Filbert Turning Into a KILLER?

[Pufferpunk]

It is odd that he would let certain fish live for years & then just eat them (like the JD & Bosmani) & others don't even last a few hours, when he totally ignors them at 1st. I mean, if he didn't like the aggressiveness of a cichlid, why does he tolerate the 7" Frontosa kicking him out of his cave (that fish was introduced as an adult)? And if it's the fact that parrots are basicly defenseless, then I'd think he'd eat my senior elephant noses, BGK (both added very recently) or the Lancer catfish, all whom are poor swimmers.

[FishFan]

My experience is that Puffers goes after the eyes with vigour in order to sustain fatal damage on the victim.
Seen it with done by both Abeis and GSPs.

Yikes! We haven't seen that with our Fahaka, and I'm glad. But I dunno if Filbert is necessarily to blame when it happened to a second Cichlid added to one's established territory. Filbert's previous attack descriptions thus far don't include eyeball sucking, and I'd hate to see such a pretty fish get framed.

~Anne

[Pufferpunk]

Well we can't blame Kalvin the dog this time! The eyeballs could have been removed by the 12" pleco that was munching on the side of the fish when I came home 6 hours after putting him in the tank. You're right, he's a tail biter & has bit a few dorsal fins too.

[apachepufferman]

I'm a little nervous to put anyone else in with my fahaka but he is a baby now 3-4" and I think that now would be the best time to introduce tankmates to him. how did you decide on who to put in with him? I just feel that i would be wasting a 120 gal tank to one fish. I would really like to try some other with him. I've read around that apistogrammas and plecos will work but the apistos just seem like they would be way to small for a 15" fish. Any suggestions?

[Pufferpunk]

Sometimes you can tell by how it reacts to a fish in a bag floating. Usually a fahaka will attack it right thru the bag. Other times, it will wait until the cover of darkness to kill. Your choice, whether or not you're willing to risk a fish in your "experiment". My steppdaughter's fish was the last one I'm trying.

[apachepufferman]

he is so young yet that i think i should try to see if he enjoys company. he really doesn't seem to mind my eel and some really small feeder fish that i put in there are just hanging around. I think i feed him to well on the bloodworms for him to really want to go after anything else.

[Nick]

Its generally a terrible idea to add feeder fish to a tank with a puffer, even if they aren't really for him. They bring in every sort of terrible disease, and if he does get one, not only is it really hard for him to digest, but they often contain internal parasites that will be passed on to the puffer.

[apachepufferman]

im not plan on feeding him with feeders. I plan on using bloddworms and seafood.

[Nick]

Eggcellent plan. I had figured the feeders might be for his eel tankmate.

[apachepufferman]

i found that my eels like bloodworms just as much as the puffers. That goes for all my fish, Mollies barbs apistogrammas catfish and redtail shark. they all go for the bloodworms. If i didn't have danios and tetras i probably would only feed bloodworms.

[Nick]

That kind of makes sense, almost any fish in the wild would eat insect larvae if the chance came up.