Hatchet fish

[lunch]

I want to fill the empty space above the harlequin rasboras in my 90ltr tank and I want to do it with hatchet fish, just wondering of anyone has experience with them, I've done a fair bit or research and everything I've read suggests they're prone to ich when introducing them to a tank, reason being that they are wild caught fish, I'm in Australia though and I kinda find it hard to believe the hatchet fish in my lfs are wild caught giving that they are native to Sth America.
I've also read conflicting information regarding the size they grow to, some sites say maximum 3.5cm and others say 3.5inches now that's a big difference, I'm just after someone thats had first hand experience with them that I can bounce a few questions off.. Thanks

 

[brennae]

I did have them at one time. Mine never got ich and they came from a big box store. Not sure if they were wild or not. They startle really easy and then they jump. Have to have a good lid and be careful during water changes. Mine were quite small, I've never ever seen a 3.5 inch specimen

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[Andy Sager]

I want to fill the empty space above the harlequin rasboras in my 90ltr tank and I want to do it with hatchet fish, just wondering of anyone has experience with them, I've done a fair bit or research and everything I've read suggests they're prone to ich when introducing them to a tank, reason being that they are wild caught fish, I'm in Australia though and I kinda find it hard to believe the hatchet fish in my lfs are wild caught giving that they are native to Sth America.
I've also read conflicting information regarding the size they grow to, some sites say maximum 3.5cm and others say 3.5inches now that's a big difference, I'm just after someone thats had first hand experience with them that I can bounce a few questions off.. Thanks

There are a few different types of Hatchetfish which may explain the different sizes. I've dealt with many boxes of these fish and Yes, they all seem to be a little tough when they first come in so you would be best to QT any you get. Ich is the most common issue with them next to poor water quality.
Here is a an article on hatchets that can help fill you in on the different types. Hatchetfish have been in the hobby for many years, and, as one veteran hobbyist explains, they are still the best surface-dwellers for a community aquarium.

To my knowledge, no hatchetfish is being commercially bred so they are all wild specimens. Since they do come from a number of countries in S. America and airlines fly from there to Australia, it's not hard to believe they are wild fish.

Hope this helps

 

[lunch]

Airlines?

 

[Andy Sager]

Airlines?

For 1, I saw today that Quantas flies from Santiago, Chile to Sydney then Sidney to Melbourne. Very feasible that the fish could have come from a wholesaler in Sydney before coming to Melbourne. No?
I didn't even check for other airlines but I am sure you can find more than that one routing from S. America into Australia. I used to ship fish all around the world from the U.S. and I lost a number of customers when flights starting going from areas of S. America to so many parts of the world. We are a much smaller planet than we used to be.

 

[brennae]

I'm going to look for pics of these big hatchets. They sound awesome!

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[lunch]

Yeah I was joking brother.. All good and thanks for the link!

 

[nerdelish]

I have some marble hatchets in my 29 gallon community tank. They are fun additions but don't move very much. I bought mine from a big box store and put them in a qt for three weeks. My hatchets are still juveniles but I believe when I researched them, websites said that they wouldn't grow much past 1.5 inches. I also read somewhere that having a bigger group of hatchets in particular is important because they tend to be more susceptible to being stressed by low numbers in a tank... I am not sure how true that is, but it may be something to keep in mind. I have a school of 7 (it was all the marbles the store had on hand).

I have heard that they are pretty delicate but that wasn't my experience...but I am pretty fastidious about water changes so that might help.

The only issue I had with them is that they were not interested in eating for about three or four days after the purchase. I tried flake, pellet, brine shrimp and they just weren't interested. I finally tried bloodworm and that did the trick. Now they go for pellet and flake foods as well.

 

[brennae]

I prefer the marbled hatchets too. I think the other fairly common available variety is silver. I could be wrong but I know they are a light color.

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[nerdelish]

Yeah those are the only two types I have seen around here, silver and marble,...so I assume they are the most common. The marble just seemed a little more unusual

 

[brennae]

Definitely. I just thought the silvers are a bit plain. I like the flashy fish

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[lunch]

Thanks for every1s input, I went and got some marble's, really cool looking fish

 

[nerdelish]

Nice! How many did you end up getting?

 

[lunch]

4, that was all they had which I'm kinda glad about cos they were really expensive!