Fahaka in a community tank

awdawg

Candiru
MFK Member
Feb 1, 2006
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Des Moines, IA
I seem to have problems getting my fahaka to eat anything but dried or pellet foods. Which is rather funny considering they are supposed to eat shelled, frozen or live for the most part. When I first got it a cloning crayfish was it's tank mate for about 5 months. Now I have it housed with a bunch of smallish geo's and several plecos. Very rarely does anything have a chunk of fin missing or anything. I've had the fahaka about 2 years now, a rather slow grower I presume because of the dried foods. Still a neat fish, I kind of enjoy the fact that it's not an insane killer thus far.
 

George Fertern

Exodon
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Nov 11, 2016
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Yeah, mine won't touch worms but likes his beetles and shrimp. Good for me seeing as if he did he'd probably kill my tire track eel. Was thinking of putting some nice red head Tapajos, and a bunch of rare plecos when the big tank is built. But with only eating dry foods does his beak get overgrown?
 

Achilles1763

Piranha
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Feb 15, 2016
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I have never heard of a fahaka eating pellets! Let alone to the exclusion of all else! That's a weird one... dried food are great but I find that without the large bulk protein of frozen food then growth rates are lessened. Mine is 2.5 years and she is a big and long as a rugby ball.if you are struggling to get him to take meaty food have a go with red claw crabs from the lfs, not overly expensive and the colour and movement style is garrenteed to get a prey response from the fahaka. Also good for grinding down the beak as that will Be come an issue over the next year if you cannot get him to take hard shelled foods. And you really want nothing to do with a manual beak clipping.... shudder!
 

Fat Homer

Mmmmm... Doughnuts
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^ my old fahaka readily ate massivore and NLS pellets, and there are quite a few people i know who have also fed their fahakas pellets...
 

Achilles1763

Piranha
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Feb 15, 2016
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^ahh cool, it's just mine then. It would be so much easier if I could include pellets in her diet and not have to deal with the frozen food all the time. But every time I have tried she will. It even entertain the idea.
 

awdawg

Candiru
MFK Member
Feb 1, 2006
393
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Des Moines, IA
Yeah, mine won't touch worms but likes his beetles and shrimp. Good for me seeing as if he did he'd probably kill my tire track eel. Was thinking of putting some nice red head Tapajos, and a bunch of rare plecos when the big tank is built. But with only eating dry foods does his beak get overgrown?
The pellets it mainly takes currently are New life spectrum algae max disks and the mega fish formula. So he/she normally chews on them a bit in attempts to break them. I haven't had any issue with it's beak being to large as of yet. To be honest it's likely stunted as it doesn't grow super fast and isn't horribly agressive. However I imagine if it would eat frozen shrimp and such it would grow more quickly. I can't complain however as I'd rather have a "sissy" fahaka that I can keep other fish in there with it. My red hump standnecheri geo's have been breeding in there pretty consistently.

I have never heard of a fahaka eating pellets! Let alone to the exclusion of all else! That's a weird one... dried food are great but I find that without the large bulk protein of frozen food then growth rates are lessened. Mine is 2.5 years and she is a big and long as a rugby ball.if you are struggling to get him to take meaty food have a go with red claw crabs from the lfs, not overly expensive and the colour and movement style is garrenteed to get a prey response from the fahaka. Also good for grinding down the beak as that will Be come an issue over the next year if you cannot get him to take hard shelled foods. And you really want nothing to do with a manual beak clipping.... shudder!
To be honest prior to me getting this one eating pellets I hadn't really heard of many fahaka taking pellets either. Now I know it's very possible! Not completely normal however, I'm not complaining! I wish it would take some frozen foods, I have gobs. Last time I put a frozen shrimp in front of it, it seemed scared of it and moved to a different spot... lol
 

Achilles1763

Piranha
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Feb 15, 2016
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^^ wow sounds like your fahaka is a proper big girls blouse! Mine isn't a great deal better and gets pushed around by a oscar half her size. But like you say I would rather have a big beautiful fahaka I can comm with other fish rather than the sole tank monster... as I can imagine that gets a little dull after a few years. I have put all sorts of pellets into her tank to feed the other fish, she has a look but doesn't acknowledge it as food. The frozen/live stuff she totally destroys!
 

George Fertern

Exodon
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Nov 11, 2016
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Ok one more update and last update. The Fahaka is still doing great but unfortunately, the tinfoil barbs didn't work out. Not because of any aggression or the Fahaka killing anything, no but actually the tinfoils themselves. Let me back up. As you know I was worried that the tinfoils might become very competitive for food and they did. They started taking the Fahaka's shrimp a while ago, which was annoying, to say the least. So I tried feeding them at the other side of the tank. They'd eat and I'd tried to get the Fahaka some shrimp but once they finished eating(which was usually very quick) they'd see the shrimp and go right to it. It was even more problematic than you might think because there were six of them and they'd all be swimming fast knocking over the puffer and trampling him. So I tried to just feed them more and while that would work and get the puffer food water quality was becoming an issue. Because of how cooperative he had been toward tankmates so far I decided to save myself the trouble and take them back. So what did I get to replace them? Remember how I said I was debating between Frontosa and Oscars. Well, I decided on Oscars! So far they aren't aggressive and the RTGG is the dominant fish chasing them around. Now let's get to the good news. The tank that I'm building is going to be bigger than I originally though at 65"X42"X36"(inner dimensions) it will hold around 405 Gallons + a sump that will hold 70-50 gallons. and I'm starting on it next month. I'm going to go for a new world cichlid theme here is the stock plans: 1 Fahaka, 1 RTGG, 1 Tire Track eel, 1 Chinese Algae Eater, 5 Oscars, 5 Damba Cichlids, 5 Rotkiel Severum, 5 Red Hump Geophagus, 1 Ornate Bichir, 4 Royal plecos, and 14 Clown loaches. Whew, what a doozy. What do you think? I'd love to hear your suggestions or thoughts.
 

Achilles1763

Piranha
MFK Member
Feb 15, 2016
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Bloody hell! I think I need to start coming to you for advice, that is quite a tank you are going to have. The tinfoil barbs, yeah that could always be an issue especially if they are as large or bigger than the fahaka. Feeding shell on food could help, most fish reaslise quite rapidly that they cannot get through a mussel or cockle shell and leave it alone. Although my oscar has start to wait for my fahaka to bite through the shell then try and push her off and steal the meat! The new tank, well that is a lot of big fish, just be careful with the serpentine fish like birchir or eels, as they are certain to get a test bite at least and need to be big enough to survive this. Similar with the Plecs anything too sedentary will get investigated. So it's a case of either growing out or finding adult specimens. Other than that it's just going to be give it a go and see what happens, the fahaka will hit 18 inches in 2-3 years (like mine) in a tank like that and then it's just a case of making sure the fahaka has space and isn't bullied. Amazingly fahakas can be quite fragile. But we need an update wth picture when you have this all set up dude!
 
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