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my friend has one in a 20 high, and both me and him agreed that it had to go. now when i went to his house to use his printer, i saw it for the first time and wow. it was about 7 inches and very active. he wants me to take it after the holidays, and the only tank that i have for now to house it would be a 75. however this tank within a month and a half like all the rest of my otehr tanks is going though a change, were a massive amount of fishes are being moved.

now will he be ok in there for now, and after the moves be ok with some adult parrots? the only thing is my friend told me he is aggressive, but i didn't see any while i was there, just that he was very active.

What I know and have seen they "can" get very aggressive and very large. I personally would not take it all. I think It is a case of thank you but no thanks.

Have a look in [link=My Profile]http://
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Keith

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If the fish you're referring to is Morulius chrysophekadion, then do NOT take that fish on board without first reading this!

The Black Shark is an impressive show fish for the large aquarium. How 'large' do I mean? Try 250 gallons and upwards.

Yes, you read that right. This is a fish that can exceed twenty inches in length and pile on a fair amount of body mass into the bargain, which means it can become a tankbuster of frightening proportions for the unwary. If you KNOW in advance that this fish is going to become huge, however, and prepare suitably huge quarters for it in advance, it becomes one of your aquarium conversation starters because it's not shy and retiring by any stretch of the imagination!

The other feature of the Black Shark to take on board is that it has a fairly well-developed territorial instinct, which is why even public aquaria haven't bred it yet because the space needed to keep several together without fighting breaking out is of the order of an Olympic swimming pool ...

Although the Black Shark tends to be most aggressive toward other members of its own species, it will also pick fights with other bottom dwellers (including big bruisers such as Synodontis acanthomias catfishes) if they are present and the aquarium doesn't have a surplus of 'real estate' in the form of lots of caves.

The trouble is, small ones look cute. People buy them thinking "aw, that'll look sweet in my aquarium" and discover to their horror later on that they've bought something that grows big enough to be a food fish capable of feeding a family of four at one sitting!

Black Sharks, therefore, are large, feisty, likely to be quarrelsome with other bottom dwellers in all but the largest aquaria, and are NOT suitable for anyone other than the dedicated large-fish aquarist with a lot of money to spend on both the sheer size of the quarters needed, and the robust filtration system that a fish of this size (which also possesses a Barb-like "pig with fins" appetite and an epic capacity for defecation) will require. It's not too much of an exaggeration to say that this beast requires industrial scale filtration, but then sensible keepers of this fish tend to put it in giant tanks along with other big fishes that likewise need external power filtration on a huge scale, and plan accordingly before buying the fish.

If your friend has put one in a 20 high, he's made a BIG mistake. It's capable of growing to the point where it won't physically FIT in a 20G, except as a stuffed specimen in a display case!

This big bruiser is probably capable of living alongside tough and snappy fishes such as big Leporinus Characoids and some of the Central American Cichlids, on the basis that the only Cichlids that will match it for size are big Guapotes, and most of the others will treat it with some respect because it's bigger than they are!

I do wish some people would give more thought to housing aquarium juggernauts like this - but then we all know too well the tales of people who bought Red Tailed Catfishes without doing the research beforehand ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002