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This site says the following about the leaf fish;

Temperament: Predatory. Will stay completely still and act like a leaf, drifting around until a small fish comes close enough to be attacked. The Leaf Fish has a very large extendible mouth.

Diet: Carnivore

Care: Feed with live foods only. Small fish are the favourite food of the Leaf Fish. The tank should be heavily planted with large leaved plants.


Sounds like the thing you are looking for. See if you can track one down in your area.




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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

you could have a nice pair of brichardi in a 20g when breeding they rival cons and other big cichlids for agressiveness they are also fairly common. just my opinion but tiger barbs arn't good in 20gs they need more swimming room than a 20g has

well maybe you might want a "vicous" fish that does not eat feeder fish, but is an active swimmer. Tiger Barbs fit that description perfectly.

Wanting to see them eat stuff is not a good reason to get into predators IMO. In fact, from what I understand, most feeders offer poor nutrition to predatory fish and should only be fed on occasion. There is also the risk of disease if you're buying feeders from LFS's. Predatory fish are very interesting but require a lot of investment. By that I mean a large investment of time, space, money, etc.

If you just want to see some cool feeding behaviour, grab a school of 6 tiger barbs for that 20 and drop in some live worms. IMO that's enough to rival any pirranha "frenzy" you're going to see in a home aquarium.



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if you want something that eats feeders and you're on a budget... that's probably not a good idea, unless you have a good group of guppies going...

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i'm sorry to say, but if you have a small budget and a limited amount of space, you should look into other types of fish.

I want a fish that can eat at least small feeder fish.

With the price of leaf fish i dont think im up to putting that much money on a fish, i just dont have it. Anything between 5-10 is my max.

if you want aggressive, first off.. why?

if you want to see it eat other fish there are plenty that can do that as mentioned.

if you want a fish that has a territory and will guard it, then maybe you can try a smaller cichlid?

if you just want fish that will be very active and chase each other you can keep fishes like tiger barbs.

"vicious" alone is a pretty vague way to describe fishies.

The pottery that growls!

You standard twnety tall won't be a problem for a leaf fish, although they usually grow a bit larger than 3". ABF are fairly active (they grow to nearly 5", too), and even, IMO, a twenty long is a bit too small for them.

I remember Cory Addict mentioning in another thread that the leaf fish that gets 3" and the one you guys are thinking about is the South American Leaf Fish, NOT the African Leaf Fish.



Last edited by Me is already in use at 29-Nov-2004 20:33

i'm assuming when you say, "vicious" fish, you mean predatory fish. To answer your question, i really don't think any real predatory fish would fit in a 20 gallon tank. Before you dive into the wonderful world of predatory fish, you must take many things into consideration. They grow much too big and require much more swimming space than a 20 gallon can provide. Predatory fish grow big for a reason (to eat small fish) and a big tank is needed to keep them happy. Most predatory fish don't accept manufactured foods either, so you must commit to buying live foods (whether it be insects or feeder fish) on a regular basis.


BUT, The closest thing to a predatory fish that would work in a 20 gallon tank is an African Butterfly fish. Although, African butterfly's aren't very aggressive in nature, they do eat smaller fish and insects. They look very "odd" compared to most fish but other than that, they don't do much. They aren't very active AT ALL so if activity is a factor in your fish selection, i wouldn't reccommend African Butterflys.

If worse comes to worse, i'd say, stay with tropical community fish .

20-30 dollars, I would wager. We have them for 35, but they're pretty big and very healthy.

If a leaf fish is a rare fish, how much is it on avg ?

Also if its rare theres no way my lfs will carry it. The dont even know what YoYo loach is.

Leaf fish are not aggressive persay, but will happily swallow any fish small enough to fit into it's mouth. Anything 3" and over should be fine, emphasis on the should. Otherwise, they are actually quite shy and may become easily bullied or startled by boisterous fish.

I currently have a 20 gallon tank that I want to eventually get set back up. Once i have it all ready to go.

What are some really really intresting fish for this tank ?

I want piranhas but they grow much to large.

leaf fish are smallish carnivores
they are very agressive
so get a leaf fish

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''All the clown fish and yellow tangs in the world cant save you now!''

Rams will probably be a bit chasey.

So will barbs from what I gather.

Jump in and correct me if I have the wrong end of the stick here...



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~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

theres not really anything i can think of thats considered viscious that could fit in a 20 gallon. I'm not quite sure what you mean by "vicious" anyways. Do you want to own something that can kill you or something?

anything vicious ??

Ive always wanted piranhas but i no i cant house them,is there anything like them that are small ?

I was thinking leaf fish as well.

Other interesting options are:
Small FW puffers (Carinotetraodon irrudesco bet my vote)
Shellies
Khulies
Upside down cats
Bumblebee gobies
Crayfish
Dwarf Cichlids