# Fish Limitations for 30G, 50G, and 70G tanks?



## Dymo (Aug 17, 2010)

Hey again,

I've been searching through Kijiji this past week trying to find a deal on a good starting tank. This is what I found:

30 GALLON FISH TANK! - City of Toronto Pet Classifieds - Kijiji City of Toronto Canada. 30G tank, got the seller down to $80 cleaned or $80 uncleaned

50 gallon fish tank with wooden stand - Oakville / Halton Region Pet Accessories - Kijiji Oakville / Halton Region Canada. 50G tank, haven't talked the seller down yet.

complete 70 gallon fish tank - City of Toronto Pet Accessories - Kijiji City of Toronto Canada. 70G tank, haven't talked to seller about price.

Now this brings up a couple of questions for me. First off, after viewing the 50 and 70g tanks, what would be a fair amount for them? I read in another thread about a $1/G rule although I'm not sure how true or realistic this is. 

More importantly though, is what kind of fish I can put in this tank. After doing a lot of research I am equally divided between an Oscar, a rainbow shark, or a piranha(s). I've read several articles on each of them, with tank requirements ranging from 20-200G's for each of them. Can anyone give me an accurate tank requirement for each of them? Lastly, if none of those tank sizes work for those three fish, I'd settle for Cherry barbs. In that case, how many barbs could I house in the 30G? Thanks,

Tanner


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## Dafo (Aug 9, 2010)

Hi. About the tank, I would suggest you the biggest tank that you can have- is much easier to care for bigger systems and have advantages choosing and combining organisms.(I also heard for 1$ per gallon)- In my opinion this is normal prize. About fish, these are the requierments for fishes you were asking:
- Oscar (250g per fish)
- Rainbow shark (55g per fish)
- Piranha (45g per fish)- If taking in acount the fact that piranhas are social fishes that must live in group, this is not an option.

About titejas (Barbus titteya) in 30g tank you should have about 15 fishes.


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## Dymo (Aug 17, 2010)

Dafo said:


> Hi. About the tank, I would suggest you the biggest tank that you can have- is much easier to care for bigger systems and have advantages choosing and combining organisms.(I also heard for 1$ per gallon)- In my opinion this is normal prize. About fish, these are the requierments for fishes you were asking:
> - Oscar (250g per fish)
> - Rainbow shark (55g per fish)
> - Piranha (45g per fish)- If taking in acount the fact that piranhas are social fishes that must live in group, this is not an option.
> ...


Thanks Dafo,

I'm trying to get a tank over 70G but it seems that most sellers want between $3-500 for them which seems a little high and over my budget(dont want to spend more than $200 on a tank), so I was hoping a smaller tank would work. Regarding the Piranha's, is the 45G requirement the same for the solitary piranha's?


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## Dafo (Aug 9, 2010)

Hi. Yes it's about the same- mayority of piranha's grow to about 1feet.(some are bigger) Why those fishes and not smaller?


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## SeverumGuy (Aug 3, 2010)

Bigger is always better. Minimum requirements means minimum happiness. Keep that in mind. $1/G is definitely a good rule of thumb when buying a used tank. Used stands are worth more than use tanks nowadays. Yes, it is pretty hard to find good deals on larger tanks even though they're used, but if you're wanting to keep some big fish, it needs to happen. If you're looking to get the barbs in a 30g tank, you can easily have up to 20 swimming around with maybe some cory cats for cleanup and a bristlenost pleco or something as long as you have a good filter.


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## Dymo (Aug 17, 2010)

Dafo said:


> Hi. Yes it's about the same- mayority of piranha's grow to about 1feet.(some are bigger) Why those fishes and not smaller?


I'm interested in getting piranha's or sharks, for lack of a better word because they look like a cool fish to have. The puppy like personality of Oscar's is something I'm very interested in aswell. Aside from barbs which I am mildly interested in keeping, there aren't any other small fish that interest me, although I'm open to suggestions.


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## brimac40 (Jan 11, 2010)

Be sure that piranha are legal to own in your part of the country . They are illegal here in Ky along with Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii , Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington . Now in some of these states , the laws are different and you may own them , but you will have to get a special permit such as it is in Arkansas . If you do live in one of these states and still want to get them you will need to keep it on the down low . The fine in Ky is pretty steep if caught .

I am a small fish kind of guy myself because I love watching schools of fish swimming around in unison in the aquarium along with my danios dashing around all over the place . But get the species you absolutely want so there will be no fear of losing interest in the hobby .


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Thats because some idiot will decide to release in a river or something and wipe out entire fish populations. Personally, I think they should outlaw in the entire country.


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## Dymo (Aug 17, 2010)

brimac40 said:


> Be sure that piranha are legal to own in your part of the country . They are illegal here in Ky along with Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii , Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington . Now in some of these states , the laws are different and you may own them , but you will have to get a special permit such as it is in Arkansas . If you do live in one of these states and still want to get them you will need to keep it on the down low . The fine in Ky is pretty steep if caught .
> 
> I am a small fish kind of guy myself because I love watching schools of fish swimming around in unison in the aquarium along with my danios dashing around all over the place . But get the species you absolutely want so there will be no fear of losing interest in the hobby .


I probably should have mentioned this before but I live in Canada and after a google search it doesn't look like we have any laws against having Piranha's in Canada. If I were to get barb's though, most likely Tiger or clown barbs, what sized tank would I need and how many of them could I have?

UPDATE: I just found a very nice 55G tank for sale, it comes with 2 Tetra filters and a Fluval filter. It also has everything else needed except for fish and plants. He wants $240 for it, which seems unreasonable. If I go with the $1/G rule, that's $55, plus the cost of all of the equipment. Can anyone suggest a reasonable price I could offer for it? Keep in mind there's no stand so I'd have to build one myself.


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## Dafo (Aug 9, 2010)

Hi. there are several varieties of barbs- we had discusion about that in other thread- http://www.aquariumforum.com/f41/what-semi-aggressive-fish-will-fit-7378.html#post50463 -in case you didn't saw it. The requierments for tiger barbs are about 45gallon- it's data for group (usually 7 fishes), as these social fishes must be in group to behave normaly and to reduce stress.


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## Dymo (Aug 17, 2010)

Dafo said:


> Hi. there are several varieties of barbs- we had discusion about that in other thread- http://www.aquariumforum.com/f41/what-semi-aggressive-fish-will-fit-7378.html#post50463 -in case you didn't saw it. The requierments for tiger barbs are about 45gallon- it's data for group (usually 7 fishes), as these social fishes must be in group to behave normaly and to reduce stress.


Thanks Dafo, that discussion inculded some helpful information on the Tiger barb, but I didn't notice anything about the Clown Barb. It looks like the Clown barb gets considerably larger(6 inches), so I can assume they'll need something in the 55-65G range?


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## Dafo (Aug 9, 2010)

Hi. Can you please add Latni name for your clown barb- it's a little bit confusing as there are at least 3 different fish species under this name on web- and we in Europe try to use just latin names in addition to this confusion.


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## Dafo (Aug 9, 2010)

Hi. Anyway I assume you mean Puntius everetti- the requirements for this fish are about 45 gallon per smaller group- about 4 fish (so about 11g for 1).- as you were already assuming.


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## Dymo (Aug 17, 2010)

Sorry about that, and yes I meant Puntius everetti. Do you have any idea of how much a 55G tank with accessories is worth? I was thinking between $100-150 but I'd like to hear anyone else's suggestions aswell.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

You could find a new one at petco or petsmart and they would cost 99.00. They do have a couple of sales each year where you can get new for 1.00 a gal. You can bring that up to the guy. Also find out what filters and check new prices on those. Sounds like to me he is asking new price. Which is way out of range. Tanks are considered used as soon as you walk out the door with it.


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## Dymo (Aug 17, 2010)

susankat said:


> You could find a new one at petco or petsmart and they would cost 99.00. They do have a couple of sales each year where you can get new for 1.00 a gal. You can bring that up to the guy. Also find out what filters and check new prices on those. Sounds like to me he is asking new price. Which is way out of range. Tanks are considered used as soon as you walk out the door with it.


The seller says it's a fluval canister filter, which seem to run between $80-159 new. She isn't sure about the heater. I'm waiting on my paycheck before I make her an offer, but I'll most likely offer her $150 and see where it goes from there.


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## brimac40 (Jan 11, 2010)

jrman83 said:


> Thats because some idiot will decide to release in a river or something and wipe out entire fish populations. Personally, I think they should outlaw in the entire country.



Very true , along with releasing fish such as Oscars , Plecos , arowanas , pacu and other large fish that have out grown their aquariums . I was reading an article about this very subject , that came with pictures of huge fish being caught like arowanas in places like Fla. where they can actually survive in the warmer waters . 

This is why I hate seeing someone buy a 10 gal aquarium and an Oscar from Wal- Mart and the sales people telling them that it is fine .


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## thefishkeeper (Sep 19, 2010)

oscars easily grow up to 1 1/2 feet. i think one oscar would be fine in a 30 LONG aquarium. 30 HIGH aquariums are not so long and dont have enough space for these big fish. Also i would consider getting a bichir too. These fish grow up to a foot and 3 inches and are peaceful twords tankmates. You should search them up, there very nice and look like snakes with fins. They dont have teeth though.
i would recommend the cuvier or retropinnus. *old dude


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## John (Sep 30, 2010)

thefishkeeper, 

as you were saying that an oscar could grow about 18 inches, I have not seen any that grow that big before. I did see a flower horn and red devil grow that big but very rarely do I ever seen those. Most that I see that grows really really big are close to 12 inches.


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## probe1957 (Jul 2, 2010)

thefishkeeper said:


> <snipped> oscars easily grow up to 1 1/2 feet. i think one oscar would be fine in a 30 LONG aquarium. <snipped>


Wow. *none


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