Stick my hand in? Green Terror

Zen4t5

Zen4t5

AC Members
Jun 2, 2006
131
0
0
49
Northern NJ
I am thinking about buying a green terror. This will be my first aggresive fish. I have a possible stupid question. How big are the teeth on green terrors? What I am askin is when I do maintanence on the tank and the GT attacks me will I think its cute or will I be running to the hospital with a finger missing? I am just curious because I know they can definitely grow big enough to fit a finger in its mouth and its reputation isn't exactly nice. Is this just a stupid worry. Thank you in advance from the guy who likes all flesh to remain on his body.
 
you'll be fine. I used to have one and it didn't come near me while I was doing tank maintenance.

be sure you have a large enough tank for one though. if memory serves they can get pretty big. I think by the time mine died it was about 5-6" long and it wasn't done growing yet!

the species profile says 55 gallon tank minimum, so be warned ;)

but man are they gorgeous fish!
 
I know. They are so beautiful. I fell in love the second I saw one in person. Pictures don't do it justice.

I figuired it would stay away for the most part. I have heard stories of really aggresive GT that do attack hands. I was just wondering if i did get a uber aggresive GT what would be the most damage it could do?
 
It will be too scared of your hand I think. When I used to have oscars/dempseys even the meanest ones hide when it comes to water changes. I used to dangle my finger in there and they would bite it and it wasnt anything more than a pinch, kind of like a quick lizard bite. They were only 6-7" so anything bigger I think they could eventually break the skin barely.
 
yeah I don't think they had teeth like pirahna have teeth either if you follow me.

one other thing to watch out for is digging.you want your substrate real deep (like 4 inches) and bury your plants (fake ones worked best for me) real deep i nthe gravel so they don't get constantly dug up. My GT was always digging and moving gravel around, and eventually I just gave up trying to replant my decorations ;)
 
I used aquarium sealant to glue my fake plants to a small peice of slate(2 or 3 inches). After 2 days I put them in the tank and they cant dig them up right away, it takes a few weeks to work them above the gravel. I also added a floating plant which took their attention totally away from the other plants and since they havnt dug anything up!
 
Thank you guys! Oh if anyone has had a GT before. What is the best diet to get them big? I am going to buy a juvenile.
 
It's not so much anything more than feeding a balanced diet and doing water changes....A quality cichlid food with supplements of krill and maybe other random, good for them treats will do the job just fine...
 
NLS is a great staple food, if you can raise your own guppies, or gost shrimp, that would be a nice treat for them every once in a while. don't get feeders from the lfs though, they can be sick or diseased and pass it on to you fish. If I had a big enough fish I would raise some rosy reds in a 10 gallon for nice snack every once in a while.
 
re:

i hsve kept many... i give them shrimp pellets, premium cichlid flakes, krills (not to much cuz krills is not a good food for them) and chicken or beefheart...good luck with it!!! :clap:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom