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does anyone know of some exotic yet hardy fish suitable for a 35g community aquarium?

plenty but first are you going to use these fish to cycle your tank

ph:%)

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pnh

a couple of buck tooth tetras are not that popular anymore, given u have no otehr fish in the tank, u can get a school, but nothing else. these fish are small but are like pirhanas.

this isnt a new tank in fact its been running for over 15 years (originally my grandfather's)

sorry i forgot about some vital information:
ph-usually neutral
hardness-very hard well water (i dont know the exact hardness, though)
ammonia-none
nitrate and nitrite are both very low, but once again, dont know the exact numbers

this is kind of a stupid question but are there any snakeheads suitable for a community tank? ive heard of a channa that only grows to be 4in and i think it was called channa assam

Snakeheads are not community fish.

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eh, i wouldn't go with a snakehead for a community, they have very decievingly large mouths. Can you say lunchtime

That and depending on what state you're in, they're illegal.

like i said, it was a stupid question. anyway, lets get back to exotic fish. what about fw gobies? the only thing is bottom feeding catfish dont do well in my aquarium so i dont know if the gobies would do well either (although my clown loaches have been in my tank for over a year)

OK, first of all, do NOT touch Snakeheads with a barge pole. Reasons? I'll give you plenty. oh they're hardy all right - absolutely bomb proof on that score - but they're big (36 inches in length fully grown!) and are ravenous predators that will tear anything else to pieces in a very short space of time. They have truly cavernous mouths that allow them to swallow sizeable prey - a big Snakehead could swallow an adult Jaguar Cichlid whole! You can't even keep them together unless they're very equally matched for size, as the bigger ones will eat the smaller ones ...

If you're looking for a freshwater Goby, I'd exercise care. Some of those are predatory too. A classic example is Oxyeleotris marmoratus, one of those fishes that are used by intensive livebearer breeders to dispose of the runts and the surplus fry. Mind you, this fish doesn't diguise its intentions - that face is very definitely one belonging to a committed predator.

however, if your other fishes are going to be large (around 8 inches or so) then this one could be for you, if you don't mind sacrificing live fishes on a regular basis to keep it alive, because it won't eat anything else.




Last edited by Calilasseia at 20-Jan-2006 19:33

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

LoL Cali, you should give Snakeheads more of a chance. Not ALL Channids get that big. There are some that don't exceed 12". I've wanted a Channa pleurophthalma for a while and it doesn't exceed much past 16". However, it is quite true that most are not community fish in the least.:%)

I thought Snakeheads were illegal in all of the US? Eh, doesn't matter anyway, no one around here has ordered in Snakeheads in at least a year, if not more. Though that's a good thing, since people around here only ordered Red Snakeheads, which are a massive species that really shouldn't be kept by most people.

Even the smallest of Snakehead species needs more than a 35 gallon. And you probably mean Channa bleheri, not Channa "assam", which I'm not 100% sure exists. It's a small snakehead species that gets about 8". No Snakehead I know of remains at 4". If you are really interested in the fish it might be possible to find a breeder.

Unfortunately there aren't many community oddballs for a 35 gallon aquarium. Rare species of cories as well as rare small plecs are options, though.

Last edited by metagon at 22-Jan-2006 12:56

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

You could try some indian glass fish. They were very poplula 20 years ago but are now hard to find.

heres a profile on channa assam- http://www.aqua-petsuk.com/forum/Channa-spec-Assam-t682O.html

about the glassfish- arent they brackish? also, i can only get painted glassfish where i live and they always have ich

OK, first of all, do NOT touch Snakeheads with a barge pole. Reasons? I'll give you plenty. oh they're hardy all right - absolutely bomb proof on that score - but they're big (36 inches in length fully grown!) and are ravenous predators that will tear anything else to pieces in a very short space of time. They have truly cavernous mouths that allow them to swallow sizeable prey - a big Snakehead could swallow an adult Jaguar Cichlid whole! You can't even keep them together unless they're very equally matched for size, as the bigger ones will eat the smaller ones ...

Actually the majority of the species do not reach over 20 inches. And only a few of the genus get over 36 inches. As for their aggression, I have kept gauchua and blerhi with other fish without any problem. The gauchua were with fish about 1/3 the size of the gauchua, and could have very easily fit into their mouths. Their diet consisted of mostly beef heart. Never did they ever eat a live fish.

Also, as for them being so mean and bad, and eating anything that can fit into their mouths, lol, I saw my 10 inch male XINGU I Pike, keep a 36 inch red pinned in the corner, and actually beat up on the red snakehead. lol. They are more bullies than truely mean.

I too have heard all the horror stories, and they may have experiences to back them up, but IME, they are not as bad as they are made out to be.

If you can get them, a gauchua or blehri would work good in that tank. You could actually keep blerhi in a group, in that tank. This is a pic of my 5 year old 3 inch blerhi male.

For more info on the snakeheads, try this site, it has been up for years, and has a lot of great info about these fish; http://www.snakeheads.org/[/font]

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