Sandra asks…
Yes, this *is* a serious question–Flying Fish?
Okay, this is going to sound kind of–well, REALLY–odd, but…would it be possible to keep a flying fish, or a school of flying fish, in your home aquarium? Specifically, one of the “four-winged” flying fish species. I don’t know what the smallest variety is, about 1 foot or so? Smaller, maybe?
Has this been done? The reason I ask is simply because I LOVE flying fish (my computer wallpaper currently features one!), and I wondered if anyone had tried keeping them. Internet searches have yielded no answers, alas. Also, what’s the smallest species of “four-winged” flying fish?
Sorry for the weird question, but it’s been nagging me for a while now and I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask, heh. Although I imagine the answer is probably no. Still, it’d be neat to have a really big aquarium (with a really tight cover!) with a school of flying fish. Hey, a girl can dream…
Heh, yeah, I figured it wouldn’t be possible. I have heard of African butterflyfish–unfortunately, I’d have to get a different tank for him, since I kind of like my white clouds and my neons and all that.
I wasn’t actually refering to the flying gurnard, I don’t think–I was talking something more like this:
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/staticfiles/NGS/Shared/StaticFiles/animals/images/primary/flying-fish.jpg
http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC062708/Pictures/flying_fish.jpg
http://www.bigelow.org/amt/flying_fish.jpg
http://www.lanzarote.fr/imagenes/flyingfish.jpg
Joy answers:
I really don’t think it would work, I have seen these out fishing in the Gulf and they are a very active, fast swimming fish. I don’t think they would thrive in a home aquarium. The equivalent to this would be trying to keep a jack or small tuna in a tank. They are such an active species of fish that they would not last in a home aquarium. Sorry to have to break it to you, but like another answerer suggested, there are a freshwater fish that look like the flying fish called African Butterfly fish, this way you could get a fish with the same look and have it thrive in your tank.
African Butterfly fish
http://www.aqualandpetsplus.com/Oddball,%20African%20Butterflyfish.htm
Edit: Even with the smaller speices, like you posted, it would still be near impossible to keep them in a home aquarium. Like I said above, and even with the smaller of the speices, they are such a quick, active fish, that I don’t see it working. Just as an example, in the wild a few of their natural preditors consist of Marlin, Swordfish, Mahi Mahi, and Baracuda, all being very fast, specially when attacing prey. Because of this their prey have to very quick and evasive themselves, that is where the “flying” comes in. So my thought would be that even if you were able to keep one in the tank, the second you startled the fish, while cleaning or even just walking by, the fish would jump out of the water and hit the cover on the tank, possibly injuring the fish. Now, I’m not possitive about any of this, but this would be my best guess just from what I know of the species.
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