Not sure were this thread goes. Came across this needle fish on Craigslist and im trying to get it working on a price right now. Arent these guys schooling? Might have to order more.
Needle Fish
- Thread starter oddballfish
- Start date
looked into them a little bit awhile back, but ended up not getting them. Seems they do prefer to be kept with other needle fish, and when kept alone are much more skittish and are more likely to bang the glass and break their nose. Try posting in gar forum, they are also known as needle nose gar although they are not really gars, but gar people tend to know about them.
a schooling predetory tetra... I had a few awhile ago.. the food bill got insane. Can be really hard to get them offa live fish. though they don't seem to have issues with HITH/HLLE as a result. skitterish for sure and get more or less 12". to keep these guys healthy I fed mine 100 rosys a week. They will eat 3-5 a day easy. Can usually find them at petsmart/petco iir I've seen them 10-20$ around here. They do resemble gars alot. and are a nice alternative if you can't accomidate a true gar. they will eat anything they can fit in their mouths but mine was not aggressive otherwise.
Ya I used to own one along time ago proubly been at least 8 years ago. I only had the one and he seemed to do fine. Feeding isnt an issue since I breed my own guppies. I guess Ill see if the current owner has just the one and how long shes had it.
oddballfish;4854872; said:
I've had a single needle nose for about a year now & he is fine without a companion. It's possible to trick him into eating frozen minnows (or frozen food that is whole i.e. have eyes/fins etc. & are thawed a bit) but in my experience it has not been the best option for him. It is a lot more difficult for him to swollow (as live fish work to their own demise by swimming down the throat & aid the whole swollowing process A LOT) & he seemed pale afterwards the occasions in which I tried this. He is a happy guy when he gets live food, especially guppies! Which, I too breed. I set up a 36 gallon tank entirely to feed my large tank, since, as it seems you already know, buying feeder fish from say, Petsmart, is not so wise. Also, he is VERY aggressive, as his instincts are set off by certain kinds of movement/swimming patterns, encouraging him to go after larger fish that he couldn't possibly eat/swallow. So be careful what goes in with him ; )
I love my needle nose. He is definitely an oddball, but very entertaining & in general a rewarding fish to have.
- Kaila June