I've been eyeballing these two freshwater stonefish about 2-3" for 10 bucks a piece in one of the lfs in chinatown for a couple weeks now. Dunno which species, looks like it could be either batrachus trispinosis of allenbachus grunniens (which supposedly is more adaptable to fw).
Anyways, every time I go to that store I have to convince myself once again not to buy them, because I know it will outgrow my tank eventually, and it would kill off my pigmy gouramies and cherry shrimp pretty quick (I have a feeling my banjo catfish would be unmolested, tho)
On the other hand, they would have more space in my tank than they do now at the lfs. They have the two stonefish in a small tank crowded with a bunch of pignose puffers (of all things). The guy at the store said they were feeding on carnivore pellets. They have been there for a few weeks, which shows that they survived the stress of shipping etc. but also suggests that no one (besides me) is interested in buying them, and I don't know how long they will last at the lfs, esp now that they put those puffers in there with them last week.
My tank has a 24" by 8.5" footprint, with plants and some driftwood/rocks, so it would not provide the stonefish with a whole lot of space (they are pretty damn lazy though).
I should be able to get a larger tank in about half a year or so, and I imagine that stonefish don't grow all that quickly, so it could be doable. Definitely not ideal, but it could be worth a shot for only ten dollars.
They are beautiful and sinister fish, so I have been very tempted. The guy at the store said they could order in some prehistoric monster fish for me, which might be easier for me because I don't know if I want to make a brackish tank and they max out at 5" or so, so I might do that instead, but they would definitely cost more than 10 dollars a fish if I did.
