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Coal Grunter And Sleepy Cod


Eaglebarret

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Hi Everyone,

I have been searching the web and have come across these 2 fish that I thought would be good to keep, just wondering if anyone has kept these fish before and what you thought of them??

I would be looking at keeping them with and Oscar and a couple of other Americans.

Any help would be great.

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Sleepy Cod as you can imagine seem a bit boring at times but they have alot of character. Mine is only about three inches long so far.

Don't own any grunters, but aparrently they can be real nasty fish. So getting one young and growing it up with others as long term tankmates would be suggested.

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I have kept several grunters before. Coal grunter is highly recommended as it is colourful with great character. Useful for culling smaller fish not quite up to scratch. They vary in personality quite a bit but can get fat and lose colour if you overfeed. I recommend you just keep a coal on its own though as it will either be too timid or too agro with american cichlids. The small ones in aquarium trade are almost all hormone bred too so you can sleep better at night :)

Sleepy Cod was a bit boring IMO as they are ambush predators, dull (camaflouge) and more active at night. Extremely tough however so may be useful as a target fish to settle a cichlid community tank.

Sooty grunter is one of the most anti-social fish Ive seen. They just dont like anyone including owners.

With an Oscar or some bigger Americans I would choose Archer fish or scats or salmon tail catfish if you want some Aussie natives.

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I have a 30+cm sleepy cod in with like sized central americans etc... and he is fine.

I feed the Americans etc... at one end of the tank and the sleepy waits around the middle for me to throw in a handful of food, where he grabs a mouthful before the others rush down.

He spends the majority of his time sitting out in front does not hide at all. But then again the only place big enough for him to get behind is taken over by a Hemibagrus :)

He is very personable in a way, I can pat him if I like, he knows me and will wait patiently for me to feed him. Sometimes I don't give him anything but he still waits. Reminds me of a retarded bulldog :)

Nothing else bothers him and he likewise bothers nothing else.

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  • 4 weeks later...

ive had a barcoo grunter with monos and oscar which got on ok in a 4ft, the barcoo is more agreesive than my coal grunters..

my coal grunters live with americans with no issues.. similar sizes (7-12cm), one coal chases the other around abit but they are ok with other tank mates and eat well.

im thinking this will change when they all get bigger, but the tank will be bigger too with some other natives so should be ok.

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  • 1 month later...

I had a Sooty Grunter which I grew from about 7cm to over 30cm During that time it happily lived with goldfish and peacocks. When I went away it ate all of the plants in the tank and left the other fish alone....

That was a REALLY strange fish!

I really miss my coaly, it had great colours but had the bad habit of eating my bows! I'd recommend the coal grunter over the sooty any time!

As for sleepy cod they are/were ment to be the next big thing in food fish so if you get bored with it..... :p

Cheers

Mick

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