# What's the rarest fish that you have ever owned?



## kcrunch (Aug 17, 2012)

I personally have tried to get some of the not so common fish and home them. I have had several different types of fish over the years. My most recent tanks I have had Cichlids. I have as many of you may or may not know a 100G long mixed African tank.


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## BV77 (Jan 22, 2005)

synodontis njassae....I have 3 for almost 8 years. Don't know , I may have 3 males or 3 females. They are serrogate breeders......meaning, the cichlids lay eggs, njassae come by and lay theirs among them, the cichlid sucks up all the eggs and holds them in her throat. The catfish hatch first, eat the cichlid eggs and when the female cichlid spits, out come the baby catfish. To the best of my knowledge, this is what goes on. I've had several broods of cichlids in that tank, but never and catfish fry. Synodontis njassae are the only catfish that live in Lake Malawi. To my understanding. Anyone with more info on them, I welcome it. I very rarely see any for sale on aquabid or other sites.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

My betta fish


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Hmm.. fun question. Well, I've had some super rare stuff over the years, but I guess THE rarest was a darter that is probably now extinct. It lived only in one little cave which was dynamited shut by idiots.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Right now I have tilapia snyderae (from a crater lake in Cameroon) and goodea gracilis. A lot of the Mexican livebearers are endangered by habitat destruction. Best way to get very rare fish is to join the appropriate group (ACA, ALA, etc) and join the species preservation group where they send you fry in exchange for a promise to keep a fish long-term and distribute the offspring. 

Really rare fish, I would note, are not valuable like merely uncommon fish are. They fall into the " I never heard of that, pass" category.


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## Betta man (Mar 25, 2011)

Betta Stiktos. Very few are out there. Hard to find and expensive.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i have kept several rare species , but i just can't remember them all...one was a poecelia..a couple of different betta species and a synodontis or 2...


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## kcrunch (Aug 17, 2012)

Yeah I think the Synodontis is my rarest and oddest. He has so much character. I also have a Stomatepia pindu which is a rare all black Cichlid, he killed both of his mates so I guess I wont have offspring, I have been looking for someone locally to breed him with but have had no luck yet.

I actually have some Hongi-SRT's that are breeding now. I dont think they are rare but I kinda like them.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

No mbuna stays rare long, but none stays very common long either (except for the ones that make it to PetChain), they come in waves and then they go out and another comes in. Hongi and decent fish, the SRT are somewhat newer (I suspect) line-bred for color strain. They are really pretty. If you find a fish you really like, set up a few breeding tanks and try to keep it going. If you look for the same fish in 10 years, it will be scarce or gone.


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## ZebraDanio12 (Jun 17, 2011)

I currently have apistogramma agssizi peru blue. Not exactly rare, but they're not common.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

There is a cave about two hours west of here that reportedly has blind cave fish in it. That would be hundreds of miles from the next cave with blind cave fish, so they're probably a new species.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i have kept blind cave tetras before...it only took one time...they are killers...
i currently have 2 trios of Crenuchlus Spilurus..actually relatively rare in the hobby...and a bit on the odd side as they are believed to be cave spawners..i also have a couple of cories not often found..


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

are synodontis cats that rare? We have them for sale at the pet store sometimes so I though they were pretty common?


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

there are a few species of Synodontis that are not often seen..and some command a pretty high price.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

ah ok, makes sense


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## OhYesItsMe (Oct 1, 2011)

I have no idea how rare my synodontis cats are. Probably my adult male jewel cichlid. Good question.


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## Elliott225 (Jan 9, 2014)

I had a Koi called a Platinum. They are rarely available in the U.S. As they age they lose their scales and become smooth. He died after living with me 15 years.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

Koi are a very long lived fish..one of the longest lived animals in the world..
Hanako , i believe holds the record for old age at 226 years old..
and there are a great many variations of them as well..many are quite unusual and also very beautiful..the platinum are one of the less common seen variations ; i don't know exactly why , but they are..
Koi are meant to be viewed from the top and not the side like we look at them...
even if they are just a carp ; they are pretty cool..


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## Elliott225 (Jan 9, 2014)

Something I've noticed in books, online, and just talking with others....there is no age limit with fish. Most die from something other than old age. The breeders and aficionados of koi are one of the few that keep detailed records. I think that 226 y.o. koi is still alive.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i believe that Hanako died in July of 1977..egg hatched in about 1751...
man , that's old....


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## TheJakeM (May 11, 2013)

When I was really you go had a pair of 20 gallons in my room. I knew nothing about fishkeeping as a 5 year old and my mom and dad got me whatever I wanted. I had a " barking catfish", a freshwater shark, two angelfish (always getting caught on the filters), and two huge albino frogs. Not too rare, but the rarest things I've kept. And since my fish knowledge was zero, I also had a large goldfish, several feeder fish (guppy and goldfish), and other assorted incompatible species. Most of the time everyone strangely got along fine. Then one day my mom, sister, and me were moving to my grandmother's house and the fish got dropped down the stairs. Lost most of them except the goldfish, an angelfish, and a few other little things. I spent a solid two months thinking my barking catfish was sleeping over my aunts...


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## weedkiller (Nov 18, 2012)

a goldfish hahaha
you did ask


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## Elliott225 (Jan 9, 2014)

I guess I read some really old material. That is another issue I have. Most fish related books are so outdated its hard to find any new info. The only source I've found other than here is a British magazine I sometimes can get.


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## OhYesItsMe (Oct 1, 2011)

Yeah there aren;t a lot of new fish book but Tropical Fish Hobbyist is a great magazine, its an American magazine too.


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

amazonas is an excellent publication...i have a number of books on tropical fish...4 of the Baensch Atlas series which are pretty good..and then i have about 15 or 20 copies of EXOTIC AQUARIUM FISHES by William T. Innes..they vary in age from 1935 to 1966 or so...this is my favorite book.it gives a lot of good basic easy to understand information. and much of what is in them is still on point today..as well if you were to ask many of the top names in the hobby today they will tell you that the Innes book is the bible of the hobby...


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## Elliott225 (Jan 9, 2014)

TFH magazines were good years ago. I had a friend that had a fish store and he gave me a stack of old magazines from the 60's. They had more fish info and less adverts. Now its the other way around. The same goes for the TFH books. I got some older copies and compared them to the new and the only thing different was the cover. They weren't updated at all.


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