Long term success with aba aba in community

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Aw3s0m3

Aw3s0m3

Piranha
MFK Member
May 6, 2012
3,188
82
81
Over there
I just got a 6" aba aba a few days ago and right now he's with a bunch of bichirs and an African knife. He's eating tilapia fillets and so far I have seen no aggression towards the other fish. I know eventually it will get extremely aggressive and territorial and start harassing and even killing the other fish, but I have also seen vids on YouTube of people with large ones in aggressive communities. I was just curious about those of you that have kept these with other fish long term. Did you keep them all together since they were little or is your tank so overcrowded that there's no way for it to establish a territory? I am just curious because these guys have quite a reputation for being one of the meanest fish out there when they're large.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
well i say try it mate, i have a 14 inch hemibagrus wyckii aka black devil catfish also known to kill everything, he's living in my 300 with cichlids and catfish some as small as 6 inches no issues yet. i know monster mini has an aba aba the she has major aggression issues with hers.
 
Yeah Bruce is a complete D... the few cases of successful coming have been in JDM style set-ups w/ very over crowed/stocked tanks and the fish seem to have battle scars... so they are still fighting.... I wonder if these set-up are still running/working as its a fine line maintaining such set-ups. Aba's are pure predetors ime, think an ATF but w/ a territoriality of a Jardini. ime its not if but when it will not tolerate tank-mates and either eat or kill them. I've kept variouse plecos with mine of the years a whip-tail lasted approx. 2yrs before being eaten.

Is he worth it? absolutely hes one amazingly cool fish to keep singly.. Egon also has one he keeps alone.

If your going to comm him just be accepting hes more then likely going to kill tank-mates ect periodically or simply not tolerate them at all. "pretty dithers"

From what I witness when he eats they are much like a boney tounge... but w/ some teeth. He will easily inhale a goldfish 1/2 way and bite it clean in half. I am always wary as i'm not sure if hes capable of biting a finger off yet... but I have no doubts it would be a hospital visit if he did bite me. Hes very curiouse and shows a great amount of intelligence much like the Morymrids do. He does "hide" a lot and prefers to spend his days In a potted plant but get very active at dusk/night.
 
monsterminis you are making me want one lol!-) im like a child i like nasty horrible fish haha..
 
MonsterMinis said:
Yeah Bruce is a complete D... the few cases of successful coming have been in JDM style set-ups w/ very over crowed/stocked tanks and the fish seem to have battle scars... so they are still fighting.... I wonder if these set-up are still running/working as its a fine line maintaining such set-ups. Aba's are pure predetors ime, think an ATF but w/ a territoriality of a Jardini. ime its not if but when it will not tolerate tank-mates and either eat or kill them. I've kept variouse plecos with mine of the years a whip-tail lasted approx. 2yrs before being eaten.

Is he worth it? absolutely hes one amazingly cool fish to keep singly.. Egon also has one he keeps alone.

If your going to comm him just be accepting hes more then likely going to kill tank-mates ect periodically or simply not tolerate them at all. "pretty dithers"

From what I witness when he eats they are much like a boney tounge... but w/ some teeth. He will easily inhale a goldfish 1/2 way and bite it clean in half. I am always wary as i'm not sure if hes capable of biting a finger off yet... but I have no doubts it would be a hospital visit if he did bite me. Hes very curiouse and shows a great amount of intelligence much like the Morymrids do. He does "hide" a lot and prefers to spend his days In a potted plant but get very active at dusk/night.
Click to expand...

Thank you for sharing your experience! I have heard that they are one of the smarter fish out there and one of the few that actually get "bored." I will try it out cuz so far nothing has happened but its also not even a week yet. Hopefully it'll stay like this for a while.

Is there anyone else with experience of these awesome fish?


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
My best advise for trying to comm him is to keep him well fed. all it takes is one bite for them to literally take chunks outta tank-mates.
 
I comm till today and bichirs will do fine but abas do not like other weakly electric fish such as the african knife. When ur aba get big enough it will likely shread that to pieces. From my experience, it does not like, catfishes, cichlids, snakeheads, weak electric type fish and other fish with catfish like skin. My does well with arowanas, large featherbacks, gars, knifefish, bichirs and large lungfish not small lungfish.
 
Once mine reached 18 inches it got really aggressive. Mine will even kill any feeders that it does not feel like eating.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom