ive recently become interested in freshwater wolf fish. can anyone direct me to a good site about them, or give me some basic info? ive heard people talk about different types, are those just different colors or are they different sizes and temperaments? i was hoping there was a type of wolf fish that grows to about a foot and that i could keep with other similar sized fish or is that not possible? the wolf fish interests me a lot, but i dont think i would want one if it couldnt have tankmates, cause they seem boring in a tank alone cause they lay on the bottom and seem inactive. also i live in Maine,USA and im not even sure if its even legal to have one here. anyone have any info or experiences?
wolf fish
- Thread starter resimodos
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Activity relies on the specimen, and some species can be generalized as more active than others but of course you can have a lazy specimen of that said active species and have a more active specimen of the inactive species. Only species that is said to stay around a foot hasn't been kept in the hobby AFAIK. Erythrinus stay under a foot however topping out around 8 inches generally though some people who have kept there's till death have gotten theirs to 9". As for tank mates, that again goes hand in hand with the specimen, some will be more aggressive than others, just like people some are lazy some aren't, some are mean some are nice. You can find a success story with wolves for every species that's been kept and you can find tragic stories. IME it's usually a fish bothering the wolf and it simply can't handle the aggression back, so when choosing tankmates chose carefully, you want something that won't pose a threat, or if it does it can get away but also defend itself just in case. Fast fish don't mean anything with wolves, if they want it they'll get it. So hardy, tough fish are what you want. What has helped me in the past is to find a fish more dominant than a wolf and the wolf usually plays nice with everyone else, unless messed with. Only fish that worked for me was a large 12"+ male jag cichlid. But you can find other fish for sure. But you don't want so,etching overly aggressive that if it does put the wolf in its place it begins to chase him everywhere all the time. The next smallest species you can keep are gold or hoplerythrinus unitaeniatus, they grow the around 16" and are the most active being open water swimmers and staying towards the top most of the time swimming around. After that you'd go for either a common (hoplias malabaricus) or a black wolf (hoplias curupira). These get to around the same size only thing is blacks are stockier built and look nicer imo, but you can find some nice mala variants as well. These have the potential to get 20"+ in the wild they both get 2'+ so if you have them long enough and in a suitable tank they have the potential to get there. The largest home aquaria kept black I've read about was 18", for malas 20", this is what I can remember off the top of my head,nthere may be bigger ones. After these you get into some rarer species like australis, intermedius, which have been becoming more popular slightly as we're seeing more of them, australis specifically, but not much is known about their max sizes yet, not enough have been kept to say the average behavior though it seems laid back like a mala. And then you get into the giants like Lacerdae and aimara which can get 30"+ for lac, and 3-4' for aimara, and of course their requirements grow as their territory too. Pretty much same care all throughout just different size scales and looks, and then variations in personality. So to help you figure out what you can keep what tank size are you planning on putting the wolf in and with what fish are you interested in. And Maine is cold, I don't see any reason it wouldn't be legal. I think only states like California and maybe Florida is where they're illegal since they'll have the potential to survive and irresponsible people release them.
thanks for the helpful info. i was gonna put one in a hundred gallon but i wanted him to have a buddy, probably a top dweller or something that would inhabit a diff area of the tank. you mentioned the Erythrinus. so is that the "red wolf fish"? that would be more of the size i would want, i think.
Red wolf fish is eryrhrinus ery. 100 gallon is very spacious for it. Be careful with tankmates. Too small and will get eaten or beat up. Too big and the wolf will be in trouble. Moe gave some good info. Look forward to seeing what u get.
There's 2 different species readily available and 2 other ones that if you're lucky enough to find you can get lol. They both stay in the 8" range, I've personally only kept the red wolf or erythrinus erythrinus but people who have kept them and erythrinus sp Peru commonly known as a purple, say the red is more outgoing and that it gets slightly larger. I wouldn't recommend keeping this one with bigger cichlids, though you might be able to get away with an Oscar, but the Oscar will out grow and eat a red imo if you get them bo the same size so I'd say grow out the red wolf first. A gator gar will eat him and all your other fish eventually. The Lima and pleco are the only two I see it doing fine with.
thanks guys. yeah i love my lil gator gar, but he's obviously temporary. i was actually worried about having a wolf with the lima cause i find hes skittish, but maybe they grow out of it he's only a half foot now and once hes big might eat a smaller species wolf
As beautiful as they are. From my experience they have the potential to do serious damage to the largest fish in the tank.
