Upgrading my brackish tank - how big to go?

[Penguin88]

Hello, I have a 30 gallon brackish tank that I know is overstocked. All of the fish qwere recently acquired and I am ready to get a bigger tank for them. I'm doing a lot of water changes so the water parameters are good and my fish are healthy, but they are also all juveniles and I know they will need a bigger tank especially as they grow.
Right now I have an archer, two green spotted puffers, and a dragon goby. I was a little concerned adding the archer to the tank which just had the two puffers at the time, but I haven't seen any fin nipping or chasing whatsoever. I saw the dragon goby at the pet store the other day and picked him up, and fortunately there is no aggression going on in my tank although I know I will have to keep an eye out for it.

Anyway, especially now that I have added the dragon goby I am going to purchase a larger tank. I am wondering what size I should go for. I was thinking of a 55 gallon, is that large enough?
Thanks guys!

 

[authmal]

Well, a single GSP should have a 30 gallon or larger tank. Dragon gobies should have 4 foot long tanks, or better (55+). Archers should have 100 gallon tanks, or larger. That pretty much says you need to look at 100 gallons or more, not 55.

Since I'm not familiar with the archers or dragon gobies, I did some brief research to come up with that information. Took me about 5 minutes. It wasn't very detailed research, so some specifics could be missed, but that research saves you grief in the long run. Impulse buys are bad ideas when lives are in the balance.

 

[Penguin88]

Where are you reading 100 gallons for an archer? I've read 45+

 

[Branden_Pearson]

If you are going with a 4 ft 55 gal I would say just go for a 75 or 90 gallon which has a much bigger footprint and gives a lot more depth and swimming area while still being only 4ft.


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[authmal]

If you are going with a 4 ft 55 gal I would say just go for a 75 or 90 gallon which has a much bigger footprint and gives a lot more depth and swimming area while still being only 4ft.


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Which doesn't address the 100 gallon or better recommendation for archer fish. Of even more concern, if you have an archer fish, you're probably not going to fill the tank completely, so you'll need to have an even larger tank to still have appropriate water volume for the other fish, yet enough open air in the tank so that you can have something installed on which you feed the archer fish. This is the risk you take when you don't thoroughly research the species you're interested in before buying them, just because they have a broadly similar care criteria, such as brackish or freshwater.

 

[ktrom13]

Ive had an archer fish. They will eat pellets andblood worms. Its just takes time to get them to transition them to "normal" fish food. They dont nessarily( sorry for the spelling) need to have to eat live insects. But they do get fairly large so i would recommend a 75 gallon tank. Its still 4ft like a 55 but wider. I traded mine in because i didnt have the apropriate sized tank for him.

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[Penguin88]

Getting a 75 gallon or 100 gallon tank isn't a problem. I can do either. 180 gallons wouldn't even be a problem. I don't have a size limit or financial limit. That's why I made this post, I was wondering what size to get. And I keep the water level to the brim, I feed my archer krill and blood worms. I was just thinking a 55 gallon because I read that archer fish only need 45 gallons. Would a 75 gallon be good? I don't want to go larger than necessary but I want to make sure the fish have an appropriately sized tank.

 

[Penguin88]

I can get a 100 gallon tank no problem, but I am confused since I read archers only need 45-55. Would a 75 be large enough?

 

[authmal]

Let's see.
http://voices.yahoo.com/how-care-archer-fish-6413650.html?cat=53 says at least 50.
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile95.html says at least 55.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banded_archerfish says 45-55 but a greater volume is preferred.
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=954+1600&pcatid=1600 says 100.
http://www.fishlore.com/aquariummagazine/feb08/archerfish.htm says 100 plus.

So, *I* won't bother to tell you what is large enough because you're apparently set on the smallest possible tank, but those are just the resources found with about a minute's work.

For what it's worth, I did a search for archer fish care.