Most Aggressive Overall?

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Ok a bit of a random one this...

Me and my friend (both fish keepers) were, or shall I say still are having a discussion about fish in general and what we have kept and what we would like to keep in the future... Anyway we got onto agressive fish as he has kept a few like a silver aro and a Kelberi peacock bass and the conversation has basically got to "which fish that you can realistically keep in a home aqaurium is the most aggressive overall"?

What we mean by this is what dish simple will not tolerate any other fish in their tank? Now we both instantly came out with the giant snakehead but... Surely there are fish to rival or shame this?
I came up with wolf fish (Hoplias malabaricus) Purely because of videos iv seen, things iv read and the fact it has a wicked set of teeth lol

Whilst he seems to think its a wolf cichlid (parachromis dovii) or a jardini...

Neither of us own any of these fish although I have had a male dovii but had to get rid at around only 7 inches as I had to put my 800 litre tank upgrade on hold.

So the question is basically what is more aggressive out of a male wolf cichlid, a wolf fish and a jardini? Let's assume each is fully grown and in a suitable environment. I know each fish temprement is different, all we want is a rough idea to but this discussion to an end

 

[MBOU]

Have kept two Pearl arros and they terrified the life out of me, cant get over how fast they are and willing to 'have at you'!

The trick with Arnold (the original) was to have someone and one end of the tank wiggling fingers against glass whilst the brave person down the other end with a handfull of food quickly opened lid, chucked it in and shut lid and held lid shut tightly! Because he would turn, power accross tank and hit the food and lid in one fluid movement and with such force that twice he came right out the tank! Bloomin terrifying trying to work out what to do with him once he came out!

He got my arm once and the pain was quite shocking! And it wasnt a bite and let go... he didnt want to let go!

The only other fish i have dealt with the was really bag was a Glass Eye Catfish or whatever they call them... Mystus Wyckii. He was a brute! at near 2ft he was a heavy fish and when selling him, the only way it could get him out the tank (he wrecked every net, even big koi ones!) was to use one of the long handled algae pads and let him get a good bite on it and grab is tail and using the algae stick and his tail to heave him out and into box. Was very quick once i came up with the idea but he was savage!

Can't decide who was worse, the arro was predictably nasty and didnt matter what you were doing, he wanted to kill you. The mystus was a little more intelligent, he would skulk about and would try to sneak attack you, he like to hide as if he was scared and the second you stopped watching him, one flick of his tail and he had you.

He got me once, again... was very lucky, he got my hand but the side of my hand from the base of my little finger up over my wrist, had query fractured bone in my hand but once swelling and bruising went down, it didnt hurt so much so never bothered going back to the doctors lol. Pretty impressive bruising though! The power of his jaws was immense! I was glad he didnt manage to chomp down accross my fingers as he would have done a fair bit of damage.

I think overall, the arro was more terrifying. A species i'd definately own again given the space. They are great!

 

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As I was reading that I was actually painting a picture in my head of what it must of been like. Truly shocking. I knew pearls were aggressive but not to that extent. Don't think iv seen one of those catfish.

My dovii was starting to get very aggressive and going for my hand if it went anywhere near the tank, even at only 7 or so inches in length so I wouldn't like to think what an angry adult male would be like lol

My friends silver aro was around 16 inches when he sold it on, maybe a little more. It's wasn't what I'd call aggressive, just greedy. His name was smokey got on with his tank mates and caused no problems. He was with a common plec, 2 jewels, a pair of green terrors and a jack Dempsey.

All i have now with predatory instinct is my Ornate bichir which I love even though iv not had him long. He doesn't do a lot in the days (I believe they are nocturnal?) but in the nights he roams the tank and he will follow my hand around. Iv noticed he does it more when hungry lol

I did have red belly piranhas before (a group of 5). One died and then the dominant one turned against and killed the rest, I'm sure he wanted me too lol he would sit there all quiet and calm and then as soon as my hand went in to clean or move something he would dart toward me. That was not a pleasant experience lol

 

[MBOU]

Everyone says the pearls have a nasty streak... think we got more than 'unlucky' with Arnold. He was especially bad! Our youngster... (named Paul!? LOL) was nver so bad... i had him from an inch long and just losing his egg sack.. he grew up living with other fish, right up until about 5-6" he never looked at another fish, as he grew he lived with big aggressive (seriously!) discus and angels, other south american cichlids like vieja synspillum (i know its changed, can never remember what to though!) and then with stingrays. He is in the hands of my ex and i had to leave him I dont even want to know...

But Arnold was a nasty pearl arrowana even as they go! And yet.. the one other fish he ever bonded with (by accident!) when we had a tank bust its seal he had no choice but to spend overnight in with a stingray (potomatrygon sp) with a 35cm disc so good sized ray... by morning they were best of buddies which was great as both fish were very antisocial!

A year and a half later and the arro flipped out, no reason other than that he was hungry! He had been fed and it was pellet day (two days a week he got just pellets, veggies if he'd take the odd pea and a few crickets) but he sure loved his prawns. He had a full on strop and whilest we were watching tv and half watching him... he took asnap at the ray in a grump and it was a fatal mistake. Poor Raymond was having none of it and stung him. Most sickening thing i have ever seen. Paralysed the arro.. you could see he was concious and aware... his eyes followed you but his back was arched and he sank.. I made the decision to euthanise him because my ex couldnt, he was his baby, he had grown him up from a babby. Still feel it was my fault, should have known better than to trust him with another fish but they got on so well for a year and a half and it was only thanks to the competition of another fish that we kept the ray alive as he was a non feeder.

EDIT: I didnt euthanize right away... i kept hoping and hoping it migh wear off, we had no idea what to do and after an hour, the arro was in obvious pain. I definately wasnt an easy decision.

