Oddball/Predator for 36 gallon bow front

[Deadeye]

Here’s a pretty cool puffer I had, they’re pretty small, around two inches. They’re aggressive but you could do a small group in a 36g

How are red eyes? Worse than dwarves or better?

 

[Joshuakahan]

How are red eyes? Worse than dwarves or better?

This is a dwarf red eye, and he was solo, but based on what I read about them and what I saw, these are more aggressive than other dwarf puffers. He was a little glass banger and really attacked his food. I think you could have 3 or 4 in your tank, but only one male.
I kept a true red eye ( not sure on the exact species, he was just listed as a red eye) around 20
years ago and I wouldn’t recommend tank mates for those, he killed everything I tried

 

[Fat Homer]

How are red eyes? Worse than dwarves or better?

The most common red eyed species is probably C.Irrubessco... although overall there are probably around 4-5 species that fall under the name of red eyed puffers with C.Salivator being the most aggressive of them all if i remember correctly...

C.Irrubessco can be kept in groups of males and females for breeding purposes in which case you might want 1M to 4F to break up aggression issues...

Otherwise a group of males can be kept together as long as enough lines of sight is broken in a heavily decorated tank...

But to answer the aggression issue, i would say C.Irrubessco is probably only slightly more aggressive than your regular dwarf puffer, as even dwarfs will attack and nip the fins of other fish in a tank...

 

[Joshuakahan]

The most common red eyed species is probably C.Irrubessco... although overall there are probably around 4-5 species that fall under the name of red eyed puffers with C.Salivator being the most aggressive of them all if i remember correctly...

C.Irrubessco can be kept in groups of males and females for breeding purposes in which case you might want 1M to 4F to break up aggression issues...

Otherwise a group of males can be kept together as long as enough lines of sight is broken in a heavily decorated tank...

But to answer the aggression issue, i would say C.Irrubessco is probably only slightly more aggressive than your regular dwarf puffer, as even dwarfs will attack and nip the fins of other fish in a tank...

I can’t be positive but I think the one I had way back wasC. lorteti, I just remember it was about 3” and was taking chunks out of 7-8” fish and dismembered from underneath anything 5” and under. My irrubessco didn’t seem anywhere near as bad and was much smaller

 

[Fat Homer]

C.Lorteti seem quite common among the red eyes, at least in places in the west...

Over in Asia the common species was C.Irrusbessco and on occasion might see C.Lorteti and i had previously only ever see C.Salivator for sale once and kind of kicked myself for not trying them out back then...

 

[Deadeye]

Tank’s too small for exodons right?

 

[The Masked Shadow]

Right. Something that looks like them is Arowana Tetra:

 

[Deadeye]

Definitely set on either the wolf or Amazon puffers.
Amazon Puffers allow me to have more of a community with lots of activity. Downside is it’s not as much of an aggressive predator.
Wolf is a bad*ss predator that I can grow into a monster and isn’t fussy about water. Downside is it is only active during feedings and I have to catch my loaches to move them.

Random thought: senegal bichir? I would think albino is the only that could fit for life...but albino snes are ugly.

 

[The Masked Shadow]

sens get to large. If you want a predator, why not freshwater sculpin, or prehistoric monster fish?

 

[Deadeye]

That’s what I thought about the sens.
My main concern is activity along with a predator. Characins have always been a favorite of mine.