Fahaka's and tank mates

[taureandragon76]

I am really wanting to build myself a 354g gallon plywood tank (8 feet by 36" deep and 24" high) and want to have a Fahaka in there. The only thing for me is that I am not sure about having just one fish in there. Has anyone had any experience with tank mates for a Fahaka? I know fish can be different from one to the next and that what the book says isn't always the case and what works for one person may not work for another. I am just looking for ideas and opinions on this so that once I build the tank I can try out tank mates and see what works. I know I saw a video on youtube with a Fahaka mowing down a crayfish in two bites and noticed some red tail sharks in there(BTW is this someones tank from here?)

[Chibodee]

Honestly..i never heard of a "gentle" fahaka that allowed tank mates to live, while cruising around this forum. Personally, I never owned one, but they do seem to be one of the most aggressive puffers, from what I heard. If you do decide to take a risk with tank mates even larger ones its only a matter time before they are eaten or maimed. Sorry for being so negative But overall its better to be safe and not to take the chance. There are a lot of other awesome freshwater puffers out there too!

[taureandragon76]

hey don't be sorry, I found no negativity there at all, this is what I am looking for is honest answers. I pretty much have my heart set on a Fahaka,would get a MBU but have no room to build a 1000g tank. Worse comes to worse I may build a smaller tank of between 180g -220g for the Fahaka only. I am sure a Fahaka would love a 354g tank but pretty big tank for one fish and something a little smaller would probably be just fine. I have had my eye and heart set on a Fahaka for quite some time now

[Myaj]

I think it would depend honestly. Jeni (Pufferpunk) has a fahaka that will allow "some" tankmates but not others. He doesn't bother rainbowfish if I remember correctly, but tore an electric blue JD apart. Then again, RTR had one that HE was scared of.. that fish was nasty. Could be a male/female thing (no way to sex them), could be individual personality...

I've always wanted to do a 180 with a young fahaka and a big school of green tiger barbs.. I think the colors would look good and the barbs are pretty quick.. and *maybe* if they grew up together..

You can certianly try it, just avoid slower moving fish, give them lots of hiding places and don't be overly surprised if some disappear over the years. My guess is you could get away with it in a 300+ gallon tank, if it was done right, but there's never a guarentee.

[Pufferpunk]

Tiger barbs lasted some time in my fahaka tank--enough to grow larger than any TBs I've seen. Then 1 by 1, he picked them off. Same with neons, which I thought would be too small/fast to catch. I do have quite a few tank mates in with him now, including a pair of 18 year old elephant noses that I recently inherited. He did take bites out of their tails when 1st introduced & I freaked. Never bothered them again. Still bites at my frontosa, plecos & chalceus but just fin bites & not too often to worry. For some reason, I grew my EBJD from a 1" baby, he let it grow to around 7" & then did this to her:





My concern for you, taureandragon76 , is, you may never know when your puffer might turn into a killer. You could fully stock your tank with fish you love & he could turn on them at any time. I started Filbert our as a juvie with plecos (he viciously attacked a softshell turtle in with them too), at 5" & I slowly introduced other wifh with him, as he got bigger. You see what ha did to the EBJD but never to any other larger species.

What happens if you go thru all that tank building & such & yours is the most common fahaka--a killer. Would you keep returning it, until you found a gentler one or just stayed with it as a singleton?

[Fella]

I've tried a few different fish with my fahaka, and only fast swimming cyprinids work for me. Bichirs don't work, and neither will the majority of fish in my experience.

I wouldn't recommend keeping any tankmates with them though.

[Boxermom]

I have recently found some success in having tankmates with my fahaka, for awhile anyway. My husband's mollies are making tons of babies, as mollies do. I have quite a few Endler guppies, too. My fahaka seems to ignore anything that's too small to make a snack out of, so I tried dumping a dozen or so molly babies and some Endlers in with him. He pretty much ignores them and likely will until the mollies are big enough to become worth eating. Meanwhile, they add some additional activity and color to the tank. He's killed other things I've tried in there.

[taureandragon76]

Tiger barbs lasted some time in my fahaka tank--enough to grow larger than any TBs I've seen. Then 1 by 1, he picked them off. Same with neons, which I thought would be too small/fast to catch. I do have quite a few tank mates in with him now, including a pair of 18 year old elephant noses that I recently inherited. He did take bites out of their tails when 1st introduced & I freaked. Never bothered them again. Still bites at my frontosa, plecos & chalceus but just fin bites & not too often to worry. For some reason, I grew my EBJD from a 1" baby, he let it grow to around 7" & then did this to her:



My concern for you, taureandragon76 , is, you may never know when your puffer might turn into a killer. You could fully stock your tank with fish you love & he could turn on them at any time. I started Filbert our as a juvie with plecos (he viciously attacked a softshell turtle in with them too), at 5" & I slowly introduced other wifh with him, as he got bigger. You see what ha did to the EBJD but never to any other larger species.

What happens if you go thru all that tank building & such & yours is the most common fahaka--a killer. Would you keep returning it, until you found a gentler one or just stayed with it as a singleton?

Thanks for all the replies and what I have read is what I pretty much expected, is that they can be monsters. Also no I will never return him to try and find a docile one, I don't believe in doing that. Wow on the EBJD would be a beautiful speciman had your Fahaka not done what it did. I think what I will do then is not build a 354g tank but make one a little smaller say around 220g.

What kinda depth do they need in the long run for turn around space?
Probably gonna be 36" deep should that be deep enough?
Also how are Fahaka's with plants?

Also plan on building a sump too for the tank, do you all think that say a 75g sump be good enough to filter the tank?
One more question, how fast is their growth rate?

[Boxermom]

At least two feet is recommended, as they get to 18" and that will give them good turn-around room. They grow about an inch a month for the first year if well cared for and have enough room. Personally, I choose to use artificial silk plants because he's come after my hands a few times so the less gardening and whatnot I have to do, the better.

[taureandragon76]

The only problem I have with fake plants is just that they are fake. Ever since I learned how to grow aquatic plants I keep them in all my tanks just looks so much more natural. I guess if I put real plants in there I should just be really really careful, as I am quite sure a Fahaka could take quite the chunk outta my hand. So I guess 36" deep would be totally sufficient.

[spoot]

3x fish length for depth is a lot more than what a lot of people have. I'm scared to put my hand in my ceylon tank and the are only 1.75". I can't even put my hand too close to the water; they will jump out of the water to taste my had, it has happened before!

[Boxermom]

Yup, it definitely hurts when they bite you and they have a tendency to go carpet surfing afterwards, which can kill them, because the natural tendency is to jerk your hand back and if they don't let go right away, they go flying.

I have both planted tanks and artificial tanks and I think the artificial tanks look just as good. I prefer silk to plastic plants as they look more natural to me. Its also much easier to keep them algae-free.

[taureandragon76]

ok now you all are scaring me here a little lol. Maybe it will be silk plants for him. I might just fill the tank with Java fern as it never really needs to be pruned ya just let it grow and do its thing.

[Fella]

I spent a lot of money on buying a great selection of plants to go in with my fahaka, and over about a week, he chose to just destroy every plant I put in with him.

[taureandragon76]

ya thats why I think I will just do java fern, I can get it for next to nothing and it is a strong hearty plant