Fish Scared Me To Death

[shortymet55]

This happened last time I was at an aquarium store, and when I went today, I remember this, so I thought Id share the story. I dont have a tank big enough for any of the large aggressive Cichlids, but I just looking at them for fun. There was one maybe a foot long. He was along in an empty tank that was way to small. He looked sad, so I watching him. I was very amused how he stared at me. I even tried walking along the tank to see if he would follow. And he did. Anyways, I walked back to the center of the tank and notice he had a really interesting mouth. Nothing out of the ordinary, but all my fish are small, so you cant see in thier mouths. Anyways, I was looking in his mouth, looking for teeth an whatnot, at which point he snapped at me. His mouth smacked the glass and even though I had distance between me and the tank, he snapped so fast I almost had a heart attack. I almost fell off my feet. It was extremely scary, but now quite amusing (especially for my mom, who saw it happen).

So, thats my story. Has this happened to anyone else?

 

[peter22UK]

some of the bigger, more aggressive cichlids can get like that...through a mixture of their behaviour, and how they have been brought up. I am guessing he was in the small tank because he wouldnt get along with any other fish, and therefore in LFS terms he would have taken up valuable store space if placed in a larger tank on his own.

Its a shame, but some cichlids do really have a bite to them lol

 

[juanveldez]

happens to me all the time, my RD won't even let me in the room that his tank is in without doing it and my festae does it as well as my RD when they are both thinking that I am ignoring them, they are like wet little puppies always begging for my attention.

 

[ReMz]

There are a few videos on youtube of Oscars being highly aggressive towards strangers and even owners. It's pretty funny actually.

What kind of Cichlid was this?

 

[jayjay]

Some of the more aggressive cichlids, especially when breeding, like dovii, midas etc. will knock out their own teeth bashing the glass trying to get to things outside the tank.