Hoplias in planted tank

[lingi]

Hi guys! I've been out of the hobby for 10+ years, always itching to jump back into it. Finally I pulled the trigger on a 65gallon tank with sump filter and I decided to go with a heavily planted setup. I'm thinking bogwood, slate, and then moss, monte carlo carpet, anubias, buce, etc.. covering most of the tank. Obviously I want a monster, and Hoplias have always intrigued me but I could never get them before where I was. Now I can and I'm really interested in getting a Hoplias curupira. My questions are:

How detrimental would the Hoplias be to my plants? I see they're pretty inactive, not particularly diggers, and I could give the plants a month's head start with CO2 and the whole deal so they get to establish themselves as best as they can. Do you reckon that would be ok?

If I get an already mature Hoplias curupira (saw one for sale near me that's already 10") how likely is it that it would ignore smaller critters and that with a month's head start and plenty of hiding spots and plant coverage I could establish a big colony of cherry shrimp that could survive once the main resident moves in?

Could I keep two Hoplias curupira together? I would try my best to sex them and get a pair with the dream of getting them to breed, although I know the chances are pretty low. Say I fail to sex them correctly or they just don't like each other, are chances really that high that they're going to fight to the death?

Thanks for your input and looking forward to sharing my progress as I get this new setup going!

 

[Deadeye]

I definitely wouldn’t do a curupira in a 65 gallon - the fish has the potential to get longer than the tank is wide.
I’d sooner look at red wolf fish. They are smaller, but more than make up for it in color and activity.
It won’t bother your plants at all. I’ve never seen a fish look more disgusted than my red wolf when it accidentally grabbed water lettuce instead of a pellet. They don’t really dig so any rooted plants will be fine.
I wouldn’t waste your time with cherry shrimp. There’s a possibility that some may make it, but most or all will be hunted down. Even at full size, my red wolf had no problem killing cherry shrimp, scuds, snails, and even daphnia despite them being too small to be worth the effort.
And definitely don’t cohab wolves, especially in a smaller tank. Hoplerythrinus (gold wolf fish) are the only exception, but even a solo would need a bigger tank.

 

[HarleyK]

Wolf fish are great in a planted tank, but they do need some room to swim - this is a black wolf in a 75 gallon and it was tight.

 

[duanes]

Agree with the above.
In a tank as small as 4 ft, anything half length of the Hoplias (or less) will be toast, because in such a small tank, anything smaller will be too easily cornered.
I had the same problem in even a 6 ft tank with predatiry gobies, in a 6 ft 180 gal.


My Eleotrts goby cound swallow a 4¨macrobracium shrimp, of similar size tetra quickly.
And Gobiomorus could swallow moderatly sized cichlids, catfish, and anything else that fit in its mouth.

If I wanted to rid a tank of all other fish, or crustceans, and just wanted to keep one,specimen, Hoplias would one of my first choices

 

[HarleyK]

Once my Hoplias reached a decent size, no matter if mala or curu, they got too lazy to chase little snacks. I have successfully kept large Hoplias with Endler colonies and red cherry shrimp.