Question About A Fish

[GobyMaster]

Hey everyone, it's been ages since I last posted here, mainly because high school was becoming hellish and I was really falling behind, so I had to focus more on that than fish keeping, but I've recently gotten back into keeping aquariums, and I'm finally ready to start setting up that 60 gallon I have in my basement.
I want this to be an oddball tank, as those are my favorite type of fish, but when I was looking through LiveAquaria a few days ago, I saw that they had a really interesting fish in their catalogs, but I didn't know how reliable the information about the fish was, so I thought that I should post here, since with all the oddball keepers here, someone's bound to have keep this or something similar to it before.
The name of the fish (according to LiveAquaria) is the Peppermint Crocodile Fish (Luciocephalus aura). LiveAquaria says that it is a Semi-Aggressive carnivore from Southeast Asia. It grows to about 5-6" long, and will eat anything that it can fit in it's really big mouth. LiveAquaria also states that this fish can be kept in something as small as a 30 gallon tank.

If this fish was capable of being kept in a 60 gallon aquarium, what kind of other oddball fish do you think would be able to be kept with it?

This is what I was thinking about for stocking (I know that some will get too big for a 60, which is why I'm getting a 125 for my birthday in a few months and I will move them into that once they get too big):

2x Luciocephalus aura
2x Erpetoichthys calabaricus
1x Apteronotus albifrons
6x Dianema longibarbi (I'm really not sure about these, the Crocodile Fish might eat them. What do you think?)

That's about it.

Any information on this fish would be very helpful.
Oh, and I thought that I should add - the 60 gallon has the following dimensions: 48x24x12".

Thanks in advance,
GobyMaster

 

[prankster705]

Copied from PFK:
http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...?article_id=571

Scientific name: Luciocephalus aura Tan and Ng, 2005
Common name: Luciocephalus sp. "Peppermint" and L. sp. "Green".
Origin: Described from the middle reaches of swamps in the Batang Hari basin in Jambi in the Sungai Pijoan region of central Sumatra in Indonesia.
Size: The largest type specimens are around 11cm/4.25" long, but it may reach similar proportions to L. pulcher at almost 15-20cm/6-8".
Diet: Live foods, such as small fish or shrimps. Like L. pulcher, it is reportedly difficult to wean onto dead foods. Luciocephalus has protrusible jaws and can take large prey for their size.
Water: Luciocephalus aura is found in forest swamp habitats, so should do best in very soft, acidic water with a pH of 5.0-6.0.
Aquarium: A bit tricky in terms of diet and water requirements, so best kept in a planted species tank of about 90-120cm/36"-48". Often kept in groups, but provide plenty of surface cover in case of aggression. It lives alongside at the water surface alongside a range of cyprinids, including various Rasbora and Puntius species, as well as loaches and anabantoids, such as Trichogaster trichopterus. According to Tan and Ng, L. aura is also found alongside L. pulcher at Jambi, but the two fish may live in different habitats, with L. aura in faster flowing water and L. pulcher in the more stagnant areas. Provide a little extra flow to keep it happy.
Breeding: Recent research by Ruber et al. 2006 has shown that Luciocephalus are members of the spiral egg clade. Their unusual pear-shaped eggs have spiral ridges on the surface that lead to a structure called the micropyle. This is believed to indicate their relatedness to Sphaerichthys. Like pulcher, aura is probably a paternal mouthbrooder. L. pulcher males brood around 150 eggs and do not feed for the month-long brooding period.
Notes: The species was first collected by Maurice Kottelat and Heok Hui Tan in 1994. The Luciocephalus only contains two species, the more common L. pulcher, which was described way back in 1830, and this new fish, which was described in 2005. Despite appearances, this is a member of the goramy family Osphronemidae, where the genus sits in a subfamily called the Luciocephalinae.
Identification: Easy to tell apart from Luciocephalus pulcher by the presence of irridescent green spots on the broad longitudinal stripe. It also differs morphometrically, with a smaller preanal length, greater postdorsal length, smaller caudal peduncle length, greater anal fin base length and smaller eye diameter. The name "aura" refers to the glowing irridescence of these markings.
Availability: I first saw this species for sale at Wharf Aquatics a few years ago, where it was imported as L. pulcher. These ones were on sale at Water Gardens UK @ Oxford (01865 876516) during the summer of 2006. They're not common in the trade.
Price: Expect to pay around £10-30 each.

