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Tank Busters

Recently, I went on a trip to the Blue Planet Aquarium, not too far from my home, and this trip, along with a recent post here in which I lamented the continued appearance of Bala Sharks in dealerships, led to me conclude that it was about time I fired up another editorial piece. And so, I've decided to wade in on the subject of 'tank busters' - fish species that strictly speaking, are properly public aquarium material, or better still, left in the wild.

We've all seen these fishes turn up in dealerships now and again, and the question I have to ask is, given that the likelihood of the average fishkeeper being able to provide the monster aquarium these fishes require to do them justice ranges from 'small' to 'nonexistent', why do some of these species keep putting in an appearance at dealerships?

Take Bala Sharks as a starting point. Here we have an active shoaling fish, which should be kept in a group of a minimum of six individuals, and whose adult size is 12 inches, possibly more. There is no way that your typical living room community aquarium is going to be a realistic prospect for housing these fishes long term. To provide these fishes with their minimum basic needs, you're looking at 150 gallons, and even in an aquarium that size, they're going to feel a bit cramped if they're sharing it with other fishes. For a community setup of big fishes including Bala Sharks, 250 gallons is more like it, along with a BIG external power filter holding another 50 gallons of water to be on the safe side. In a setup that size, Bala Sharks will live long, happy lives, because they'll have enough space to move around, stretch their fins, grow properly and behave in a manner reasonably similar to the manner they would behave in the wild.

Likewise, I've seen some other less than happy choices of fish in circulation recently, among them big Leporinus species. While not as active as Bala Sharks, they still need lots of space, because Leporinus species again reach 12 inches or more (in the case of Leporinus frederici, you're looking at a twenty inch fish), again need to be in a shoal, and furthermore, given their notorious reputation for being ICBMs with fins with respect to jumping out of the water, their huge aquarium needs a VERY heavy hood in order to provide some means of restraining their tendency to imitate the Space Shuttle and head off into low Earth orbit. Additionally, Leporinus species are bruisers in an aquarium - just because they're Characins doesn't stop them being mean and nasty. These fishes are easily tough enough to mix it with several aggressive Cichlid species, and in the case of the larger Leporinus, are capable of starting fights with Cichlids.

While on the subject of Cichlids, one of the more welcome recent developments is a far better understanding of these fishes and their space requirements, not only because of their physical size, but also because of their strong (and in some cases positively pyroclastic) territorial requirements. While there still exists the odd individual who chooses to run with bad tempered Cichlids as a testosterone boost, fortunately, this is on the wane, at least in my part of the world, and a decent proportion of big Cichlids now end up in the hands of dedicated enthusiasts who give them the space they need. Even with this welcome development in place, there are still some species that should be given a wide berth by all but the affluent and seriously dedicated, and in the case of some of these fishes, enthusiasts with concrete floored basements to provide a site for the aquarium that is robust enough from an engineering standpoint.

Among the ones to avoid, unless you're capable of devoting a large amount of space to an aquarium of over 200 gallons, I would list Caquetaia umbriferum (not only a physically big fish, but VERY strongly territorial, makes HUGE demands on space as a consequence), the larger Guapotes such as Jaguar Cichlids (when you've seen a 14 inch male square up to you through the other side of the aquarium glass ready to pick a fight with you because he thinks you're trespassing on his patch, you know you're dealing with a fish that has attitude), and since I've mentioned Guapotes, I have to add Parachromis dovii to the list of hardcore 'tank busters', as this fish needs 300 gallons for proper long term maintenance, and I personally wouldn't think of owning this fish unless I could stick it in 500 gallons. There are food fishes for humans that are smaller than this behemoth, and I won't even dream of doing anything other than admiring these fishes from a distance until I have the sort of disposable income that could finance a Lamborghini in the driveway. Because, to give these fishes the home I would want to give them, that's the level of income I'd need, because, one of the maxims I adopt as a fishkeeper, and one that every fishkeeper should be adopting, is "what would I want if I was this fish?" I know what I'd want if I was a Parachromis dovii, namely more space than 99.9% of extant aquarists are capable of providing on their current budgets.

