Your opinion: tank size and price for long body fish

[Keeg]

Hey everybody, long time no see, 

I was at the aquarium and saw some massive fish that kinda made me want to keep a monster fish. I just dont know how to decide tank dimensions, price, and the fish yet lol. I was looking at 300g tanks and theyre in the thousands 😞. So i guess I am here to ask all of you. 

What size tank would you get for a 2ft fish? Would you prioritize base area over volume? What would you consider a fair price for that size of tank? And most importantly, got any fish recommendations? 

Thanks!

 

[Odd Duck]

I’m far from an expert on monster fish since I’ve never kept any but I do have some opinions on appropriate tank sizes relative to fish size.

I would strongly recommend against getting any fish that can grow to 2 feet long if you can’t afford a tank that’s at least 3 feet in its smallest dimension.  Bigger is absolutely better when it comes to tanks for very large fish.  They should at the very least, as a humane standard, be able to easily turn around without bumping their face or tail or they are at risk for developing chronic rub wounds on their chin/face or having a chronically tattered tail, or both.

As far as length, that’s a very different issue.  There are 2 schools of thought - 1. have the tank just short enough they can’t get up to full speed or 2. have it long enough they have time to change their mind and not slam into the end of the tank if startled.  In nature they would not run the risk of slamming into anything if they were startled or pursued.  The perfect situation would be a tank as big as a full size swimming pool.  The real life situation is that tanks like that are almost exclusively public aquariums.  So most are forced to do a tank that’s not long enough for the fish to get up to full speed in the hopes they won’t kill themselves if startled.

The next consideration is filtration for large fish.  Big fish means big bioload and big filtration because almost any tank that fits in a private home is going to have a big bioload with only one single 2 foot fish.  Many large monster fish keepers build combo acrylic and fiberglass tanks in their basement or on slab foundation due the weight.

Now here’s a bit of a soapbox for me: Don’t get a young fish thinking you’ll have plenty of time to get a bigger tank.  It’s harder than you think to afford that next tank and many, many, many times I see fish advertised for sale, over and over, at successively lower prices, until finally offered to give away because somebody couldn’t afford that bigger tank when the first tank or second tank was outgrown.

NEVER buy a fish (or any other animal) thinking you’ll be able to give it to a zoo or public aquarium if it outgrows your tank.  They are rarely able to take them since most have to meet very stringent standards on where they get their animals.  They have to have documentation of being captive bred, or legally imported, appropriately quarantined, parasites eliminated, not a hybrid, etc, etc, etc, and can rarely accept an animal from the private sector.  The days of accredited zoos taking animals from the private sector is pretty much over.  If you get a monster fish you need to commit to that animal for its entire lifespan.

My macaw is in my will.  He is probably around 50 years old as near as I can guess.  I’ve owned him since 1983, he was in the country at least 5 years before I got him.  He was imported as an adult well before CITES took effect in 1985 so there’s really no telling how old he is other than he has to be over 46 years old and almost certainly is older than that just judging by the age changes I see in him.

I still have the Jack Dempseys that I rescued 3 years ago (knowing they aren’t a species I would have ever sought out) even though I got to thinking I could move them along to someone that might actually appreciate them more than I do.  But I found I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.  Everybody that showed interest wanted to put them in with Oscars or something else that would have beaten them up or outcompeted them for food.  You need to plan for the entire lifespan of any fish you get.  Have you thought about the basic expense of feeding and how you will find enough food variety to keep a large fish healthy?

I wish I had suggestions for you that could give you that monster fish feeling without the massive expensive and intensive labor that comes along with keeping that size fish/tank.  Maybe ask yourself exactly what it was about those monster fish that you liked? Is it the thought of owning a big predator or just the actual mass of them?  Is it how stately they look as they prowl the tank?  Was it a specific fish that caught your eye - shape, color, attitude?  If you can tell us more about species that caught your eye or what made them so appealing to you, the hive mind may be better able to help you.

[Keeg]

On 4/20/2023 at 9:06 PM, Odd Duck said:

I’m far from an expert on monster fish since I’ve never kept any but I do have some opinions on appropriate tank sizes relative to fish size.

I would strongly recommend against getting any fish that can grow to 2 feet long if you can’t afford a tank that’s at least 3 feet in its smallest dimension.  Bigger is absolutely better when it comes to tanks for very large fish.  They should at the very least, as a humane standard, be able to easily turn around without bumping their face or tail or they are at risk for developing chronic rub wounds on their chin/face or having a chronically tattered tail, or both.

As far as length, that’s a very different issue.  There are 2 schools of thought - 1. have the tank just short enough they can’t get up to full speed or 2. have it long enough they have time to change their mind and not slam into the end of the tank if startled.  In nature they would not run the risk of slamming into anything if they were startled or pursued.  The perfect situation would be a tank as big as a full size swimming pool.  The real life situation is that tanks like that are almost exclusively public aquariums.  So most are forced to do a tank that’s not long enough for the fish to get up to full speed in the hopes they won’t kill themselves if startled.

The next consideration is filtration for large fish.  Big fish means big bioload and big filtration because almost any tank that fits in a private home is going to have a big bioload with only one single 2 foot fish.  Many large monster fish keepers build combo acrylic and fiberglass tanks in their basement or on slab foundation due the weight.

Now here’s a bit of a soapbox for me: Don’t get a young fish thinking you’ll have plenty of time to get a bigger tank.  It’s harder than you think to afford that next tank and many, many, many times I see fish advertised for sale, over and over, at successively lower prices, until finally offered to give away because somebody couldn’t afford that bigger tank when the first tank or second tank was outgrown.

NEVER buy a fish (or any other animal) thinking you’ll be able to give it to a zoo or public aquarium if it outgrows your tank.  They are rarely able to take them since most have to meet very stringent standards on where they get their animals.  They have to have documentation of being captive bred, or legally imported, appropriately quarantined, parasites eliminated, not a hybrid, etc, etc, etc, and can rarely accept an animal from the private sector.  The days of accredited zoos taking animals from the private sector is pretty much over.  If you get a monster fish you need to commit to that animal for its entire lifespan.

My macaw is in my will.  He is probably around 50 years old as near as I can guess.  I’ve owned him since 1983, he was in the country at least 5 years before I got him.  He was imported as an adult well before CITES took effect in 1985 so there’s really no telling how old he is other than he has to be over 46 years old and almost certainly is older than that just judging by the age changes I see in him.

I still have the Jack Dempseys that I rescued 3 years ago (knowing they aren’t a species I would have ever sought out) even though I got to thinking I could move them along to someone that might actually appreciate them more than I do.  But I found I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.  Everybody that showed interest wanted to put them in with Oscars or something else that would have beaten them up or outcompeted them for food.  You need to plan for the entire lifespan of any fish you get.  Have you thought about the basic expense of feeding and how you will find enough food variety to keep a large fish healthy?

I wish I had suggestions for you that could give you that monster fish feeling without the massive expensive and intensive labor that comes along with keeping that size fish/tank.  Maybe ask yourself exactly what it was about those monster fish that you liked? Is it the thought of owning a big predator or just the actual mass of them?  Is it how stately they look as they prowl the tank?  Was it a specific fish that caught your eye - shape, color, attitude?  If you can tell us more about species that caught your eye or what made them so appealing to you, the hive mind may be better able to help you.

In general, I try to be a stingy guy because I absolutely hate spending money whenever I don't have to and because I am afraid of scams. A family friend is getting rid of their tanks and they're offering up a 300g for 1500 so Im on edge about going all out. I have thought about feeding expenses, that is often times the first thing that comes to mind when considering a fish for me. Like with breeding, starting a live food culture before the eggs hatch 😁. It's not that a particular species caught my eye, except a baby alligator gar but I know I would never buy one of those true monsters 😂. The future issue is that I have already fallen for one baby monster, a little dinosaur bichir. Right now hes only 3 ish inches but I want to give him the proper space for when he's older, knowing that nobody would want to take him in once he's full grown (one of the biggest mistakes out there), ive already had him a year and I love the little bugger. But since they get to around 24 inches max, I am worried about the 30inch width, 8ft long of the tank for sale. Plus I dont want to have a 300 gallon tank just for a living log, so I would want to get him a tank mate like a silver arowana or knife fish or even a bass of some sort. Eventually when the bichir does die like all living things, I feel like crossing off another bucketlist fish of a mbu puffer. I feel like the main shift in my aquarium fish preferneces are just due to the constant same fish being sold out there. I always enjoy going to petstores and I love all my fish, but there's always going to be that itch for caring for a beast. I guess thats why I like puffers, they're a lot thicker than fish of similar size, so Im going to go with your idea of their mass. 

 

Thank you for your reply, it was really thoughtful of you to provide such an extensive explanation. Out of curiosity, what kind of macaw is he? 

[Odd Duck]

He’s a severe macaw, Ara severus, AKA chestnut fronted macaw.  One of the “mini” macaws.  His body is about the size of an average Amazon parrot but with the longer tail and wings of a macaw and less attitude.