200gal tank

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Im positive that i am getting a 200gallon tank(super excited about it too !), im buying a house right now which is almost certain that i will get it and i should be able to get the tank within the next 2-3months. I very recently found out one of my current plecs is a sailfin after gettin it ID'd on the members aquarium section- i originally planned on getting the tank for my 2 common plecs in particular to continue growing up in for the rest of their lives so space isn't too much of a problem for them.
I still want to have other fish in the tank, namely my livebearers and corys and khuli loachs, but my main concern now is taking into the concideration that my 2 common plecs will reach about a foot long each and the sailfin about 2ft long, is the tank going to have any other space for fish ?
The tank is going to be about 6-7ft long, 3ft at the sides and 2ft high- is this a good depth and length for such large growing plecs?
I can get a slightly larger tank if the current size is going to be too small but no more than 240gallons realy as i don't think i'd be able to maintain a tank adequetely larger than that- money isn't an issue since i've had money in the bank for this tank for a year now and have more than enough.
Any comments, suggestions or info are very much appreiciated

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Anyone... ?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

..... ...... .......

 

[vantgE]

Do you mind if I ask your budget?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

'Tis a secret. But i've had the money to buy the tank for a year now, i've only just found somwhere that will actually fit it- if i put it in my current apartment if i found the space, it would fall through the floor because it wont be able to take the weight. Luckily though in the new place all the bottom floors are concrete and not wooden floorboards.

 

[Torrean]

Tokis. I am almost 100% positive that common plecos grow to 18" in fact I've seen them larger than that. If 200 gallons won't support those fish then I'd be very surprised. I think the main thing you need to worry about is that the fish can stretch from one end to the other without touching glass. If it can do this (and obeys the inch per gallon rule) then I'd say you'll be fine with proper maintanance. You will certainly have a lot of vaccuming to do however. I am not sure about this but my sister said that when she put ghost shrimp in her tank they ate the pleco poo. I saw her tank recently and it looked very neat and clean, and she rarely vaccums.

Edit: my only major concern is that the bottom would be too crowded. I'm no expert, you just seemed to be getting very few responses so I put in my two cents.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks for the reply torrean
Im getting worried now on wether the tank is going to support such big fish- plec poo isn't too much of a problem at the moment as i just net it out- i also have a second filter placed where my plecs sleep which helps hover up the poo too. I expect they'll be producing pretty big poo's once they get near to max size but suppose it'll just make them easier to net out whole as gross as it is, they can't help it i suppose.

I don't want to rehome them as i doubt many other people will be able to give them a decent sized tank as i can and i as i bought them a while back i want to take responsability for my actions and give them as best home as posible even if it costs loads of money, i see far too many people putting their plecs down once they start getting too big and i don't want that weighing on my conscience if that happens to them if i rehome them. Out of the millions of large growing plecs which get abused in small tanks, i at least want to give mine the home they desearve.
I have a couple of other questions too;
a. How much should i be feeding my plecs as they grow? the largest one right now is 7inchs and in a 50gallon+ tank which a 4-5inch sailfin plec and the other common plec is in a 30gallon and is about 6inchs.
My largest common plec sits under/by the tank filter when he wants to be fed and he gets about 1-2 large algae wafers a day- the sailfin gets one large algae wafer a day and the other common plec gets one large algae once every 2days as she's never had much of an apetite- any more and she doesn't eat them.
All of the plecs eat whatever else makes its way down to the bottom of the tank and doesn't get eaten by the corys in time. I figured that they will need more food when they get larger, how much should i be feeding them when they get to max size roughly?
b. I read on i think was planetcatfish.com or somthing similar that common and sailfin plecs are some of the most laid back and docile plecs out there, but will they become more intolerant of each other when adult/max size or do i have nothing to worry about in that area?
Currently the common and sailfin plecs living together get along very well- in fact they never seem to leave each others side and have never shown any agresion or food competicion with each other.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Here's the profiles i looked at on planetcatfish.com, it says common plecs only get to 10inchs and that sailfins get to 18inchs but i expect they would get bigger in a 200gallon tank;

common plec

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loric...erygop/88_f.php

sailfin plec

http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/loric...rygop/148_f.php

Is this info correct and is any of it debatable?

 

[Torrean]

maybe the plec's I saw where sailfin. I really don't think so, but I could be wrong. Some of them do look very similair when the fin isn't spread out. I am probably wrong. It's happened before. I still have always heard that commons get to 18-20" in length. But planetcatfish is supposed to be a good site. I guess you'll know for sure in a few years. About feeding. I'd just put in as much as they will eat. Every 3 months or so put in a little more and see if it gets eaten. If so then it might be time to CONSIDER increasing the feeding. I really wish I could help you more.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You have been realy helpful so far don't worry about it Torrean, i just wish i could've helped you out more with your sick fish before it was too late.
Anyways...
I am realy desperate for info as i don't want t buy such a big tank and then find out all its going to hold is the plecs- i'll most likely put extra filtration in anyways though if that helps.

 

[Torrean]

As long as you take care of the pleco poo on atleast a bi-weekly basis I would not think that all it would hold would be the pleco's. 72" of fish max X 2 to compensate for the extra waste would be 144. So that's 56 (i think) inches of fish that you have to work with. BTW I am just going on logic here. I have no real experience with large plec's.
This may put your mind to ease or make you really mad.
My sister has an 8" common pleco in a ten gallon. She doesn't do water changes, she rarely gravel vacs and when she does she just runs the water through like a coffee filter thing to get out the poo then puts it back in the tank. She has 0 live plants and the tank is not overfiltered. The plec has survived 3 years so far. edit:emphasis on survived.

edit edit: I don't think the potential problem would come from overstocking the overall tank but from aggression between the plecs. I would think you could add mid to upper swimmers no prob but the plec's might scrap when they get really big. Could you possibly put one of the plecs in a 75 and have two in the 200? That might solve the problem of too many bottom dwellers.

edit edit edit: btw pleco's will eat anything that get's close to there mouth (or so I've heard, never actually witnessed it) so you may want to rethink the khulis'.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Hmm....I think the main issue here is plec poo then i suppose. Tank maintanence isn't a problem as i work at home mainly and i am actually beginning to enjoy doing water changes and are doing them once every 4days in all my tanks even though they don't need it that regualy, im sure the fish enjoy excellant water quality.
Currently i own about 10 adult guppys, 10 corys, 4 khuli loachs, 3 mollys, about 7 platys and 15neon tetras and the plecs- my fish are separated into a 50gallon, 30gallon and 10gallon tanks. I want to own more livebearers, namely guppys and platys, when i get the new tank and posibly a pair of rams although i am still researching on wether they are compatible with my current fish.
Im giving away the 50gallon to a friend when i get the new 200gallon tank, keeping the 10gallon as a quarentine tank, turing the 30gallon into a fry tank and setting up an old 3ft 30gallon into a single betta biotope tank.

I feel realy sorry though for your sisters plec Torrean, might have to go and steal it off her

 

[Torrean]

well since you are so emaculately cleaning your tanks I would say that pleco poo is not even much of an issue. I'd say that the main problem you may have is overcrowding the bottom of your tank. But that is a big tank so it may be just fine.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Thanks for all the help Torrean .
Hm...I've just been randomly thinking about my largest common plecs intelligence- i just realsied how intelligent he is or at least obedient.
He lets me know when he's hungry by sitting by/under the tank main filter.
He realises that if he moves the algae wafer to his tree root cave it makes it harder for the corys to steal it off him.
When i do my once every 1-2month total tank clean out and i need to move him, i put the net next to where he's sitting and he obediently swims in with no fuss at all .
He always poo's next to one of the tanks filters and not in the planted areas where it is difficult to net them out.

I feel so lucky for having him and the other plecs, he is the most rewarding fish i've ever had . When i first got him he was almost starved to death like most of the plecs at my lfs, he was extremely shy and wild and i actually didn't see him for the first month of having him- i didn't even know if he was dead or alive, he just sat in a little cave i had bought for him 24/7 and swam away from every other fish in fear and had a major distrust of me. Now he is very tame and enjoys being out and about in the tank.

My little sailfin plec the other day realy shocked me too when i was moving some of the plants about in the tank- all of a sudden he just swam onto my hand and sat there for about 5minutes calmly- i felt so lucky i don't know why- it was the first time i had ever touched any of my plecs .

 

[Torrean]

That is AWESOME. I was cleaning my girls tank a few weeks ago and one of her ADF's swam right into my hand and sat there for awhile. It was soo cool. I'm glad your plec's are so fond of you. My sis says that fish aren't the same as mammals because mammals can LOVE you. I say fish can love they just have more trouble saying so.