PONDERING ABOUT TANK REQUIREMENT with a bit of annoyance

lbal

New Fish
Jul 22, 2013
1
0
0
CANADA
#1
I recently bought a 50 GALLON tank from Petsmart and thinking that this may not be enough. The fish I have are the following: 2 blood parrots, 3 Leleupi (skinnier, smaller Lemon Cichlids that can go up to 3 1/2 inch), 1 medium pleco. 1 tiny tetra. My tank has live plants such as java fern, anubia and another kind I am hoping to flourish. The fish are not quite fully matured yet. Anyhow, the point is (please excuse my annoyance) that I get annoyed with the idea of having to see 60 gallon or 90 gallon tanks with only 2 cichlids in it. For example, some people seem to have big tanks with only 2 adult oscars and the like.Do we really need that big of a tank for cichlids? Is my tank truly not enough or is it enough for what I have? A link to my actual tank photo here: DSC02692 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. Would using 2 filters a must. I got a good FLUVAL C4 hob and just removed an underwater filter as I thought the hob is enough. I dont mind cleaning and doing water change weekly, of course, if it's enough....with only much concern when I go for a month vacation. I may not be able to rely on my daughter to clean the tank at all or as I do it. That's why I was thinking maybe putting 2 filters when I'm away would help. Anyhow, I hate having to have another 'tank syndrome' that is keeping on getting larger tank and so on. Also, I thought using too much filtration may not be good or not necessary for planted aquarium. Cichlids can be messy when eating food as they take the food and spit it out. Some debris settle on the gravel. I wonder how often people clean their tank's gravel and do water change? Is that why a 60 or 90 is preferable?
 

CAPSLOCK

Elite Fish
Jul 19, 2004
3,682
33
48
38
Cape Cod
#2
The reason people have just 1-2 oscars in a 75g tank, is that once you have a 12" fish the size of a dinner plate, it can't comfortably turn around and behave semi-normally in a 12" wide tank. Plus an oscar will eat little fish so there aren't a lot of available tankmates. The draw to having a tank with 1-2 big fish is the good personality you have with those guys (not that some small fish don't have personality too).

There is a big difference between a 12" oscar the size of a dinner plate and a slender cichlid like a Leleupi (I had to look those guys up - pretty!). Most of your fish are listed as a 50g as a minimum tank size for them (the blood parrots and the leleupi). I think if you kept it to those 6 fish you should be okay long term (the 5 cichlids and the pleco). Though used tanks on craigslist or similar are pretty cheap if you do decide to upgrade. Note that the pleco may grow too large either way as many commonly sold plecos get to a ridiculous 18" long.

If you have another tank where the tetra could go, that would be better - he is pretty likely to end up eaten with the big boys. He himself isn't going to be a problem in the 50g but be prepared he may disappear one day...

Bigger fish make bigger messes - siphoning the accumulated junk off / out of the gravel at each water change will keep up on it. A bigger than recommended filter or 2 filters will also help with larger messy fishes as they grow. Having extra water volume or extra filter capability allows you to be a little more relaxed with the water change schedule.