Darned shame how things go!

As for the catfish... look em up, they are as evil as they look! LOL

 

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Ah that's a sad story I wouldn't like to go through that with any fish never mind with something as beautiful looking as a pearl aro... Again i knew obviously that rays can sting but never actually heard of any cases where it's actually stung another fish.

Sorry for your loss.

I will look up those catfish I'm very interested in aggressive/predatory fish. I'm not sure why but it's something about them. Maybe it's there their natural hunting instincts? I'm not sure.

I'm still unsure what to do with my Rio 400 when i get my new tank... My 1st idea was to go community and get a group of redline torpedo barbs and then work the rest of the stock around them but i think il just get bored of them quickly. So now I'm thinking I want to go down the predatory route instead. Since I mentioned wolf fish (hoplias malabaricus) iv been reading up on them and most of what iv read says they don't need very big tanks as they aren't active fish. I wouldn't mind giving one of them a go. Or if not a pair of parachromis friedrichsthalii's (freddy cichlids)?? Another option is my lfs has some 5 inch rainbow snakeheads (channa bleheri) so a couple of these is also an option.

What are your thoughts of the fish iv mention? Any suggestions on anything else I could keep that's predatory instead of these that's suitable for the tank?

 

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Also I have just been looking at some pics of that catfish I typed in "mystus wyckii" and the common name was coming up as "crystal eye catfish"... Is that the one you meant? They are evil looking so your not wrong there lol

 

[MBOU]

Thats the one! Crystal Eye Catfish. I just always referred to him as the 'wyckii' as its such a cool word! lol

He was a beautiful fish though, pure black with his pale eyes and he was always kept under a blue light as he hated bright lighting. I was pretty active under the blue light.

He was a proper tank destroyer! He had a few huge terracotta plant pots and he just rammed them against side of tank until he smashed them! Rocks had to be removed and swapped for plastic replica rock as he was determined to put it through front of the tank!

And the gravel... he shoves all the gravel into one corner, mouthful by mouthfull. Was my job to put my hands in and put it back (kept clogging filters lol). Had to pin him in the corner with one algae pad on a stick and use the other to shift gravel.

 

[dbanner]

He just wants to show you how he wants HIS tank decorated lol

Any ideas on a predatory fish for my rio 400? Don't know if you missed the post ^ ^ ^ (up there lol) but iv mentioned a couple that I'm interested in... Like wolf fish, have a liitle look wanted ur opinion on what would be good to keep out of what iv chosen or if you could suggest anything different

 

[MBOU]

I'm not sure to be honest... idont know a thing about wolf fish and my experience with the channa bleheri made me think that keeping multiples was bad, i tried it twice and even in the shop thay always just minced each other.

There must be some smaller predatory fish out there but off the top of my head i'm having a real mind blank...

A smaller species of eel? There are tonnesof catfish, i had a Chrysicthys ornatus catfish and he was cool! Plus there is the different types of pimeloid cats that dont get huge.. and several species of gudgeon around.

Loads of cichlids! like you said, the friedrichstali... well... jags in general... any nice pair ofcichlids, though i would hold out for an unusual species to make a project of it and one where the babies would be of use to someone. No point breeding a fish no one wants (like jags really.... ) or like convicst or sajicas and so on.

Or Pike Cichlids... you could probably get and breed a really awesome pair of pike cichlids! on of the smaller species anyway!

Loads of different species you could keep really... but predatory covers an awful lot of fish, of all my fish, some of the most predatory fish i had were my Discus! They were savage lol anything smaller than a good sized platy got eaten! They would hunt together and loved to eat live shrimps. Maybe i shouldnt have kept them with an eel and a sorubim because they learnt bad habits... but it was so fun! And meant at least they dealt with all the stupid piddly fish my ex kept bringing home

 

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Haha stupid piddly fish... I like that I was thinking of pike cichlids. I seen a one that was a good size at MA in wenvoe, Cardiff yesterday. So many options. I will just have to go around a few more shops and list a few I like the look of and then do some research on the ones I don't already know about

 

[MBOU]

Could go coldwater, get some potted pond plants (eleocharis, elodea, myriopyllum, scirpus etc) and for for stickleback?

Sounds a bit naff because they are small and notwhat you would think of but they are very cool in planted tanks! They would breed readily and i always know people wanting sticklebacks! They are mean little fish and males colour up fantastic in breeding condition.

Its something different!! Thats what interests me... something *different* that not everyone else has. Makes for an interesting journal too!

 

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Hmm not something iv thought about (going coldwater) but thanks for the suggestion. I know of a small (2 inch) blue Thai Silk Flowerhorn for £20 which I'm quite interested in. I love cichlids and not kept a flowerhorn before. Is £20 a good price for one at that size?

Iv researched them and know their requirments and know they don't do so well with other fish because of their bad attitudes. Appeals to me and not to mention they look awesome

 

[MBOU]

Dont know mate, can't stand Flowerhorns

They are one of thoe 'managers discretion' "fish refused to stock or take back from customers" along with parrot cichlids.

 

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Harsh but each to their own as they say lol

There is a topic on here somewhere called "fish you would never own"... Or something alone those lines, anyway I was looking at it earlier and noticed I posted in it and one of the fish I said I wouldn't own in a flowerhorn. Even though I'd owned 3 blue diamond FH's by that stage lol anyway like I said iv been doing some research on the different types and am now interested in trying a different one

Iv found more lima SN cats for sale to in 2 of my local MA just going to hold off until i get my bigger tank

 

[minnnt]

Chrysicthys Ornatus are ace!!! A Freddy would also be a great choice too, i love Yellow Jackets aswell.