I just bought a new 5.5 gallon and it has everything but water. It was bought as a quarintine tank but at the store i saw freshwater flounders. I Have to get 1! it would eat the fish in my 20 gallon so i may decide to get 1 and put it in hear. They get about 4inches long the ones at the store but others can get up to 10.

Do you guys think i should use it is a quarintine untill my 20 gallon is all setup and all the fish i want are in it and healthy, or use it as a quarintine forever. What should i put with the flounder? I have considered an african butterfly fish because they are fine together. It will then be a mini predator tank.

a 5.5g isnt really big enough to keep the chemistry balanced for almost any fish, and the freshwater flounders are not an easy fish. the do best with freshwater salt if not in a brackish tank. they also do better with sand. they are wild caught so you would be draining the natural populations. wild caughts are usually picky eaters(at least with uncommon species like these) and therefore may be a challenge to feed, live foods and the competition from other fish.

It may work ok as a quarantine tank but I thought you were going to put a mated pair of paradise in it. It sounds like you have lots going on fishwise. That must keep you very busy. I wish I had the time & money to put into lots of tanks. I have 5 going right now & thay're all easy to maintain. None bigger than 10 gallons. Hope it works whatever you decide :)

Flounders aren't easy to keep (as mentioned, needing some salt, sand, live foods, etc.) and should have at least a 20 gallon tank even for the little ones. So, I would use your 5 gallon as a quarantine tank. Maybe after you've set up your other tanks, you could use the 5 gallon for a few paradise fish as you planned before.

The guy at the store said they would be fine in my setup. They dont get large and dont move around much so they are fine. And no they dont need sand and salt. There will be no competion for the flounder, it will be byitself and my filter is a aquaclear 20 so thats perfect. I do want paradise fish, but i want to have something that isnt very common.

Not to be rude or anything but i need someone who has had a freshwater flounder. The store i go to i can trust so i think its okay. If any of you have kept one let me know.

i have had them they didnt last too long because i didnt have sand and salt and live food. you need to remember that the guy at the pet store is a salesman. if it is even remotely possible that they could live in your setup, technically hes not lying, because they could live there. that doesnt mean its even close to a good setup for them.

They said a 10 gallon would be better and a 5.5 is also good. So i guess im getting 1.

Hope it works out. Keeping fingers crossed for you.

Thanks for all the support and nice comments val! :D Reptileguy, the store has like 10 cramed in a 10 gallon fresh with a gravel bottom they are fine and used to it so im going with it.

how often do you see fish set up in a store in a manner that is the best thing for them? not that often. they cant afford that many fish tanks. they got them, they put them in the best tank they have for them, and hoped for the best which includes getting them off their hands before they die. all i am doing is trying to help by giving my suggestion, if you dont want to listen thats up to you, robyn said the same things i did. i hope they do work in your setup. good luck.

Thank you, I am probably getting a small layer of sand to put over the gravel and may even add a bit of mainre salt.

All of those can be easily taken care of so dont worry. Reptileguy, what size tank was it in? Can i feed them frozen food? What else was with it?

i cant remember for sure but i think it was a 29 community tank. nobody bothered them though. thats a good idea to try frozen, it is similar to live, but without the possibility of disease. hope that helps.

The guy at the store sad they would do really bad in a community for some reason.

how aggressive did they say they were? they are more of a scavenger so they shouldnt really hassle any other fish. they are supposed to be pretty laid back and i would think that most community fish out of curiosity may peck at them to see what they are(to see if they are food) and this may cause so much stress that the flounders dont do well. i just looked at http://species.fishindex.com/species_3315a...r_flounder.html
and they have a profile of them and say the same thing, as well as they need sand and good filtration, however this profile lists them in saltwater areas but names it as a freshwater flounder, so what may be going on is that the adults are marine but go into estuaries and the like to lay their eggs(or give birth,whichever it is that they do) because these areas tend to be a little more freindly for such small fish in comparison to marine environments. that would also explain the salt/no salt dilemna. in general it sounds like a relatively new and not so understood aquarium species and thats why there isnt really a lot of good info on them.

Well i was told that they are laid back, and will eat smaller fish when older. it sounds like a challenge. I one day do hope to setup a reef so im trying to keep harder species.

thats a good idea. hopefully you can come up with some new aspect for their care that will make them a lot easier for everyone to care for them. im sure you know all the pros and cons of reef tank, but i just want to say that for every fish that actually makes it to someone's tank, a cubic yard of reef is destroyed. that is why i dont plan on ever having a saltwater tank again. hopefully this will improve relatively fast, but until then i wont do marine.

Well actually i dont belive in taking them either. Unless they are tank breed, they shouldnt be kept. Some species of saltwater fish may start to become tankbreed soon such as triggers. Clowns are tank breed and some others.