my mono argenteus is the devil

Pufferpoison

Pufferpoison

Like a dolls eyes
Feb 6, 2006
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ok i've had this mono for about 1 1/2 months, i got tired of seeing it at the lfs with scats and puffers, he's really healthy and beatiful. and until today i thought he was timid. BOY WAS I WRONG. he's in a 29G tank with my puffer for now, he will be moved into a 90G within a month and he's still pretty small. but i put 2 baby molly's in the tank last night becuase i was going to study their growth rate in brackish next to some of the other fry in FW. my puffer is a GSP, but a very peaceful puffer, for now. well today 1 of the fry was gone (these are very big for only a month old) the other was at the top and my mono was chasing him everywhere. so i took him out and put him back into the 20G. i just bought 20 glass shrimp for .30 cents a piece and acclimated them and he's having a field day, it's like an all you can eat buffet. he's tearing through them like a tornado on mainstreet. there has been 3 in the tank for like 3 weeks and they do a great job of cleaning, so i thought i would get some more to help share the work. wam he at another one, they are fast, but he's faster, i've never seen him move like this. he should be a turbo charged mono.
 
smart lil devils

in my experience monos are extremely active and aggressive. my lfs got a pair about a month ago (Argen.s) and had them in a freshwater set up. (i bought them out of pity rather than fiscal ability, i bounced a check)

so i bought them for my 75 gallon brackish to accompany my 2 archers and a snowflake eel (I know the controversy about this specie's common name, but im almost certain it a gymno. tile)

one was very heathy and active, but the other just croaked. (Im almost positive they were not farm raised)

after aclimation my lil mono became the patriarch of my tank. eats like a mad man, (guppies, ghost shrimp, blood worms, brine ship lettuce and alge chips) and grew very rapidly.

finally my lfs got a new order, but by then the original mono was about twice the size and very aggressive towards the little ones.

i placed the larger of the 3 in my breeding trap for 48 hrs so the others could establish themselves, and it did improve the situation in that they will school togeather for short periods of time before they all start chasing eachother or any of the live food i put in there for them.

they are smart as hell too, the hunt guppies as a team, all 3 circle around the shoal, and the take turns attacking from beneath. pretty cool.
 
I once had a mono in a cichlid tank... one of these guys http://webzoom.freewebs.com/misteraqua/brackish/brackish%20(12).jpg

He was about 4" long and he went head to head with a 5" red devil I had purchased. He would always be able to dodge the RD's attack, then do a quick turn and bit the RD in the side or back (basically it looked like he'd be doing circles around the RD).

Eventually I had to take the RD back to the store because he wouldnt leave the fish alone and took the mono and donated it to someone with a brackish setup.
 
my buddy made the mistake of putting 2 sabe in ab 100 gallon with a breeding pair of convicts. the pair was protective, but the monos eventually killed them in order to get at the dozens of fry
 
Monos by themselves or in small groups are terrors. They are naturally large schoolers and do best (with themselves and tankmates) when they are kept as such. Monos are sometimes compared to the freshwater Angel in terms of looks but also that they will eat what fits in their mouths, and for monos that is a lot since they can lock their jaw. Anyway, try getting some more Monos when the argent gets moved to the bigger tank and see how that goes. Monos with Mollies are fine, just not molly babies.
 
well the lfs doesn't normally carry these and he was by himself anyway. i'm going to have a reef tank with the 90 so he probably won't do good there either. I don't know what to do.
 
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