hoplias malabaricus(wolf fish) care

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Hello !

Im interested in wolf fish ( hoplias malabaricus ), so:

Is there any good article about this fish ? Im looking for info about everything... feeding, filtration type, plants, tank size, water standards, temperature, keeping more than one in one tank etc. also about natural habitat of this wolf. I want to make a tank that will be as simmilar as possible to his natural environment.

Ive already read many articles, but i still need more information before housing one or couple of wolf fish(if couple is possible, heh) to let em live in best conditions possible.

also what about their size ? ive heard that well feeded can get up to (30")70cm in aquarium - is that true ?

So, mainly im looking for every info i can get about this fish !

Thanks for all your help and best regards,

tog



P.S

i accept englisch/german/french/polish/chinease articles - i will translate them if it will be necessary, but best would be englisch or polish.

 

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Please, help me, as i already saved the money and i want to start up tank.

Also got another question:

im going to put guppys into aquarium before i will get wolf fish, is that good idea or he should be introduced alone, when the lights are out ?

 

[Swallowed]

What species of wolf are you hoping to purchase????

 

[Swallowed]

Please, help me, as i already saved the money and i want to start up tank.

Also got another question:

im going to put guppys into aquarium before i will get wolf fish, is that good idea or he should be introduced alone, when the lights are out ?[/QUOTe)


Wolf fish eat,kill whatever they can get in thier mouth and sometimes bigger just for the heck of it. Unless your using these guppies for bait i wouldnt put the wolf in with them. You should check your search button for hoplias and you will get the info you need on wolves. GL fellow mfker

 

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Please, help me, as i already saved the money and i want to start up tank.

Also got another question:

im going to put guppys into aquarium before i will get wolf fish, is that good idea or he should be introduced alone, when the lights are out ?[/QUOTe)


Wolf fish eat,kill whatever they can get in thier mouth and sometimes bigger just for the heck of it. Unless your using these guppies for bait i wouldnt put the wolf in with them. You should check your search button for hoplias and you will get the info you need on wolves. GL fellow mfker

thanks for reply, but there is no enough information here.

Also, thanks for info about guppys.

 

[Cichlas]

I kept my Hoplias malabaricus in pretty neutral soft water, PH was 7.2'ish, GH and KH were both low. Temp wise the tank sat around 76 °f. I didn't try and mimic the biotope, just had sand with bark pieces and bamboo canes.

Food wise, she would eat feeders, shrimp (live/fresh/frozen), cockles, whitebait, lance fish, pretty muach anything.

This is a youtube vid with feeders. Don't play it if you don't want to see them being eaten. So guppy's would invariably end up going the same way.

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I got the fish at 8 or 9 inches, sold it at 11-12 inches. Great fish, but not that active unless feeding. 70cm seems optimistic for a mala, I would say more a potential of 50cm. Other wolf fish get larger (aimara for instance), others stay smaller (like Erythrinus erythrinus) get to 20cm.

 

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Thanks for great answer Cichlas, your pic of tank gives me lots of new ideas.

Why you sold it ? what are you keeping now ?

Regards

 

[HarleyK]

Howdy,

I posted a summary of my wolf --> HERE <--

As a rule, you need a bigger tank than people tell you, because wolves are active nocturnal swimmers. Rarely, people stay up to see their wolves swim at night, though. They'll tell you a wolf is a passive piece of decor like driftwood. That's simply not true. A 75 gal will serve well as grow-out. Unfortunately, mine didn't stick around long enough to grow out of his.

Secondly, you need a solid lid. Many wolves are lost because they jump out. Keep the water level low to maximize the distance between water level and lid - mine hit the lid and knocked itself out.

Third, anything in the tank is food. At the end, you will have one wolf in the tank. Some people keep them with larger fish, but my wolf mauled what he couldn't kill. It's a personality thing. You may get a docile one. There was a guy here on MFK with a breeding pair, but a massive tank. You may find his posts when you use our search option.

As for water parameters: Wolves survive in waters where no other fish can: They can live off atmospheric air that they gulp. They are very hard when it comes to water parameters. Just keep up the water changes because they are massive eaters.

Lastly, you will need massive biofiltration. I ran an Eheim Pro3 on the 75 gal, which worked all right. If I had to do it again I'd use an Eheim 2250 or 2260 on the same size tank.

Give your wolf a place to hide (hollow driftwood, large plants) and you'll enjoy a great pet.

Best of luck and keep us posted,
HarleyK

 

[Cichlas]

Thanks for great answer Cichlas, your pic of tank gives me lots of new ideas.

Why you sold it ? what are you keeping now ?

Regards

I had to downsize from eleven tanks to two. So most of my oddballs had to go, wolf, dorado, pbass, african pike, Dat, pike cichlids etc. I now only have my 10'x2'x2' tank with my black shark, RTGG's and other asian/african cyprinids, and a 50g grow out tank for my albino black sharks.

 

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My final question, i think...

aquarium 59 inches x 19 inches x 27 high (over 160 galons) will be ok for him for his whole life ? Will malabaricus feel comfortable ?