# dwarfs or monsters?



## LORDAQUATIC1 (Aug 21, 2007)

*which do you prefer:dwarfs(3" or less) or monsters(12"+)?*​
both1023.81%dwarfs1842.86%giants1433.33%


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## LORDAQUATIC1 (Aug 21, 2007)

i have always been a fan of big beautiful fish. and predatorial fish. what about you?


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## Cich of it all (Mar 29, 2007)

I agrees. I like the biggen's.
Actually, most of my favorites are somewhere between these two options (between 3" and 12"). There aren't any fish under 3" (at adult size) that I really care enough about to actually keep.


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## Deezil (Mar 17, 2006)

I like the ones you can see sittin across the room.. Biggun's all the way!


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## big-o (Jul 21, 2007)

i too like the big ones all my fish are between 6 @ 12 inches


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## Terra Incognita (Jun 20, 2007)

Dwarfs, definately. While the idea of a single Dovii banging the glass on a 240g is definately appealing, I think a 240 would look much nicer with a large shoal of Cardinals or Rummynose, with ram pairs defending territory and some Angels lurking overhead weaving in and out of plants. Call me a fish romantic, I dare ya! :lol:


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## justflow1983 (Feb 26, 2007)

Yea I'm with Terra. For me, a fish tank isn't so much about a pet as it is about a kind of "living painting." My dog and my parrot are more interactive pets, I can even talk to one of them. Dwarfs give me the ability to set up a tank like a window into another world, with a community of fish interacting with each other. Doesn't mean I don't like aggression though, gotta have some activity! If I had a 10,000 gallon tank, then I'd much prefer to do that with giants.... but in the meantime, a dwarf tank just has far more interesting behaviors to me.


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## Sierra255 (Jan 19, 2006)

I care more about having interesting fish, be it their colors, patterns or even personality, rather than the size of them. One of my many dream tanks is a large, heavily planted aquarium with a lot of tetras, and some less aggressive dwarf cichlids to round it out. Just the visual appeal due to the differences in color and the shoals of tetras moving around is very appealing to me.

On the flip side, I currently own an adult male Jack Dempsey (10"+) that is just great. He has a lot of personality and tons of color. He's very appealing, but in a slightly different way than what I mentioned above.


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## BlackShark11k (Feb 16, 2007)

Preadators for me too. Especially arowanas, catfish and stingrays(and cichlids too  ). Very magnificant fish. I just love to watch them gulp up smaller fish.

However, seeing a 120 gallon tank with schools of cardinals and neons and colorful discus hovering overhead is a very cool site.


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## Ron (Mar 22, 2003)

I prefer small ecosystems over one large glass box with a big fish. 8)


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

I've kept big Cichlids for more than half my life but a few years ago someone set me home from a local fish club gathering with a bag full of Apistos. The initial intension was to feed them to my bigger fish. I ended up liking them so much I converted a 125 gal tank into an Apisto Colony tank. It was one of my favorite tanks to date, even though it was recently converted again (to accommodate more big fish!!!)


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## Cich of it all (Mar 29, 2007)

Well here's a drawback to keeping bigger fish: The bigger they are the less you have, so you tend to get more attached. When one dies, it is more like losing a pet than losing one of several dozen dwarves. I just lost my biggest peacock and it sucks.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

better to have loved and lost... than to have never loved at all...


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## chapman76 (Jun 30, 2004)

I voted for both, but I haven't had the chance to keep any larger ones yet. I've bred Apistogramma for years and I love a lot of the dwarf mbuna. A lot of my dream fish get far larger than 12" (trimac, synspilum, rostratus, c. caeruleus).


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## iceblue (Apr 27, 2004)

Nothing for us who are somewhere in between?


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## canadiancichlidfan (Aug 24, 2007)

I Love both.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

I agree with Ron and big fish creep me out.


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## Cich of it all (Mar 29, 2007)

DJRansome said:


> I agree with Ron and big fish creep me out.


Just curious, why do they creep you out?


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## LORDAQUATIC1 (Aug 21, 2007)

iceblue said:


> Nothing for us who are somewhere in between?


you're right. i should have placed an "in-between" in there.  i was just thinking the majority of cichlids really fall in between so everyone likes them


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## Terra Incognita (Jun 20, 2007)

Cich of it all said:


> DJRansome said:
> 
> 
> > I agree with Ron and big fish creep me out.
> ...


I have almost the same problem, not sure if he means it how I do... I dunno if it creeps me out, but I definately have a deep childhood fear. I remember when I was little, I was walking on a dock, and I looked between the cracks in the wood, and there was a GIANT carp right infront of me eyes, like 5 inches away (my mom estimated it was about 4 1/2 feet, I said 50 since I was 5 or something). I just jumped up and cried.

Ever since then, although it has gotten much better, I have a hard time looking at larger fish. Anything past 4 or so feet long makes me shiver, and I get slight anxiety over it. At the Shedd aquarium I saw giant sharks and I was freaking out in my mind pretty bad, but I kept watching because of how cool it was :lol: . Then I saw the replica of the 16' Arapiama and that creeped me out kinda bad..


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## LORDAQUATIC1 (Aug 21, 2007)

Terra Incognita said:


> Ever since then, although it has gotten much better, I have a hard time looking at larger fish. Anything past 4 or so feet long makes me shiver, and I get slight anxiety over it. ..


then you probably will not want to check this out

http://www.fisheriesmanagement.co.uk/ca ... uction.htm


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## Fishguy28 (Feb 5, 2007)

I prefer to keep dwarves. I like the fact that I can have several tanks set up on racks, and have multiple racks with several different species per rack as opposed to a couple large tanks with a few fish in them.


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