Weirdest fish you've ever kept, or will buy...

[madasafish]

Hi all,

Thought I'd start a thread on unusual fish. What's the strangest fish you've ever kept? Or, because I know a lot of us are conservative when it comes to fish: what's the weirdest fish you're thinking about buying?

I've had a Polypterus Senegalus Meridionalis, a Merionalis Senegal Bichir. Here's a pic, for those of you who don't know bichirs:
http://www.aquajapan.com/encyc/ancient/polypteridae/polypterus/senegalusmeridionalis_e.html
I loved him dearly (he only had one eye) , but I had been told I was getting another, smaller species (Polypterus palmas), and had to eventually give him back to the LFS. He would have grown to 70cm...

I'm thinking about going crazy and getting a Stone Fish. Apparantly, there are some species which live in FW. But I need to gather more information about them before I get serious... Like, um, that they're incredibly venemous!

Please contribute!

Jonathan

 

[Verbalkint]

When the 55 Gallon tank thats destine for sw gets here, I would love to have a Dwarf Lionfish.... So long as he wont eat the clowns

 

[madasafish]

He will... without a doubt! Anything that fits in his giant, expandable mouth!

 

[madasafish]

I *really* wanted to get a dwarf lion. They are incredibly beautiful! Volitans are too, but they're more common...

 

[Moe36]

pufferfish are pretty cool

 

[SoCal]

I have about 20 mosquito fish in my tank right now. They are almost indestructible and make great feeder fish, they can be found in just about every pond, lake, stream and river in the U.S.

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=mosquito+fish&sa=N&tab=wi

 

[Terry]

Hi
I have a Polypterus Palmas and he is just great, he is about 4" at the moment and i have him in a 25gal tank with some cichlids until i can set up a tank for him. I wouldn't say he was strange but the best fish i ever owned was an Arius Semanii (shark cat), infact i had 3 of them. I read up about them before i brought them and in the books that i read it said that they only grow to about 12". I forgot to tell them that or they forgot because i had to get shot of them to the London Aquarium because they outgrew there tank. They were housed in a 150gal tank and the biggest grew to 26" which is over double what it said in the book, and the other two were not far behind. I know that one was kept in London but the other two were shipped to another aquarium in another country. The best fish i have had in the store was a 24" Pacu, he was great he used to take Banana's whole, sadly he died last year.

 

[madasafish]

Hi Terry,

Great to hear you have a Polypterus palmas! (Says the novice to the master...) As per my story above, I hope you really do have a Poly p, rather than a Poly senegalus meridionalis. I've found that almost all distributors (I know you run an FS) mislabel their Polyp sen meds as Poly ps, and that most LFS owners will label the fish in accordance with the distributor's nomenclature. Maybe things work better in the UK, though... (I've always thought so).

If you haven't checked him against images on the web, you might think about it. I checked mine and realized that the important mottled banding on the body was not present in my specimen, causing me to suspect that he was another species. My worst fears were confirmed when I came across this particular, brown color morph (sub species) of the Senegalus Bichir on Aquabid, and realized that my 15 cm specimen was going to grow to 70 cm instead of 30 cm (the reported max size of the palmas in aquariums).

But I'm sure you know that. Maybe it will help any others that are thinking of buying a Bichir--always know what you're getting, and know the species and their appearance before you buy a Bichir! You could be wrong and end up with a 3-foot specimen on your hands...

Jonathan

 

[Punkymom]

I want one of those dragon fish...I think they're also called gobies. I saw one last night for the first time and it scared the heckle out of me!!! The strangest fish I ever had was an Autumn fish My brother put my daughter in my empty tank and took a picture of her...LOL He told me about it AFTER it was filled with water and I about had a heart attack! But she stayed dry! 8O

 

[madasafish]

Hehe. I thought you meant a leaf fish when you said an "Autumn fish!" BTW, Asian Leaf Fish are AWESOME!

I thought seriously about getting some of the dragon fish (violet gobies, Gobioides broussoneti), but a disapproving girlfriend kept me from going through with it. Also, though they can live in FW, they really prefer brackish water. But they're kinda fun-looking and reportedly quite peaceful. Aquariumfish.net has a page on them: http://www.aquariumfish.net/catalog_pages/wild/dragon_fish.htm#top2

Go for it! Get a funky (punky) fish!

 

[e-cat]

iv owned a few oddballs, but my favorite is my electric catfish, punkymom the dragon gobie is a cool fish but it grows big and is brackish and they are a sifter and sift threw the substrate too eat and that big mouth full of teeth is just for looks they NEVER eat fish.

 

[Punkymom]

I bought one today! 8O He's so ugly he's cute!!! I have him in my 55 gal with my other fish. I fed him some frozen brine shrimp...er...they were thawed when he ate them. It was cool watching him eat!!! I'm scared to put my hands in the tank though! 8O I know he won't bite me...but he's got TEETH!!!

 

[madasafish]

Good on ya! Have you added any salt to the tank to make it brackish?

How big is he?

Are you thinking about getting several (>4) at some point? I hear they like company!

Ah! I want to get some more interesting fish!

 

[Punkymom]

I haven't added any more salt to the tank yet. There's some salt in there still from before, I just haven't added more. He's the only one I'm getting for now!!! I think someday I'll get a 100+ gal and keep a whole bunch of them and make it a cool dark creepy cave looking thing...that would be super cool. He's about 5 or 6" long right now...that's not counting his tail fin. I also had to lower the temp on my tank a few degrees...I was keeping it at about 80 F. That's a little warm for these guys. I bought him a new cave, all for himself, but he stole my shark's cave, and so now the shark has taken over the new cave...go figure!!! Anyway he's a cool guy and my 16 yo brother called him "pimpin" and "tight"...I remember those being good things...hee hee. So that's him. I'll try and take a picture of him soon.

 

[e-cat]

nice pick up punkymom, they have really small eyes dont they.

 

[Punkymom]

Yes they do...and they cloesly resemble salty gobies...

 

[missyintx]

Currently my most unusual fish are my 4 leapord puffer! I adore them and they are so cute.

 

[madasafish]

Cool--I'm jealous. I really want some puffers, but always think that keeping them in a tank will be a real chore... Esp. since they get territorial when older.

 

[e-cat]

madasafish just get a fahaka and make it a spieces tank, there a cool, big puffer

 

[madasafish]

Yeah, I would if I had $70 bucks to blow! SOOO $$...

But, nonetheless a good idea, and I will keep it in mind when I consider whether I should get another tank or not.

Thanks, e-cat.