Community Oddballs ?

[g-Star]

I am looking for community oddballs that can live with other community fish...any suggestions ? pics ?

 

[Dwarfs]

There are so many oddballs that can be considered community fish. An arowana could be called a community fish if you keep it in a big fish community

What kind of fish are you planning to keep an oddball with?

 

[Captain Retardo]

Senegal Bichirs are good community fish, as long as its tankmates cant fit in its mouth!

 

[willtang3000]

need tank dimensions and water stats

 

[Kevdogg852000]

I have a good one


Leopard ctenopoma - gets about 5-6 " long and not at all aggressive. Just don't house it with anything that it can swallow whole. I had mine for 6 years with some south american cichlids and he never once had a run in with anything. They live a long time and prefer live food, but you can get them to eat krill usually. Quite a cool fish, related to gouramis, labyrinth fish.

Kevin

 

[ringham]

I have a good one


Leopard ctenopoma - gets about 5-6 " long and not at all aggressive. Just don't house it with anything that it can swallow whole. I had mine for 6 years with some south american cichlids and he never once had a run in with anything. They live a long time and prefer live food, but you can get them to eat krill usually. Quite a cool fish, related to gouramis, labyrinth fish.

Kevin

Please can we have some pics ???

I have founs that eels are GREAT community oddballs. So long as you get the correct type for your community. For example Fire eels are VERY fussy eaters and their diet mainly consits of bloofworm (frozen or live) but they grow up to 3'. Tyre track eels don't grow AS big but astill reasonably big but they will eat almost anything. I have found fire eels to be the best community eel that you can get so long as after about 5 years when he gets to big for your tank he goes to a good home, I have had my smallest fire eel that is now about 9-10" long for arouns 1 year and he has grown about 1.5" in that time. When I bought me 17" fire eel he was being kept in the shop with fish around the size of neon tetras. Also my MMB had fry and he didn't touch them when they became free swimming. So long as you keep them well fed on bloodworm every two days he won't touch fish (what I have told you is in my experiance). In around 2 years of keeping fish only ONCE did my fire eel take some lance fish which i was feeding to my dwarf snake head.

 

[nmonks]

I'll second spiny eels as being very cool fish. But I learned the hard way that tyre track eels (Mastacembalus armatus) will eat platies.

Other cool community tank oddballs: Hatchetfish, bizarre-looking, and very aggressive feeders. Mine go into a feeding frenzy when I squish some prawn in the tank. Halfbeaks, pike-like, breedable, nicely coloured. Glassfish, when kept in groups are very active and even a bit thuggish. Reedfish (Erpetoichthys calabaricus), shy, must be kept in groups, but safer with not-to-small fish than bichirs. South American puffer, in my experience safe with fast-moving tankmates like tetras and barbs. Badis badis, needs a very quiet tank, e.g. with dwarf barbs, neons, etc., but an amazing colour-change artist.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[ringham]

I'll second spiny eels as being very cool fish. But I learned the hard way that tyre track eels (Mastacembalus armatus) will eat platies.

Other cool community tank oddballs: Hatchetfish, bizarre-looking, and very aggressive feeders. Mine go into a feeding frenzy when I squish some prawn in the tank. Halfbeaks, pike-like, breedable, nicely coloured. Glassfish, when kept in groups are very active and even a bit thuggish. Reedfish (Erpetoichthys calabaricus), shy, must be kept in groups, but safer with not-to-small fish than bichirs. South American puffer, in my experience safe with fast-moving tankmates like tetras and barbs. Badis badis, needs a very quiet tank, e.g. with dwarf barbs, neons, etc., but an amazing colour-change artist.

Cheers,

Neale

I used to have a tyre track eel that was 10" long. I would eat any fish under 2"!!!

In the end it died by chocking when it tried to eat my 4" BGK. Unfortunately they both died

i then just replaced it and moved on. But seriously FW spiney eels are great!

 

[Dragonscales]

Why not go with peacock spiney eels? Just as cool as fire eels, more available (over here anyhow), cheaper (again, over here, not sure about there) and are a fraction of the size fully grown. There is also not alot of fish above fry that are at risk from them (perhaps neons, etc). Personally I have never had one eat any fish except fry before and I have always had at least a couple in my tanks over the years, but as with all fish, there are the odd exceptions.

 

[Dwarfs]

I would avoid eels, they are extremely picky IME and are better off in a separate tank (So other fish don't take their food).

 

[Spencer Pike]

This is what a Leopard ctenopoma looks like.

 

[ringham]

This is what a Leopard ctenopoma looks like.

cool 8)

eels mainly eat bloodworm, which is reasonably easy to get hold of. If you buy a tyre track eel (these can be very terratorial) then they will eat almost anything.

 

[piper]

I have an African Butterfly Fish in my com, he is a lazy bugger mind just sites on my spray bar most of the time. But I like him all the same

 

[cane76]

we fire eel would not touch bloodworm or any other frozen foods.he only took shrimp so he was a right pain to feed.he also attacked anything eel shaped(gobies,bichir and eels) biting and chasing constantly.

 

[ringham]

we fire eel would not touch bloodworm or any other frozen foods.he only took shrimp so he was a right pain to feed.he also attacked anything eel shaped(gobies,bichir and eels) biting and chasing constantly.

Sounds like you got a bit of a bad eel there mate, unlucky. In 2 years (or at leats that is all I can remember) My larger fire eel has only once ever taken food that isn't some type of worm.