Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

As above what do you all know of this fish?

It's not tilapia like on your dinner plate.

Pretty gray and black striped fish that can get to decent size, African (I think) cichlid, substrate brooder, nasty temper. Easily available in the aquarium trade. Frequently seen here as a trade-in after it gets too big/foul-tempered.

That said, I suppose you could eat it. The trade-ins I've seen look like they would fillet nicely. thick fish. mmm....

Thats what I was thinking Janet as its seemingly very rough to get them

I was asking about edibleness of the fish

Well, I guess you should be specific instead of doing this 'as above' stuff.

The aggressiveness might be mitigated by over-crowding and eliminating prize territories. Ie, nothing in the tank to fight over. Tilapia (the kind on your dinner plate) can also be aggressive if given something to fight over. I've never kept butterkofferi, so I can't gauge the difference in aggressiveness.

Interestingly, the most aggressive cichlid I've kept was probably a Tanganyikan shell dweller. At 2 inches long, they would attack my arm when I was cleaning the tank. Afraid of nuttin'!! Most entertaining at 2", but at eating-sized, it would have drawn blood!

Yeah I figured by eliminating prized territories would do that. No fighting toys such as gravel. If I want to breed them they would go in a tank for breeding to separate them.

Apparently they are very AGRO fish so I will see. Whats the worst that can happen

dead fish.

dead arm

no (H)arm!

Wont be unusual territory for me then

SD

Think the concensus was the're 'armless'.

I am wondering though as to stocking density they say you need 120 gallons. 1-2 fish for that space. Now I am no expert here or anything.. Wont stocking them higher eliminate the territory and force them to just either kill each other or get along? How about feeding them often and alot? Will that prevent them from going crazy?

http://www.youtube.com/v/JDImO5DVGvE

They are absolutely beautiful fish too! And edible!

Yeah I think the fish will take my arm off if I am not careful :/

SD

Did some checking on them, live 9-12 years agressive as hell, omniverous, extremely territorial.
If you only want one fish in your system and are happy it will trash anything in sight, including you, ideal fish .

Not having kept these specific fish, I'll speak on cichlids in general...

Aggressiveness is about defending territory for breeding, not so much about food. You can reduce that aggressiveness by eliminating one gender from the tank, overcrowding the fish, and eliminating tank ornamentation. Whether that will be enough for this particular fish, I don't know.

Hey! as we say here, take one for the team, you may be on to something!

dthawk thats my plan mate!

If it works it will save me a WHOLE lot of hassle if it does not work? well I am not out too much $$