Whats a manly college fish?

Question

i live in a dorm room with another 4 guys. we all want one cool fish that ideally eats live food. I originaly wanted a shark, but I think they grow to big. Around 10 gallon tank designed to fit the fishes needs. Any Ideas?

Answer 1

The only manly fish I can think of that would fit into a 10g tank (a 20g long would be much better) would be the exodon paradoxus. It is an extremely vicious tetra that will kill just about anything put with it. Only about 6" long, they are fast, toothy and mean (a distant relative of the pirahna - both are tetras). If your pet store does not have them, they can order one for you. If you can't have a tank of at least 40g, only one fish is advised. A school of at least 10 is recommended in a larger tank. They kill each other off.



Here is some more info on it:



http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/fish/bucktoothedtetra.php



In the wild, they travel in schools and don't have the aggression that they have in a closed environment like an aquarium.



Live food on the order of worms (bloodworms, blackworms), brine shrimp or guppy fry would be about the size that it could eat easily when young. They will accept flake food too, but you must start them on it and then offer the live foods later on. As they get larger, you could feed them feeder guppys.



I worked at a pet store for a while and just one of these cleaned out a whole section of our live fish display tanks. Nothing could stay alive with him. We sold him three or four times and each time he was returned. I went back a year after I left their employ, and he was still there....alone, in his section of the display.



8

Answer 2

Dwarf puffers.



Mean little critters, and carnivores for sure. Maybe only snails, shrimp and worms, but what do you want from a 1" fish.



A 10gal is only big enough to keep "feeder" fish, not something that Eats feeder fish. Think about it, the tank system has to be able to handle the waste of a small fish dieing in there every day. Throw a dead goldfsih into a 10gal tank every day for a week? Imagine the mess?



Anything else you get will only be a baby if you can keep it in a 10gal, and wont be all that impressive. And a sick stunted cichlid doesn't rate on the "manly" scale.



Another option might be a freshwater crayfish. They are easy enough to keep, can live in a 10gal. and have pretty impressive pincers. They eat anything !!!



Ian



Edit, an Oscar, JD or other large cichlid is just out of the question. An Oscar should outgrow a 30gal in about 3 months. Mine is starting to get too big for his 58 and will be moved soon.

Answer 3

I'm not a big fish guy but I believe that most fish that eat other fish are going to need a tank larger than a ten gal. Small ten to twenty gal tanks are ideal for small community fish not large predatory fish. Look on craigslist and you can get a nice corner tank that is 30-40 gal+ that doesn't take up much room, that can house some nice cichlids like oscars. But be carefully what you get cuz some fish will kill anything that you put in with them like the green texas cichlids I had that kill oscars, fairly aggressive fish in their own right, and everything else and even picked at each other. I think most cichlids will get fairly large, like a large crappy or maybe a black bass, but I think it takes them a while to grow. Go to a fish store that hopefully has some knowledgable staff and they should be able to give you some good ideas. But no matter what you get make sure you know what it is and what it will take to take care of- tank size requirements, quanity of food and food cost, water temp, ph balance etc...

Answer 4

Nothing that eats live food would work well in such a small tank.

If you were willing to go a bit larger, maybe a 20 gallon minimum with regular water changes and only the one fish, you might do well with a bristlenose plecostomus--but no other type of plecostomus, as most of the others get really, really big (like a foot or two big). They don't eat live foods (shrimp pellets, algae wafers, and vegetables like sliced zucchini), but they're really awesome and pretty tough looking fish. Everyone says my pleco sort of reminds them of a shark with the way she swims and her overall look. You can look up the bristlenoses and decide for yourself.

Answer 5

1) Convict Cichlid may be about the meanest little fish I can think of. They'll breed like crazy in there too.



2) Brichardi Cichlids



3) Dwarf Pike Cichlids (fun to watch eat live fish)



4) Dwarf Freshwater Puffer Fish (eat live snails, most pet stores will give you their nuisance snails)



5) Kribensis get a breeding pair in there with a school of tetras. They'll chase the tetras all over the tank and may even kill a few.



Once you actually start getting into aquaria, you start to realize that there are cooler things to fish than just the carnage they can inflict on other fish. If I can give you one piece of advice, it would be to start with at least a 20 gallon tank. They're easier to care for and you can get slightly larger fish in there like Angels.

Answer 6

Most people will formulate their opinions about Iowa based on just driving through it on I-80 or I-35 or by what they hear on the media. These people are for the most part clueless. Granted there are a lot of Corn fields, then again we are an agricultural state. The truth is that Iowa may not be as flashy or interesting as some other states but it is far from boring. Des Moines in particular has grown by leaps and bounds. Over the past 15 years it has undergone a major face lift. The New York Times writer (can't remember his name) who covered the Iowa Caucus wrote a story about how he thought he would dread spending new years in Des Moines Iowa, but after he had stayed here he had a lot of fun. He compared the atmosphere to downtown San Francisco and some parts of New York. Some people think that we are just a bunch of hicks. I think this comes from the fact that we are filled with people who pride themselves in strong moral values which revolve around their country, their family, and their faith and this is sometimes seen as "hickish". However, most people in Iowa are fairly intelligent and are able to wield rational thought better than some "cosmopolitan" areas of the country. Overall, if you want to know what it's like your not going to find out by driving through it on one of two major interstates or from some jerk who has done the same. You'll have to get off the beaten path, go visit the small towns, talk to the people, and then you'll see what Iowa has to offer.

Answer 7

Butterfly fish, it is a bit lazy but it can eat a fish as big as a neon tetra (however it is better to feed it bloodworms or such). Also it can live comfortably in a 10 gal tank. It is also a relatively rare fish.



http://www.theaquariumwiki.com/Butterfly_Fish

Answer 8

Get a Jack Dempsey and/or some cichlids. Oh, yeah, you would need a much larger tank than a 10 gal. More like 40-50 gal.

Answer 9

YOU don" just get a fish as its manly, you keep fish because you wont to.

Answer 10

you could get a pleco

http://www.raylady.com/Potamotrygon/photos/Pleco1.jpg



they are extremely small when you first get them but if they have enough tank space they will grow. I dont know if it eats live food you would have to do research.



And I know it wouldnt fit into your 10 gallon range but i highly suggest an Oscar fish. It needs 30 gallons however, it cannot live in 10, but it would be very worth it if you got a 30 gallon. To be honest you cant get a cool manly fish that will fit in 10 gallons. Most of the fish that will fit in a 10 gallon are dainty and not manly.



Anyways. Here is a picture of an oscar

http://www.fishlore.com/aquariummagazine/mar08/gozer/oscar-lg.jpg



they get HUGE. thats why you need 30 gallons, but its kinda cool because you can put basically anything in the tank when they are full grown and they will eat it, for example if you happen to find a roach in your apartment and you kill it and drop it in, your oscar will happily eat it. They are extremely messy fish however so you will HAVE to do water changes once a week. Do tons of research regarding cycling tanks and cleaning tanks if you have never owned fish before. Heres a website regarding how to take care of an oscar:

http://www.ehow.com/how_2143724_feed-oscar-fish.html







Good luck!

Answer 11

Try an African butterfly fish

http://theaquariumwiki.com/Pantodon_buchholzi

Answer 12

pacus are great they look like piranas and eat like them.