Plus, by the time a fishkeeper is looking at aquaria big enough for these fishes, we're way beyond the point of going to the dealer's, buying the aquarium and shipping it home. We're into the realm of having the aquarium built on site, and also well and truly into the realm of the aquarium as a civil engineering project, because 300 gallons of water alone weighs over a ton. Factor in such things as the weight of the glass or acrylic, substrate, and decor if it includes large rocks, and it isn't long before the floor joists are being asked to hold up a constant weight of nearly two tons, concentrated in one spot. At which point, basements with thick concrete floors start to become part of the 'wish list' in order to provide a stable, level and secure site for what is going to be a seriously immovable object once it's up and running. Failing that, the prospective keeper of 'tank busters' is looking at ripping up the floorboards and building towers of bricks beneath the floor joists in order to ensure that the floor isn't going to collapse any time soon. Or, in my case, assuming I have a lottery win under my belt to finance it, having a house built to order from reinforced concrete, with floors rated to take over 50 tons total distributed weight so that I know my fish tanks aren't going to crash through the floors. Basically, if your floor can take an M1 Abrams main battle tank parked on it, then you have no worries in the structural integrity department, and me being me, I'd opt for over-engineered structural features so that I had load bearing capacity to spare.

Anyway, moving on, there's a brace of other fishes that should be on the 'keep at arms length' list unless you happen to have a bank balance that will stand the capital expenditure and running costs of a setup more usually seen in a public aquarium. High on this list are Pacus. To my mind, any dealer stocking Pacus and selling them to an uninformed public is in need of education, preferably with a Tazer. Here we have a fish that grows to be the size of a Golden Retriever dog, and is again an active shoaling fish. Would you put a golden Retriever in a space too small for it to turn around in? No? Then you shouldn't do that to a Pacu. Likewise, several big catfishes are among the fishes that should only be taken on by the seriously dedicated - the infamous Red Tailed Catfish featuring prominently among them. Given that this is a fish that can reach four feet in length with ease, and according to the people at Practical Fishkeeping magazine, could reach six feet in the wild, given the size of one that they saw being chopped up for food in a Brazilian native fishmonger's, the idea that this is a fish for the home aquarium falls squarely into the realm of deranged thinking unless you happen to be mad enough to contemplate building an indoor pond for it, but if I had the funds, I'd be in that category, indeed, I'd be mad enough, given the money, to buy a house with an indoor swimming pool big enough for people, and turn it over to the fish.

Speaking of Pacus and Red Tailed Catfish, my trip to the Blue Planet Aquarium showed me how this is done properly. Several honking big Colossoma nigripinne were sharing their home with a 4 foot Red Tail, a 3 foot Tiger Shovelnose and two or three other Big Pims, and judging by the way they were all swimming around happily, showing no signs of beiing cramped, I'd say they were satisfied with their quarters. How big were these quarters? Try 20,000 gallons. Yes, that's right, twenty thousand gallons (that's UK gallons by the way). This was an aquarium you could float a small dinghy upon. Between me and the fish were big sheets of 5 inch thick acrylic. This was an aquarium in which the "bogwood" decorations consisted of whole trees. To set this up, the aquarium decor was arranged with a jib crane. Fancy replicating this setup? If you do, it will leave you with precious little change from a quarter of a million US dollars, and that's just the initial capital setup costs. Running this setup once it's in place will leave you with an eye-watering electricity bill. Keeping 20,000 gallons of water at Amazonian temperatures year round will see you writing out monthly cheques to your electricity supplier of the order of $4,000 a shot. If this is starting to scare you off keeping these big fishes, good, because I'm going to suggest here that if you can't do this, don't bother trying.

Oh, and as a final illustration of the sort of fun and games that went on at the Blue Planet, they had a very nice marine aquarium in there. The size of which will, when I reveal it, explain why they house their fish tanks inside a building large enough to act as an aircraft hangar for an A380 Airbus. This was every saltwater aquarium nut's fantasy aquarium come true. How does two million litres grab you? That's 440,000 UK gallons, and allows the Blue Planet to house no less than ten adult Sand Tiger Sharks together. If you fancy having that at home, you're looking at startup costs in the region of $20 million. And yes, if I had Bill Gates' money, I'd be mad enough to build one. But until I have his money, I'm going to leave tank busters on that scale well and truly alone, and stick with fishes that will live happily in an aquarium small enough to fit in my living room.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002