What exactly are monster fishes?

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Fanatic_Fish_Lunatic

Plecostomus
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Jul 24, 2024
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I know the term is used to describe big and large fishes, but I wanted to know you guys' opinions. At the very least, how large the fish get so that you guys would consider them as a monster fish? 12 inches or what?
 
When I think of monster fish I think of the really large tank busters mostly suited for 300+ gallons - so datnoids, parachromis dovii, arowanas, and so on.
Would you consider blood parrot and green terror as monster fishes or not? I saw some people argue about this.
 
Would you consider blood parrot and green terror as monster fishes or not? I saw some people argue about this.
Absolutely not. Arguing that a fish <12” at full size is a monster is laughable.
“Predatory” & “monster” a different. Predatory is a behavior, and lots of fish are predatory, even some “small” fish. Monster relates to size alone.
Some monster fish are not predatory. Some predatory fish are not monster.
Take Big Charlie. He eats lettuce and sprouts. Hardly could be considered predatory, but he is a monster!
 
For one thing, aside from the aggression factor, I'd define most monster fish as large enough to need a 6 ft tank or larger for a single specimen.

Blood parrots no way, they're not that big, they're man made and, while they might bully some fish, they wouldn't hold up against the larger, truly aggressive species. Green terrors not really, most are in the 8-10 inch range (occasionally larger). Most Andionacara rivulatus (commonly called green terrors) in the hobby today are many generations captive bred and generally milder than the original wild, truly aggressive imports. The other species commonly callled green terror, A. stalsbergi, are similar in size, some are on the aggressive side, largely due to being closer to wild, but it's manageable and not on the scale of some of the larger, truly nasty cichlids-- they can be kept with decent sized dithers and even other cichlids in large enough tanks.
 
Absolutely not. Arguing that a fish <12” at full size is a monster is laughable.
“Predatory” & “monster” a different. Predatory is a behavior, and lots of fish are predatory, even some “small” fish. Monster relates to size alone.
Some monster fish are not predatory. Some predatory fish are not monster.
Take Big Charlie. He eats lettuce and sprouts. Hardly could be considered predatory, but he is a monster!
So you're saying anything above 12 inches at full size could be considered monster, I get it now, thanks.👍
 
For one thing, aside from the aggression factor, I'd define most monster fish as large enough to need a 6 ft tank or larger for a single specimen.

Blood parrots no way, they're not that big, they're man made and, while they might bully some fish, they wouldn't hold up against the larger, truly aggressive species. Green terrors not really, most are in the 8-10 inch range (occasionally larger). Most Andionacara rivulatus (commonly called green terrors) in the hobby today are many generations captive bred and generally milder than the original wild, truly aggressive imports. The other species commonly callled green terror, A. stalsbergi, are similar in size, some are on the aggressive side, largely due to being closer to wild, but it's manageable and not on the scale of some of the larger, truly nasty cichlids-- they can be kept with decent sized dithers and even other cichlids in large enough tanks.
I was thinking the same, but my friend told me otherwise, tried to gaslit me to think blood parrots are monster fish, lol. What'd you say about green texas, dovii, jaguar, umbee, black nasty, buttikoferi, red devil and midas and some other fishes that are around these sizes?
 
So you're saying anything above 12 inches at full size could be considered monster, I get it now, thanks.👍
No, that’s not what I’m saying. You mentioned 2 fish that max out at <12”. My comment was they’re definitely not monsters.
A monster to me is a fish that gets larger than 20” in captivity. Rays, gar, bass, pacu, aro’s, lungfish, eels, RTC & other big cats and the like…
 
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