Groupers? Anyone Kept One?

[simonas]

I;m setting my FOWLR up soon

I;ve been looking at pantehr groupers and coral trout(the red spotted grouper)

Theres a lot of conflicting advice about these fish

has anyone kept one can give me there take on keeping these

I'd like a volitans and leopard moray with one and I;d like to try a dog face puffer as well if I had space

 

[xxBarneyxx]

I honestly don't think I have ever spoken to someone who has kept one of these. The main reason I think is that they need a massive tank (they get close to 2ft long according to what I have seen of them).

Don't take my word on this (as its a pure guess and in no way comes from direct experience) but I would guess that all three species you mentioned about keeping with it would be fine as long as you had a big enough tank for them.

 

[nick87]

I;m setting my FOWLR up soon

I;ve been looking at pantehr groupers and coral trout(the red spotted grouper)

Theres a lot of conflicting advice about these fish

has anyone kept one can give me there take on keeping these

I'd like a volitans and leopard moray with one and I;d like to try a dog face puffer as well if I had space

Never kept them myself but i'd advise against the panther, they just get to big for all but the largest tanks.

The coral grouper could be a better choice, only getting to around 30cm

 

[FREDD!E]

I;m setting my FOWLR up soon

I;ve been looking at pantehr groupers and coral trout(the red spotted grouper)

Theres a lot of conflicting advice about these fish

has anyone kept one can give me there take on keeping these

I'd like a volitans and leopard moray with one and I;d like to try a dog face puffer as well if I had space

I had the unfortunate encounter with the red spotted grouper you mentioned, I used to have one in my tank for a while with a Niger trigger, dogface puffer and ceylon puffer!

He got on with everyone except the trigger, as you see these fish share similar habitats with triggers thus there is conflict between them over caves etc. As my RSG loved the same caves my trigger did.
So they would always attack eachother with the trigger starting most fights! But one day i was walking past my tank and nearly had the shock of my life when I saw the Grouper in the trigger cave with my Trigger in its MOUTH. Yeh thats right the grouper had the triggers underbelly firmly locked in its mouth with the niger trigger unable to escape. That was it for that f***** fish I took him out my tank slam dunked his as.s in a bag back to the LFS.

So my conclusion with these types of fish is aslong as you dont mix them with other fish species that share similar habitats or tempers then youll be fine. Mixing Groupers with lionfish, Puffers is fine but not with Triggers. Also dont mix lionfish with triggers unless they are both small and added to a big tank!

If you want any other FOWLR advice ask I have been running FOWLR tanks for just over a year now

 

[simonas]

cheers for that chaps

Its the Coral Trout that I prefer as it happens. As much as I love trigegrs as the main fish I want is a Volitans then the grouper would be a decent addition by the sound of things

Freddie was yours secretive? I;ve been reading a few bits on them all weekend and it appears the panther grouper is more active than the secretive coral trout.

Des the panther grouper really achieve monster size in aquarium. May sound like a daft question but a couple of write ups I have read say they don;t grow as large in an aquarium... which I suppose can be said about a lot of fish and shows how much happier they must bei n the wild.

 

[FREDD!E]

cheers for that chaps

Its the Coral Trout that I prefer as it happens. As much as I love trigegrs as the main fish I want is a Volitans then the grouper would be a decent addition by the sound of things

Freddie was yours secretive? I;ve been reading a few bits on them all weekend and it appears the panther grouper is more active than the secretive coral trout.

Des the panther grouper really achieve monster size in aquarium. May sound like a daft question but a couple of write ups I have read say they don;t grow as large in an aquarium... which I suppose can be said about a lot of fish and shows how much happier they must bei n the wild.

Yeh it was secretive. Some panthers do get massive but youll be fine i thinks

 

[Pearsondesign]

i had a panther grouper with 3 huge lions in a 7ftx3ftx3ft with no problems for over 4 years, then ihad to move house
the panther grouper was amazing, very bright white when younger but turned more grey as years went on.
he did eat a few of my smaller fish, including my cleaner wrasse!!

awesome fish but like others have said they need a BIG tank and lots of space to swim about

at the end of my tanks life the grouper was no bigger than 14 inches, but thats still big!

 

[nick87]

Des the panther grouper really achieve monster size in aquarium. May sound like a daft question but a couple of write ups I have read say they don;t grow as large in an aquarium... which I suppose can be said about a lot of fish and shows how much happier they must bei n the wild.

They won't attain the sizes you see in the wild but they are still a big fish and need a huge tank, imo it's one of those fish that should be left where it belongs.