Yep, that's a tilapia buttikoferi, will need alot bigger tank than a 20 as it reaches adult size.
We just adopted a cichlid
- Thread starter robsluv
- Start date
I guess we'll just have play things by ear - I know the aquarium store will take her if she gets too big for us . . . I really don't want her to take over our 30 gal, so about how big will she need to be before we need to think about a new home for her? Any ideas?
there is a fine line between keeping a small fish in a small tank or the small tank actually forcing the fish to stay small because there's not enough 'room' to grow. he may not be stunted yet, but a bigger tank should be acquired before stunting occurs. if you plan to wait for him to get bigger before moving him, that may not happen.
Honestly, if she's 7 inches, I'd get a new home for her ASAP. Buttikoferi can grow up to 15 inches, the longer you keep her in a tank that is FAR too small (125 gallons+ is recommended for life) the more of a chance you will stunt her growth, damaging internal organs. Besides, it is going to be a lot easier to give an LFS a 7 inch fish than a 15 inch one, especially when it will attack anything in its tank (and Tilapia buttikoferiwill) - they are vicious, so even at this size, it is kind of doubtful a normal LFS will take it since they would have to put it in a tank all by itself. They grow quickly as well, so it may be stunted already.
I would also advise rehoming the clown loach now, they are slow growers but I wouldn't wait, it's a lot easier to do when they're small and the longer you keep it the more you risk stunting it in that small tank.
OK, another question as things progress . . . hubby loves this fish, she's got quite the personality - but you're right, she is vicious. The 20 gal she was in got full of algae in pretty short order, so we moved the two (very large) pleckos in to clean it up. At first she was fine - but then she started attacking and trying to bite both of them. I'm not willing to sacrifice two perfectly healthy fish to bites - so we had no choice but to move her back into the 10 gal that the original owner had her in . . . at least until the clean-up is accomplished. I'm starting to regret taking on someone else's problem - I love my community tanks and I refuse to give up even the 30 gallon to one aggresive fish. I hate to say it, but she's not that wonderful. Not that hubby is ready to give her up - but what do we do? Can they live in something like an outdoor pond? Although, again, who wants a whole outdoor pond with only one fish? And what about that algae problem - the pleckos do a good job, but they're obviously not a solution. Sigh. Any suggestions - this seems discouraging because there's no way we're ever having a 125 gal tank in our house and I feel like I tried to do someone a favour and now it ends up I really can't give their fish a good home!
Not only that, but now we seem to have figured out the water-killing-the-fish problem, and we want to re-stock our tanks with beautiful little fish like swords, angels, guppies, platys, tetras and the like. Even less incentive to keep a large, vicious fish in our "feature" tank!
Not only that, but now we seem to have figured out the water-killing-the-fish problem, and we want to re-stock our tanks with beautiful little fish like swords, angels, guppies, platys, tetras and the like. Even less incentive to keep a large, vicious fish in our "feature" tank!
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