tilapia buttikofferi

blove wrote:
is it possible to house other fish with these guys? i work at a local fish
store and ive gotten the impression that these guys are the nastiest. one
guy brought in his 8 inch tiger tilapia with 2-12 inch channel catfish, they
were all housed together in a 75 and the reason he brought em all in was
because the tilapia was beatin the crap out of the channels. Another story
is this guy housed his tilapia in with an oscar and the tilapia killed the
oscar. This other guy has a small tilapia in a 55 with a dempsy, green
terror, small oscar and he told me he needs to find a new home for the
tilapia because its kickin the crap out of his other fish. Whats everyones
opinions on this fish? He is one of my fave fishes and i do plan on owning
one sometime.

I keep a Buttikoferi with a Leporinus and 3 Anostomus. All are between
4-6" and in a 40g tank with several hiding places.

While the Buttikoferi clearly rules the tank, mine is a benevolent
ruler. He will move towards the characins for a moment and they will
bolt, but there is no biting, nipping or pushing involved.

When mixing other fish with a buttikoferi, you need to give plenty of
hiding places that can't be easily uprooted. I use a combination of
epoxied brick structures that have plastic plants off the top and other
plastic plants held onto the sides by suction cups.

My grouping competes equally for food (although the buttikoferi is a pig
of course!) with no fish damaging another. When I feed them seaweed
sheets, it's not uncommon for the buttikoferi to rip a large chunk off
then see an anostomus swim right up and have a tug-o-war for the food.

Any fish that you put in with a buttikoferi needs 2 qualities:

1. It needs to be a fast swimmer
2. It needs to be large enough that he can't swallow them.

As I write this, all 5 fish are hanging out in the middle of the tank
not more than 6 inches from each other. About the only thing I've ever
seen the buttikoferi attack is the Python when I go in to do cleanings.

While I'm going on about T.Buttikoferi, I would like to debunk one myth
of these fish. Many places say that you can house only 1 or more than
3-4 in a tank to have them get along. A close friend of mine has a 14"
and 9" buttikoferi living together in a 120g tank. They happily swim
side by side and never attack each other.