Barracuda

[ARXC08]

Don't know much about saltwater fish but i was searching ebay and came across a saltwater barracuda for sale. Just wondering if that was commom, and if anyone else has one here?

Heres the link to ebay.Barracuda For Sale

 

[J-Money]

I saw one at my LFS once...That's about it. Also, i don't know anything about 'cudas but i think you'd need a much bigger tank than they suggest. Anytime i've seen them in aquariums or on the discovery channel they seem to be moving alot, i don't think a 4' long tank would give them much swimming room. Another thing, i wouldn't even think about buying that particular one cuz the seller has been feeding him feeder goldfish and such. marine animals can't breakdown everything that they get when they eat freshwater feeders, over a little time, the build up of wutever fats or whatever they get will cause them to die. sorry if that sounds a little weird, too many beers maybe someone can explain it better if that gibberish makes no sense lol

 

[superman]

They get VERY large, not many tanks would be able to house one other than at a public aquarium. NOT a good fish to have in a home aquarium.

 

[anvil63]

I've seen them at 6' in the wild and eating feeder goldfish will give them fatty liver disease. It's a bit like cirrhosis in alcoholics i'm told

Carl

 

[Chac]

When I was last in Mexico I went Deep Sea Fishing and caught a 5' Cudda, as you can imagine he didnt take kindly to being hook and got his own back on me by biting my hand and giving me a real bad tear on my hand

The next trip I caught a small Bull Shark, but stayed a bit of a distance from his mouth

IMO I wouldnt be adding anything to a home aquarium that can do the damage to your hand that a Cudda can

 

[Navarre]

definately not a fish for a home tank. They require huge volumes of swimming space and they grow enormous (keeping them in small tanks wont stunt their growth).

They are also real mean fish with teeth to match. A friend of mine used to be a commercial diver. He told me he would reguarly swim with sharks in the water and think nothing of it. He would insist on a spotter if there were cuddas around or he would simply not even enter the water.

 

[catxx]

i saw a tank with a school of barracuda. looked cool.


this was the 5 million litre tank in Lisbon
they were all around 4 foot long
not exactly suitable for a nice tank in your living room.

 

[steelhealr]

Totally agree with the above. This is a pelagic animal and cannot be kept at home. I'm a diver also and was circled once by a barracude. Pulled my knife out (mistake) and dropped it by accident...the cuda hit the blade on the way down thinking it was a fish. I can't tell you in words how fast that animal moved. If you kept this animal at home and put your hand in the tank and had a ring on it, you could easily say goodbye to your extensor tendons. SH

 

[Guppy_Girl]

yeah, 'cudas will go after anything shiny. My dad went scuba diving on his honeymoon w (with his ring on of course!) and got circled by them!!

The only ones that I have seen are in a public aquarium and they are easily 6 feet long!! I don't think that it would be at all convenient to keep them in a home aquarium!!!

(but then that may just be me!! I don't really care for fish that have enough teeth to shred me!! )

 

[Dragonscales]

These are one of a handful of fish species I would say shouldn't be kept at home (outside of non captive bred endangered species, etc). As well as the above reasons - needing plenty of room, etc - there is also the problem of how they hunt. When feeding, a barracuda will take off like a shot and literally cut the fish in two by a combination of their teeth and power, they are stealth hunters who start their run some distance away and build up speed quite quickly. Taking this into account, if you were a millionare and could afford to have a big enough tank in your home you could still end up with the problem of the fish seeing something it likes the looks of outside the tank and trying to attack it. Needless to say you would end up with three likely outcomes - a dead or badly injured fish, a smashed tank or both.

 

[Navarre]

Thats right, I have seen this fish feeding and its incredibly fast. I think it was stated that its burst of speed and acceleration was so fast that there is nothing on earth that can match it over such a short distance.

 

[GuppyDude]

I think this relates directly back to teh reef shark discussion

If i recall a deep sea fishing records chart i read at the beach a few summers ago, the largest baracuda caught on record was a little over 10' long, in a 4 foot tank, somthing liek that wouldn't even be able to turn around. In addition they have been ranked with sharks as being one of the great dangers to swimmers.

 

[Matty]

I think this relates directly back to teh reef shark discussion

If i recall a deep sea fishing records chart i read at the beach a few summers ago, the largest baracuda caught on record was a little over 10' long, in a 4 foot tank, somthing liek that wouldn't even be able to turn around. In addition they have been ranked with sharks as being one of the great dangers to swimmers.

not even turn around? It wouldnt even be able to fit in the tank. Yeah, blinding acceleration, sheer power and razor sharp teeth make it a terrible comination to keep at home.

 

[Opcn]

Think of they as the grey hounds of the ocean, only growing to 85 lbs. The cheapest way to keep them would be to build a big tank, like a 16,000 gallon tank of plywood with one big window,, then from this build a long raceway with a crossection of 4X4 feet with extra width at the bends (and gradual bends aswell, radius of at least 16 feet on the inside, 22 feet or so on the outside) and have this run all the way around your building, and have a big big building. ofcourse by this time be are talking about $100,000 dollars in the tank alone assuming you only do little windows at intervals along the raceway, large plexy windows would bump it up to twice that much, then you have a huge skimmer, at least $1,000 and fluidized bed filters, oy just thinking about the price of sand makes my head spin, then all that salt, oy!