Tilapia Buttikoferi

[rossitt]

hi ive just got myself a Tilapia buttikoferi 14 inch a monster, my tank is 6x2x2 160 gallons
at the moment ive got a asian bumblebee cat in there. he just hides all the time come out at night as soon as lights go out
i was wanting to know what other fish could i have with this, i was thinkin maybe shovelnose catfish
theres one in my LFS going for £50 about 17 inch.
cheers
ricky

 

[dthoffsett]

Very pretty, but extremely aggressive fish. Tankmates are hit and miss with them and I wouldn't add anything too expensive. Having a back up plan for bullied fish would be a good idea as well (that is if they survive the attack). T.buttikoferi (like a lot of aggressive cichlids) can seem to get along with tankmates for months at a time and then suddenly attack. Size doesn't seem to make much of a difference either, I've read accounts of them attacking fish many times their size, or eating smaller tankmates.

Sorry to sound so negative, if you are willing to try it might work out for you, but I've watch him very closely, and have a back up plan in case things go wrong.

Here are some threads about them I found using search. Hope it helps.

[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/244002/Tilapia-Butterkofferi/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/24...-Butterkofferi/[/URL]
[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/239134/Tilapia-Buttikoferi/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/23...ia-Buttikoferi/[/URL]
[URL="http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/10980/buttercoferi/"]http/www.fishforums.net/content/forum/10980/buttercoferi/[/URL]

 

[Ripley]

I'm not too fimilar with the shovelnose, but the Buttikoferi I know a good bit about. In my opinion I would say the butti would be ok if it was a female, but I have found males are pretty mean. I would keep an eye on the shovelnose's size, because they get huge, and 2 feet might be a bit tight for turning, but like I said I'm not too up on the catfish.

 

[kj23502]

Dude you do not want a shovelnose in there"

quoting moderator CFC
"The basic formula on tank to fish size ratio is 4x1.5x1.5:1 thats a tank of 4 times the fish length long, 1.5 times the fish length wide and 1.5 times the fish length tall. This provides the minimum ammount of space required for the fish to be able to swim and turn around freely without bumping into the glass continually.
*Note some highly active fish will need to have this taken to 5x2x1.5:1 while sedentry inactive fish can have it reduced to 3x1.5x1:1

This is fine for fish up to around 12 inches in length, a 12" fish only requires a tank of 48x18x18" so a standard 75 gallon tank is more than adequate but once you step over the threshold and enter the world of tankbusters the tank sizes increase dramatically, a fish of 2 feet long will require a tank of 96x36x36" (around 500 gallons) which is a big comitment to make to keeping fish and will probably require some structural modifications to your floor."

And this one... it's post #6
"You really dont want to keep anything of value with a TSN, they have a habbit of being able to swallow fish you were sure they wouldnt be able to eat.
As Andy said a tank or pond with a foot print of AT LEAST 12x8 is needed for the long term care of TSN."