saying that they need to be kept in a group of six)
http://www.aqua-fish.net/show.php?h=oscarfish
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile16.html
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/article...r_cichlid2.php

Shawnie

oscars cannot survive its life in a 30 gal...it would be like you living in a small bathroom ....and other sites have opinions just as this one does...we DO NOT reccomend them in anything smaller than 55 as some of us have kept them and know 30 gal wouldnt work ....if you want to choose to do so, thats your choice but the forum isnt going to change because another forum says so

buffinoz

i dont know to much but some of it comes to territory too
i had 4 rainbow chiclids of 2 inch in a 10gal
then oneday there all started fighting , killed all other mollies and swordtails in thetank so i now have 2 in a 33gal and 2 in a 23 gal with 3 danios.
fish need space too.
you could live in a room with a kitchen and a bed and a shower in 25square feet, dont think you would like it much

aquarist48

My brother had a red belly pacu in his 125g...the fish grew to 26" and out grew the tank...I've kept Oscars (2) in a 29 gallon tank for years. They were wonderful. Eventually I moved them into a 55g.

KyWildFish

I want to point out that this website has been the best source of information I have found for taking care of all my fish. The minimums that other sites post are not a good idea whe it comes to taking care of fish. If antything over-kill in space is always the way to go. I have a community that I know is overcrowded and the water requires water changes twice a week at times.
Also there is no need to get frutrated from conflicting advise. You will find a bunch of opinions out there on stuff and not all of it is truth. Being in the science feild I was once frustrated too when I started finding conflicting studies on the same subject. You have to become as educated as possible about something before making any conclusions because of cases like this.
Try and relax and enjoy the hobby, perhaps all your problems can be solved with a bunch of tanks, but then again I might be enabling.

Tom

The writers of these articles, i.e. myself, Mike, pinkfloydpuffer, all have done our research, compared many other sites, gone with what most of the better stores employees have told us, read books, just not go to google, type in the fish name, and choose the one that seems better for what you think.

I know someone who had a fully grown oscar in a 30 gallon tank, only because the main home, which was a 75 gallon, had sprung a leak, so that person moved the oscar there temporarily, and the oscar had trouble turning around. So a 30 gallon is not suitable for an oscar.

Normally, when someone points a 'mistake' out about one of the articles, that I wrote, I take a consideration, read their point of view, but in other times, I take great offense to all the effort I actually put into the article to write it, and it just gets me upset, and if you ask any of the other mods, I am usually the one who will try to figure out where the person is coming from, not in this case, sorry.

As for the hillstream, like agabr123 says, the tank needs to be a river type tank, with the river simulation for the fish. So a smaller tank just isn't able to do that for a hillstream. I've even had the experience of having a hillstream loach in a small tank, only because the book I used as a reference, had a typo. So the loach was in a 10 gallon, it did poorly, within 3 weeks, it was dead, it just sat there, not doing anything because the tank didn't have enough water movement. But when I put another hillstream loach in my biggest tank(currently only a 36), which has about 3-4 times the amount of water movement actually needed, the single fish thrived. So the larger the tank, the better, for any fish.
Tom