# New set up, what do you think.



## muddydogs (Dec 14, 2005)

Well I have moved up in the fish world. I went from a 10 gallon to a 46 gallon bow front tank. Currently I have 2 Pictus cats, 2 golden redtail cats, 2 male platy, 4 female platy.

Here are a few pics.

Full tank shot









Left side of tank









Right side of tank









As you can see I went with the natural look with the fake plants and color choices. I plan on doing some real plants after I do some more studing on the subject. The bubbles you see are from a air stone and are there just because I wanted some bubbles in my tank. As you can see that most of my fish are camera shy as I only have a platy or two in the pics.


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## Christine (Nov 4, 2005)

Looks very nice! I have that plant that you have in the bottom pic in the lower left corner... and I have to warn you, that plant is a serious catch all. Because the leaves are kind of like open cups it seems to catch any debris that comes near it. Not really a big deal but I did end up taking mine out because it kept catching all the fish poop and putting it on display *laugh*


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

That looks pretty neat!! It would look even better with real plants....:razz:


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## DUSTIN323 (Sep 21, 2005)

Yeah it is nice looking. One of the nicer looking "real-looking artificial decor" tanks I've seen in a while.


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## DavidDoyle (Jan 18, 2005)

I hate common names- if what you are calling a red tailed cat is PHRACTOCEPHALUS HEMLIOPTERUS then you didn't do your homework before buying them.


> Common name Red-tailed catfish
> 
> 
> 
> ...


from http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/redtcat.htm


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## shev (Jan 18, 2005)

Luckily golden redtails dont grow as large as redtailed catfish. Im thinking its an asian sun catfish, horabagrus brachysoma. But it still wont do very well with your setup. they get to be around 20-ish inches, and will gobble up tankmates.


Great looking tank! does the catfish have a large spot on it? kind of below its dorsal fin?


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## muddydogs (Dec 14, 2005)

Thanks guys.

Yep the cat has a large eye type spot below his dorsal fin. Horabagrus brachysoma is its scientific name. Heck if any of my fish live long enough to get around 20" it could be dinner. 

Buy the way there DavidDoyle if you would have read the post instead of looking for things to find wrong with my set up you would have seen that I said Golden Red Tailed Catfish. I understand your problem with common names, as a Forester I could spue forth so many sientific names of trees, forbs, shrubs and other stuff that it would make your head hurt but I really didn't want to take the time to figure out how to spell the sientic name for this fish.


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## DavidDoyle (Jan 18, 2005)

Sorry, I read a post entitled "What do you think?" I thought that meant that you wanted to know that I and others think of the tank and fish listed in it. Now that you have clarified your post as to what the golden red tails are, I stll think they do not belong in that tank. They may be OK there for a while but my bet is they will quickly outgrow your tank.

And your cats are not shy, they do not like bright light. The should come out more in dimmer light levels and at night.


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## Guest (Dec 31, 2005)

muddydogs said:


> Yep the cat has a large eye type spot below his dorsal fin. Horabagrus brachysoma is its scientific name. Heck if any of my fish live long enough to get around 20" it could be dinner.


are you saying that it will most likely not reach it's full size because you will not be able to keep it alive? the fish should be able to live a long and happy life and near reach it's full size given the proper conditions. the only reason it would die early is because you failed to give it the proper housing/care that it needs.

and i don't think DavidDoyle was trying to be rude by saying that your fish will outgrow it's tank, he is telling you the truth and trying to give you a heads up so that you dont have problems down the line.


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

Muddydogs: DavidDoyle is trying to help. He's not just trying to be critical, and don't think because of the lowish post count that he doesn't know what he's talking about. This guy really knows his stuff.


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## muddydogs (Dec 14, 2005)

David

No offence taken or meant, I just get a little hot when I get ribbed before all the facts are in and my comments are in no way a reflection of your post count. I have been around different forums enough to know that the ones that now the most post the least mostly due to them not asking a lot of questions and answering most of the questions plus you have to watch out for the post padders.

I understand that at full size the fish can be upwords of 18" long. My question is how long could it take for the fish to reach this size? Dose the fishes enviroment also effect how big it will get? I would assume that very few hobbie fish guys would be able to keep a 18 inch fish in a sutible enviroment.

Scuba

I hope to keep these fish alive for a long while. I am totaly new to this hole fish thing so I am not trying to expect to much at first. If you want to talk Retriever (ie Black Labs and others), Waterfowl or Big Game I can hold my own. When I get involved in anything I want to now it all and right now its fish so everyday I find something new in my reading and surfing. As for housing I have all I can afford at this time but you never now in the future what size tank will be in store.

So here is another question. I have 4 Cats that hang out under the root wad, 6 Platy that hang out around the root wad and veg, what fish could I get that will hang out in the upper 1/3 of the tank kinda out in the open?

Thanks
Jim S.


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## bichirboy (Dec 24, 2005)

Sounds like a golden cat. They get up around 10-12" in captivity and will eat smaller tank mates. Cool fish though. I have two in my 65 gallon and they are like best friends, always together. Pretty neat to watch them. Nice toank BTW. You will love it even more once you make the transfer over to real plants.


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## Lydia (Feb 6, 2005)

I am not sure about compatibility with some of your other fish and I don't have time to look it up right now, so I'll just throw a few suggestions out there. What about: rainbowfish, danios (common and usually plain looking when you buy them but they get prettier as they get older...inexpensive, too), some kind of gourami, tetras of almost any kind, or barbs?


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## Lexus (Jan 19, 2005)

Neat setup!! Too bad the pictus will eat all the baby platies!! Pictus are very pretty though! 

By chance is that the bowfront that Walmart had for $198??


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## muddydogs (Dec 14, 2005)

Lexus

Why yes it is. I checked all around and could not find a better deal. 46 gallon bow front, hood and light, and nice stand for $198.00. It seams that most 46 gallon tanks are running around $150.00 for the tank alone. I figured that I would have problems with the cats eating any fry that might come squirting out. I guess I will deal with that when the time comes. I really like the cats but wanted some other fish that are more active and not always hidding in the tank.


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