# Fish for 400 Gallon Tank



## RiizlaPlus (Jul 16, 2014)

So I'm soon going to be buying a 400 gallon tank from my friend who no longer wants it. I've looked into freshwater fish and come up with a list of all my favourites! 

I was wondering if you could tell me if throwing all of these guys together in a 400 gallon tank would work out?

Porcupine Puffer (Diodon holocanthus)
Bala Shark (Balantiocheilus melanopterus)
Red Tail Shark (Epalzeorhynchos bicolor)
Neon Tetra Jumbo (Paracheirodon innesi)
Siamese Fighting Fish (Betta splendens)
Red Fire Eel (Mastacembelus erythrotaenia)
Red Lobster (Procambarus Clarkii)
Hammers Cobalt Blue Lobster (Procambarus clarkii)
Black Scorpion Lobster (Cherax sp.)
Mini Crab (Uca sp.)
Dwarf African Frog (Hymenochirus curtipes)
Freshwater Clam (Corbicual sp.)
Assassin Snail (Clea helena)
Pictus Catfish (Pimelodus pictus)
Motoro Stingray 

Thanks!


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## wilkinss77 (Sep 23, 2008)

RiizlaPlus said:


> So I'm soon going to be buying a 400 gallon tank from my friend who no longer wants it. I've looked into freshwater fish and come up with a list of all my favourites!
> 
> I was wondering if you could tell me if throwing all of these guys together in a 400 gallon tank would work out?
> 
> ...


porcupine puffers are strictly marine.
pictus cats will eat neons.
RTB shark might harass the fighter.
the lobsters will fight.
the stingray will eat the lobsters anyway.


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## Fargle (Aug 8, 2013)

You'll have to decide early on about what you actually want to keep as nearly all those species are incompatible with each other.

Do you want to be keeping a few, larger species of fish, or do you want to keep lots and lots of smaller fish. Personally I'd go for the smaller fish, in a large tank like the one you're getting you could easily get a shoal of 1000 neon tetras going which looks amazing. Mix that in with some other smaller cichlids and some interesting wood features and it could be an incredible tank. However it means you'd not be able to keep any larger species or the inverts that you want.

If you want to keep bigger fish then head to the monsterfish forums as they'd give you a better idea of what you'd need. 

What shape is the tank? Stingrays live exclusively on the bottom so need surface area. These also get to be around 3ft wide so would probably outgrow any tank of 400G unless it was only a foot or so deep. If you want a puffer you may be thinking of the Mbu (Tetraodon mbu) rather than the porcupine (as Wilkinss77 said, they're marine and not even brackish water would keep them).

Also have you considered the cost of upkeep of a large tank. Water changes, heating, pumping and lighting all ramp up significantly in a large tank as well as the cost of feeding and treatments. Has your friend got adequate filtration he's giving to you? Otherwise this is going to be another significant cost.

It sounds like you don't have much experience with keeping fish, and sorry if that is wrong, just trying to help. Have you considered taking on a smaller tank before going big?


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## Basin79 (Apr 1, 2014)

400 gallon!!!!!! Christ on a bike. And I thought the 6x2x2ft tank was big at 150 gallon.


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## johndavidwoods (Nov 18, 2008)

RiizlaPlus said:


> So I'm soon going to be buying a 400 gallon tank from my friend who no longer wants it. I've looked into freshwater fish and come up with a list of all my favourites!
> 
> I was wondering if you could tell me if throwing all of these guys together in a 400 gallon tank would work out?
> 
> ...


Tons of scope for different things getting eaten by various candidates there, won't work at all. Have a think about how it would actually look too - will you ever notice a siamese fighting fish in a 400g tank? How much of the dwarf clawed frog do you think you'll see?

I really like the above suggestion of focussing on something like a massive shoal of neons, with a few other feature fish to add interest. But you do have a lot of options with a tank that size and could go for some impressive species that not many people are able to keep.


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## Basin79 (Apr 1, 2014)

I'd personally go for a large predatory species. Something not open to most other keepers. You've got the chance to own some absolutely astounding species in that tank. By the way what are the dimensions of that glass shed?


