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thinking of firemouths, how would you setup a 30?

1490 Views 6 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  jcushing, 
J
so i have a 30 (36x12) just sitting around that i was thinking of housing some firemouths but being that its on the small side how would you guys go about setting one up. i was planning on a couple peices of driftwood a few scattered rocks maybe 1 pile and sand. maybe a sword or 2 but nothing crazy. any recommendations? pics of FM tanks would be great....

also how would you suggest stocking it? i was thinking of "a pair" but its not like they sell em in 2 packs ya know? should i get maybe 4 and see what happens? just buy 2 and hope for the best? from what *** read they are real hard to sex early on. given the limited space theres no room for multiple territories.

other thoughts were blue acaras (obviously instead of the firemouths), both of these fish match my water chemistry real well. in either case i was looking to get hopefully a breeding pair going to keep longterm in the 30 but i am also considering something along the lines of a 180 down the road for a mixed CA/SA tank that i could certainly see either firemouths or blue acaras in.

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A
Firemouths will probably work in a tank that size. What's the footprint? If you get 4 juvies that should eventually pair off, the only probablem is I've had 3 for almost a year and JUST now had them pair off and I couldn't imagine them at the size they are now with all three in my 29 that I have(that's why I asked for the foot print of your 30 gallon, since if my 29 were a tad longer I could see it being ok).

For a pair though, a 29 gallon would work, and so I suppose a 30 gallon would too.

BTW, FM's are awesome fish and they have great personalities. If possible try to get a few fish from different sources, that way you will hopefully get an unrelated pair, and thus produce fry with better genetics.
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Sorry I don't know how I missed that footprint. I think it would work better with a group of 4-6 than it would with 3(like I have in my 55), simply because that allows the aggression to be spread out more. I would just make sure to have homes for the rest of them when you get a pair (which I'm sure you already know). 36" seems like enough space for that many juvies, and though it will be cramped, I think it can work as long as you have adequate filtration and watch the tank carefully for any aggresion problems. My pair has gotten pretty nasty with the 3rd FM I have, thus #3 will be getting a seperate home soon. My larger male is about 5" but the other two are more like 3.5-4". I think it just depends, but yeah you can expect anywhere from 3.5 - 5" with lots of "personality".
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