Tilapia Buttikoferi ?'s

[PredatoryFishRocks]

These fish are very hardy. When young they can be kept with CA and SA cichlids their size or bigger.
Minimum tank size just for one would be a 75 gallon
Minimum tank size for a pair 125 gallon
minimum tank size for a community tank 250 gallon
These fish will kill everything unless their in a huge tank(250g)
they eat almost everything, don't feed them goldfish or beefheart. they are omnivores but more on the vegetarian side.
Tank mates need to be strong enough to hold their own, the butti will quickly kill off the weaker fish.
Its hard to breed them, the males are very aggressive towards the females!
Good Luck

 

[Chizzle]

saw one in $30 in a lfs in newport beach when i went to visit.

 

[Tony Hawkins]

Are these any good as a table fish?

 

[duanes]

Growing to 12" is an understatement, I had some years ago the easily hit 15"-17", but I've seen them larger.
In African rivers they follow hippos are eat the hippos feces as they are shat out.
They need a very large tank 300 gal would be what I consider minimum.
In my 6ft tanks, they killed all other fish.

 

[Maritimer]

Growing to 12" is an understatement, I had some years ago the easily hit 15"-17", but I've seen them larger.
In African rivers they follow hippos are eat the hippos feces as they are shat out.
They need a very large tank 300 gal would be what I consider minimum.
In my 6ft tanks, they killed all other fish.

300 minimum for one fish ?

 

[duanes]

I base tank size on the potential and ability of any aggressive species to kill tank mates. I have had buttiforeri kill "all" tank mates in 200+ gal taks. For a full grown alpha buttiforferi, I may be understating that kill potential in even a 300gal.

 

[Maritimer]

I base tank size on the potential and ability of any aggressive species to kill tank mates. I have had buttiforeri kill "all" tank mates in 200+ gal taks. For a full grown alpha buttiforferi, I may be understating that kill potential in even a 300gal.

What would your recommendation be for a solo fish ?

 

[lunsforj]

For one fish I would think a 180 would work great.

 

[Circa4190]

can some one give me some basic facts and care info on these i want to get one or two but cant find anything online that sounds reliable and where i can buy online ? thanks

I have one. He's a wuss for right now, but the aggression is coming on more and more all the time. They grow like wildfire, mine has grown from 2" to 7" in just a few months. In my experience they haven't been the monster that everyone says they are. He's pretty cool, I call him Bumblebee. Every so often, he does get sent to the time out tank for being a jerk.

 

[Chris182]

I have a butti named Tilly. Not sure of the sex (for now I will assume male). He is in a 72 x 24h x 18w with a small fire eel about 8 inches long and a female bristle nose plec about 4 inches. Tilly ignores them both mostly but sometimes will chase off the plec when the mood strikes. The eel is mostly hidden in pipes but when it comes out, Tilly ignores him pretty much every time anyway, thankfully.

Sometimes Tilly flips out at his own reflection in the glass and goes mental and crashes all over the tank, then calms down after a couple of minutes. Sometimes he will show brilliant striking black and white colours with gorgeous flashes of blue, other times he is just normal, almost dull black and white. I guess this depends on if he is happy or not. Tilly is only about 7 inches I would guess but has grown from around 1.5/ 2 inches to about 7 inches in around 6 months so is growing fairly quickly. He eats 3 times a day, mostly pellets but once a week I like to feed prawn, muscles and peas. He enjoys all foods and doesn't think twice about eating anything.

He is getting thicker and thicker each week (physically not mentally, though the reflection reaction makes him look a tad foolish lol) and boy is he fast! He can dart from one side of the aquarium to the other in no time.

He allows me to do maintanence once a week without attacking, which is a nice change from my previous pet, who was a psycho 15 inch jag. I had to rehome him as he was getting too big, sometime I anticipate having to do with Tilly eventually, but I will enjoy him until that moment comes which will hopefully not be for a fair few years yet!