Wanting to buy a 150gal and questions on the fish if I go fo

Andy Louie · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 4

I work in USA and go back to France every once a year... I love fish
and had been intending to get a 150gal or 135 gal tank.... Will the
fish live if I leave it for a month. I talked to several people they
said it was ok ? What if your tank had nothing but med or large size
Oscars or Chilids.. will they eat one another then ?

Archived from group: rec>aquaria>freshwater>misc

NetMax · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 56

"Andy Louie" wrote in message@posting.google.com...
> I work in USA and go back to France every once a year... I love fish
> and had been intending to get a 150gal or 135 gal tank.... Will the
> fish live if I leave it for a month. I talked to several people they
> said it was ok ? What if your tank had nothing but med or large size
> Oscars or Chilids.. will they eat one another then ?

All aquariums have an equilibrium, or harmonious balance. The better the
balance, the longer the fish can go without external inputs (food). A
dozen guppies in a planted 150g could go for months without human
intervention (community fish and omnivorous). I also have a tank of
piranhas which is harmonious for about 1 day, and then they take matters
into their own hands regarding being fed. Large carnivore/omnivore
cichlids make a much more precarious balance ;~).

If it was all Oscars of an equal size, they would be upset in a day, and
get progressively grumpier as time passed. Many other cichlids would not
be as patient, and would begin harassing the weakest targets much sooner
than 1 month, probably less than 1 week. While Oscars _are_ cichlids,
they are not of the same stripe as most large cichlids (JDs, Red Devils,
Texans etc). An Oscar's enthusiasm for swallowing anything remotely
possible to fit into it's mouth, should not be confused with the
aggression levels these other cichlids would exhibit when going hungry.

I think that the only way you can manage large cichlids in such a small
tank (relatively speaking) would be to train someone to feed them while
you were gone. It might be possible to use a couple of automatic
feeders, but you would need to have them running for a week before you
left, so that the interval and quantities were fine tuned (and I would
not use less than 2 feeders, for fail safe redundancy). Even then, I'd
have someone check the other systems periodically (heaters, lighting &
filtration). I hope there was some good ideas in there for you.

NetMax

Marcus Fox · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 41

"Andy Louie" wrote in message@posting.google.com...
> I work in USA and go back to France every once a year... I love fish
> and had been intending to get a 150gal or 135 gal tank.... Will the
> fish live if I leave it for a month. I talked to several people they
> said it was ok ? What if your tank had nothing but med or large size
> Oscars or Chilids.. will they eat one another then ?

Pay a friend to babysit your fish. Measure the daily amount into small
ziploc bags and get him to add that each time. You might want to overfilter
for a while, to attempt to compensate for the lack of water changes.

Marcus

Donald Kerns · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 191

Marcus Fox wrote:

> "Andy Louie" wrote in message
> @posting.google.com...
>> I work in USA and go back to France every once a year... I love fish
>> and had been intending to get a 150gal or 135 gal tank.... Will the
>> fish live if I leave it for a month. I talked to several people they
>> said it was ok ? What if your tank had nothing but med or large size
>> Oscars or Chilids.. will they eat one another then ?
>
> Pay a friend to babysit your fish.

I think Deuce is available.

-D
--
"When you've lost your ability to laugh, you've lost your ability to
think straight." -To Inherit the Wind