Plastic tub as a grow-out tank?

I have about 45 A. cacatuoides fry that are around 2.5 weeks old housed in a 45cm tank with the mother. This is going to be way too small before long but my budget and the wife's patience won't stretch to me getting another tank. Would one of those large (around 40 - 50 litres) clear plastic containers with lids suffice (the type you see at supermarkets and some cheap shops) or is there some danger in using them that I can't think of?
~Russell.

Hi mate

i was recently given some Krib fry from a guy over here in Perth
He was breeding various cichlids and all the fry were in plastic tubs.

Looked all ok to me.
Hope that helps a little

Graeme

Hi Graeme,
I'll give it a shot then...
Thanks for the reply,
Russell.

The main concern is your electricity bill - plastic tub aren't great in holding temperature.

Another one is load - some of these container aren't design to be handle rough.

Thomas.

A decent heater and air stone would be enough I reckon.

I think Thomas is spot-on, I didn't consider the fact that the plastic will lose heat much quicker than glass. It's very cold here so that's an issue. I think I might put a smaller tub housing the fish into a slightly larger one with lids on both, hopefully the gap in between will work as insulation.

a cheap way to insulate also is sticking scrunched up newspaper between the tubs, thatl help keep the temp up a bit. plsu only costs $2 or however much the newspaper is.

nathan

I have used polystyrene boxes to grow out ... seems to work ok, nice and insulated, the fish came out fine ... just keep the heater away from the plastic (ie use a heater protector sleeve), put in a little air driven filter or just an airstone if you're doing lots of waterchanges. Usually sushi places, japanese restaurants or fish restaurants (fish & chip shops) just throw out the containers their salmon and tuna and other fish comes in and you can pick them up from them. I'm lucky to have a japanese restaurant just up the road from where all my tanks are housed. I get nice long boxes from there :)

eskys are the best

heaps of people throw them out when the lids or handles get broken

Plastic clear storage tubs are not uv stabilized and seem to detiriorate after awhile in the sun, they also warp with the pressure of the water