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## jtg (Jun 16, 2010)

Amazon blackwater aquarium.
20 discus, 200 cardinal tetras. Job done. : victory:

Josh


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## cjd12345 (Nov 2, 2011)

Fargle said:


> Also have you considered the cost of upkeep of a large tank. Water changes, heating, pumping and lighting all ramp up significantly in a large tank as well as the cost of feeding and treatments. Has your friend got adequate filtration he's giving to you? Otherwise this is going to be another significant cost.
> 
> It sounds like you don't have much experience with keeping fish, and sorry if that is wrong, just trying to help. Have you considered taking on a smaller tank before going big?


These are very good points. 400G is around 1800 litres, a 10% water change would be the equivalent of me emptying my whole tank... That's a lot of water. It's also quite a lot of time, I guess the only way to do it would be to pump water out into the garden (may as well water the roses) and then pump new water in from a treatment tank. I'd dread to even consider the purchase and running costs for the other elements, perhaps money is no object though. 

I know that the advice given to new aquarists is not to start too small because larger volumes of water are more forgiving... But this size is going to be a challenge.


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## Basin79 (Apr 1, 2014)

I'd like to know how it's being lifted/moved from and to. It'll be a ridiculous size and weight. Definitely a wondow taken out job. It's definitely not 400lts? A 400gal tank is absolutely monsterous. Can't wait to see the pics.


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## cjd12345 (Nov 2, 2011)

I got wondering what 400 gallons actually looked like and found this thread on an aquatic forum :
Our 400 Gallon In Wall Natural Sun-Lit Reef - The Reef Tank

Granted, this is a reef rather than a slightly simpler freshwater tank, but it puts large tanks into perspective.


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## RiizlaPlus (Jul 16, 2014)

so none of these guys can be kept together in one tank?


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## wilkinss77 (Sep 23, 2008)

RiizlaPlus said:


> so none of these guys can be kept together in one tank?


some can, just not most of them- deffo not the porcupine puffer, not pictus/neons, rays/lobsters/neons, red tailed black sharks/fighters.


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## Esfa (Apr 15, 2007)

RiizlaPlus said:


> so none of these guys can be kept together in one tank?


Porcupine Puffer - Can't go with anything else on your list. Saltwater.
Bala Shark - Can't go with neons/lobsters/crab/frog
Red Tail Shark - Can't go with lobsters/crab/frog
Neon Tetra Jumbo - Can't go with most of the list. Would be food. 
Siamese Fighting Fish - Again, quite a bit smaller than the rest. Food.
Red Fire Eel - Cant go with lobster/crabs/frog/neons
Red Lobster - Best kept to species tank. Nips can be nasty and will hunt fish. Illegal in the UK
Hammers Cobalt Blue Lobster - Same as above
Black Scorpion Lobster - Same as above. Illegal in the uk. 
Mini Crab - Same as above. Also brackish. 
Dwarf African Frog - Does best in species only tanks as slow to get food.
Freshwater Clam - Incredibly hard to keep alive in aquaria. 
Assassin Snail - This one's a good un. 
Pictus Catfish - Would eat the neons.
Motoro Stingray - Very difficult to keep and tbh if you're asking about keeping a porcupine puffer with a bala shark, you're not ready for rays.


Hope this clears a few things up. :2thumb:


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## wilkinss77 (Sep 23, 2008)

Esfa said:


> Porcupine Puffer - Can't go with anything else on your list. Saltwater.
> Bala Shark - Can't go with neons/lobsters/crab/frog
> Red Tail Shark - Can't go with lobsters/crab/frog
> Neon Tetra Jumbo - Can't go with most of the list. Would be food.
> ...


pretty much, yeah. the clam could be kept in VERY clean water, with bright lighting, & i've seen them kept. but you can only keep them with fish that won't nip at them. a few of those listed could be kept together, but not many of them could.


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## Retic84 (Feb 22, 2013)

Have a look at 

African tiger fish- large, predatory and nice big teeth on show
Piraya (vampire tetra)- stunning in shoals, massive fangs
Wolf fish- normally lazy lookin, but will destroy glass if you get too close
Cariba piranha- now hard to get but best looking of the pygos
Arowana- just stunning

None of the above a pieces can be mixed, they can be shoaled within same species with some successes but as always here's no guarantees, with a tank that size you could get lucky though.

A predatory tank that size would look amazing.


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## ZuluAmel (Apr 19, 2014)

Stick a shed load of tiger barbs in and plant it up really nice. And some nice big plecos


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