What is the average cichlid bite force?

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Squirtle919 said:
id put a hornet ( buttikoferi ) over the dovii, have you seen when this guys fight? they can lift your jaw much higher then any other cichlid I have seen, My theory is the bigger the lift the more force then can get. I have been snapped but some bigger cichlids and its not very painful, My friend has been snapped at by a 2.5ft mangrove jack and he said it felt like getting his hand smashed with a steel hammer that had nails stuck in it :|

As for salt water fish, whole different story, look at baby triggers 2-4 inch if they bite you they will draw blood. every seen a 30-45cm triggers teeth? those things make piranha teeth look like tooth picks, even big clown fish draw blood and neom is suppose to be nice =(
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My Butti and Dovi fight very regularly (Both well over 14") and I separate them by hand often very gently spanking the aggressor that I happened to see. It is beyond totally alien to me to fathom being actually bitten by one of my pet fish. The Butti is too shy of my hand, but the Dovi, and an 18" Johani Pike cichlid will eat from my hand, and have zero when getting a little finger with a fillet!

Six inch + Bowfin on the other hand, entirely different story. I had to stop hand feeding my 2+ foot long nosr gar because I got nervous about hand feeding Grumpy (~ 2' bowfin) and did not want him to get jealous or depressed! At 4" Grumpy put teeth marks right through my buddies index finger and drew blood.

I have less than no concern that any of my Bowfins or gars for that matter would intentionally bite me and I hand clean their tank regularly, but the novelty of hand feeding those monsters has mercifully worn off before I lost a finger.
 
hmm strange, LFS has 2 hornets 20-24 inch if not bigger they chase the pacu- jardini-umbee around and will chase your hand also.

but yes Gars etc I dont see why they cant take a finger off, ever seen a pacu eat a carrot? I just dont think any cichlids can bite a finger off with one straight bite or even a few. native fish - salt water fish I try to keep my hands out of the tank as much as I can. again salt water is a whole different story its not so much can i lose a finger but in some cases I can lose my life!
 
Squirtle919 said:
hmm strange, LFS has 2 hornets 20-24 inch if not bigger they chase the pacu- jardini-umbee around and will chase your hand also.

but yes Gars etc I dont see why they cant take a finger off, ever seen a pacu eat a carrot? I just dont think any cichlids can bite a finger off with one straight bite or even a few. native fish - salt water fish I try to keep my hands out of the tank as much as I can. again salt water is a whole different story its not so much can i lose a finger but in some cases I can lose my life!
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Agreed. There is a way wider variety of saltwater fish with high strengths. I would be terrified to place my hand in a tank with about half of the saltwater fish I can think of.

-Andrew
 
its not really the fish that worry me, worms mantis, anaos friend got stung by one and almost lost his arm came down to if we cant get all the stingers out your arm may have to go :|

at the shop we do have stone fish also which I am also cautious around but they dont try to strike u where as the other worries are more you wont see them like bristle worms they hurt!
 
Squirtle919 said:
id put a hornet ( buttikoferi ) over the dovii, have you seen when this guys fight? they can lift your jaw much higher then any other cichlid I have seen, My theory is the bigger the lift the more force then can get. I have been snapped but some bigger cichlids and its not very painful, My friend has been snapped at by a 2.5ft mangrove jack and he said it felt like getting his hand smashed with a steel hammer that had nails stuck in it :|
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Always wondered if we had buttis here! now i have to find 1 haha

mjs definitely hurt, 2nd was a large jag and that wasnt close to the mj. would be good to know what the actual average bite forces are
 
Darsie said:
Always wondered if we had buttis here! now i have to find 1 haha

mjs definitely hurt, 2nd was a large jag and that wasnt close to the mj. would be good to know what the actual average bite forces are
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Ya Ill be looking online for actual bite force tests. I doubt I'll find any. As many people have looked before.

-Andrew
 
Darsie said:
Always wondered if we had buttis here! now i have to find 1 haha

mjs definitely hurt, 2nd was a large jag and that wasnt close to the mj. would be good to know what the actual average bite forces are
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we have hornets here yes but they are not easy to get =P used to be 1000s of them so should be one pair in each state but they are bloody hard to find , nice fish like a oversized convict with a dovii attitude. Just be carefully when u clean the tank....nasty little buggers lol.
 
I doubt most cichlids would go over ~50 lbs of bite force. Their mouths just aren't made to chomp down. It's more of a vacuum that sucks things in for the pharyngeal jaw to bite/grind.
 
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