Targetfish Massacre

ac106 · Apr 21, 2006

The GF came home with a Target Fish. She usually knows better then to buy one without researching. Not now however.

He is awesome. I started my research online. Not much that I could find. Checked the Brackish FAQ. OK, couple a paragraphs. Nothing out of the ordinary. Everything seems ok.

So I put him in my 30G that has 2 knight gobies, a violet goby, a GSP and 2 Orange Chromides.

Yeah, well he shredded one of the Knights. I work up one morning to a near dead fish. I have him in a hospital tank now but I am not sure he is going to make it. He also starting chasing the Chromides a little but didn’t seem to attack. He focused all his rage on the knights.

I don’t see anything online about them being particularly aggressive. The guy at the LFS (not the place it was purchased) thought this behavior was weird. I have him in a 5gal quarantine tank and will probably return him. I do understand that they are schooling fish, but I wouldn’t have though being alone would cause this level of aggression.

Anyone else have Targets? Run into something similar?

phlawed · Apr 21, 2006

ac106 said:
The GF came home with a Target Fish. She usually knows better then to buy one without researching. Not now however.

He is awesome. I started my research online. Not much that I could find. Checked the Brackish FAQ. OK, couple a paragraphs. Nothing out of the ordinary. Everything seems ok.

So I put him in my 30G that has 2 knight gobies, a violet goby, a GSP and 2 Orange Chromides.

Yeah, well he shredded one of the Knights. I work up one morning to a near dead fish. I have him in a hospital tank now but I am not sure he is going to make it. He also starting chasing the Chromides a little but didn’t seem to attack. He focused all his rage on the knights.

I don’t see anything online about them being particularly aggressive. The guy at the LFS (not the place it was purchased) thought this behavior was weird. I have him in a 5gal quarantine tank and will probably return him. I do understand that they are schooling fish, but I wouldn’t have though being alone would cause this level of aggression.

Anyone else have Targets? Run into something similar?

http

/puffernet.tripod.com/leiurus.html your gsp will do the same to other once he matures. Puffers are notorious fin nippers and mature GSP's are very aggressive and territorial. If you want to school puffers, that might be hard. It might work somewhat when younger, but once mature puffers need their space. hope some of this helps.

AMS · Apr 21, 2006

Phlawed, hes not talking about target puffers :lol:

Hes talking about Terapon jarbua. They are indeed a schooling fish, needing at least 4 in a school. What makes their feeding habits intersting is that they are predatory, omnivorus (only greens incorporated in their diet is usually algae), bottom feeders, but feed mainly on other fish so thats why it probably attacked the knight goby. What size is the target and the knight? They grow up to 16 inches in the wild, but in captivity that number is greatly reduced.

So IMO, either buy at least 3 more targets and place them in a diffrent larger aquarium, or return them back to the LFS. Thats too bad though, they are a rare find! And expensive!

I used to have targets but I gave them away when I was downgrading the number of tanks I had :sad:

They are certainly a great fish, and probably my favorite fish species (behind geryi piranhas!). Im now thinking of even starting up another tank for them :shifty:

Im thinking a large open topped tank with TALL mangroves growing out the top. I had the same idea for some Datnoides, but after this reading this thread I think I have changed my mind :shifty:

nmonks · Apr 21, 2006

As is mentioned in the Brack FAQ, targetfish are schooling predators. Keeping one is like keeping a single Exodon paradoxus... just asking for trouble. I'd keep at least three, and make sure they're in a very large tank. They grow quite big (15 cm or so in captivity, I believe). I've not kept them personally so can't comment much beyond that.

I would never have mixed them with gobies or chromides. As AMS points out, gobies = food, so that combination is far too risky. Green chromides might be okay, but orange chromides are far too small; again, potential food. Scats and archers, of similar size, seems to be the best choice. Ditto archerfish. Possibly also a large puffer like Arothron hispidus, i.e., one big enough and ugly enough to stop any nonsense. A brackish water gar would work, too, if you had the space. Colombian sharks are an option, but to be honest those catfish are so mellow I think they'd be freaked out by the targetfish.

Cheers,

Neale

phlawed · Apr 21, 2006

nmonks said:
As is mentioned in the Brack FAQ, targetfish are schooling predators. Keeping one is like keeping a single Exodon paradoxus... just asking for trouble. I'd keep at least three, and make sure they're in a very large tank. They grow quite big (15 cm or so in captivity, I believe). I've not kept them personally so can't comment much beyond that.

I would never have mixed them with gobies or chromides. As AMS points out, gobies = food, so that combination is far too risky. Green chromides might be okay, but orange chromides are far too small; again, potential food. Scats and archers, of similar size, seems to be the best choice. Ditto archerfish. Possibly also a large puffer like Arothron hispidus, i.e., one big enough and ugly enough to stop any nonsense. A brackish water gar would work, too, if you had the space. Colombian sharks are an option, but to be honest those catfish are so mellow I think they'd be freaked out by the targetfish.

Cheers,

Neale

my bad hehe

nmonks · Apr 22, 2006

I did a little reading up on targetfish. Seems they become more group-oriented as they mature. Adults are, apparently, fairly peaceful. They supposedly stay rather small in captivity, around 10 cm, accordingly to Frank Schaefer. Three in a 30 gallon might be a bit of a squeeze, but something like a 40 or 55 gallon tank should be fine if they really do stay that size.

Cheers,

Neale

AMS · Apr 22, 2006

Great info Dr. Monks :good:

Im actually in the process of writing a thread on them for the fish index. You seem to be an expert on brackish fish, so I was wondering if you could possibly check it over when Im done wriiting it?

nmonks · Apr 22, 2006

Happy to take a look, but as I say, never kept them myself.

I'm not really an expert as such, perhaps better to say a bit more experienced than most. I don't think anyone really masters keeping fish, the best you can do is to listen to others, learn from your mistakes, and try to understand the biology of a given fish in the wild.

Cheers,

Neale

AMS said:
Great info Dr. Monks Im actually in the process of writing a thread on them for the fish index. You seem to be an expert on brackish fish, so I was wondering if you could possibly check it over when Im done wriiting it?