 

[invader]

I would skip the pike heads (Luciocephalus aura), because they need extremely clean and acidic conditions and are prone to dying for no reason. There is a thread in the predatory section about them, somewhere, and if search was working I would get it for you.

I would up the rope fish to at least 4, as they prefer to be in larger groups. The D. longibarbis are great little fish and definitely recommend them. I have two of them, along with two D. urostriatum in my 55gl.

For the upper levels, consider other fish like Hemiodus spp., Metynnis spp., and other medium sized schooling fish.

 

[shroob]

Is the tank 12" wide or 24" wide, if its 24 then thats a nice footprint to have.
If you like the look of pikeheads you could try Belonesox belizanus, they are sort of similar looking and equally predatory.

 

[nmonks]

They don't really die for "no reason". Like a lot of soft water fish, they're naturally inhabiting places with very little bacteria in the water column. In case you aren't aware, as pH drops, bacteria find it more difficult to survive. Below pH 6 for example, filter bacteria essentially stop working. It's also why you do things like pickling to preserve food.

Anyway, pikeheads come from habitats were the water pH can be below 5 and the water has virtually no mineral content at all. The water is extremely "clean" and consequently the fish living here have a relatively weak immune system. When transferred to harder water conditions and a higher pH, they are exposed to lots more bacteria, and effectively become overwhelmed.

You can maintain these fish easily enough if you have the super-soft water buffered artificially to around pH 5.5-6.0, and are willing to use zeolite for filtration (since biological filtration won't work). This is a similar approach to other blackwater fish such as Hemirhamphodon halfbeaks and to some extent even wild discus and chocolate gouramis. It's worth remembering how difficult discus were to maintain until they were domesticated to produce the much tougher strains we see in shops today.

For what it's worth, I'd tend to avoid seriously pike-like fish in your system. The knifefish is going to get large and fairly territorial, and will terrify things like Ctenolucius in a tank as small as yours. Conversely, small catfish such as Dianema would be at severe risk of being eaten. If you want something that looks like a pike, then perhaps one of the larger halfbeaks such as Nomorhamphus liemi would do the trick; the females get to over 10 cm long and look very impressive in groups. Halfbeaks are feisty and will provide both colour and activity. If you simply want an easy to keep predator, then a school of Apollo sharks (Luciosoma spilopleura) has much to recommend it. These big (around 15 cm) shark-minnows make excellent dither fish that will encourage your other fish to swim about. They stay close to the surface, and while predatory, happily eat all types of flake and pellets. Mine adored Hikari Cichlid Gold. As the name "Luciosoma" implies, they are very pike-like in shape, but more colourful, with long fins and a luminous copper spot on the nose.

Cheers, Neale

I would skip the pike heads (Luciocephalus aura), because they need extremely clean and acidic conditions and are prone to dying for no reason.

 

[GobyMaster]

Thanks for the responses!

Yeah, I wasn't too sure about the Crocodile Fish, so now I think that if I were to ever keep these, that it should be in a species-only tank.

@ nmonks - I always thought that it was Bala Sharks and Apollo Sharks that grew to be close to a foot long, and because of that, they shouldn't be keep in a tank as small as a 55, or I am confused with another species of freshwater shark?......

So I now have a revised stocking list, and I'm definitely keeping the Black Ghost, because I have always wanted to keep one of those. Here's the list:

4x Erpetoichthys calabaricus
1x Apteronotus albifrons
6x Dianema longibarbi

I still need a middle to surface dwelling fish, and I'll look into Apollos and fish in the Hemiodus spp. and Metynnis spp.

Thanks again,
GobyMaster

 

[nmonks]

Luciosoma spilopleura gets to 25 cm in the wild, but even in a 200 gallon system, my specimens got to about 15 cm, tops. Super-active fish though, so the more space, the better. I hadn't read your 55 (US?) gallon limit; this being so, I'd probably go for something else. Perhaps Nomorhamphus halfbeaks. They're the right size, essentially hardy once settled in, and nicely coloured.

Cheers, Neale

 

[GobyMaster]

Okay, I'll check those fish out.

Thanks,
GobyMaster