has anyone heard of ABF schooling. and do u know how big of a tank ud need for like 7 or 6 of them all in the tank i might want like 10 eventuly so any help is appreacited.

A fairly large tank with a wide footprint. For 10 or so I'd say a 180. I've had them in the past and they did not school for me, but I had 2 so maybe a larger group would, that I don't know.

i only had like 2-4 before, so i don't know if they school.
i'm surprised 10 or so would need a tank that big though...i don't know....don't get me wrong, the big the better in general. i'm just thinking in terms of requirement...

well right now i got like 7 and they in a 75 gallon tank and i was suprised to see all of them schooling its really cool to watch they kinda like hatchet fish that eat crickets and live danios....... lol its fun to watch the kinda heard the danios i the middle of them then they take turns eating them its weird to watch and very very strange i havent really ever heard of them doing this but wat the hell its cool. i have the danois in there for my leaf fish and other smaller preditors.

thats neat! must be a very cool sight to see!

I was speaking in long terms.. supposedly they get to 6" TL I believe so 10x 6" AFB's would be cramped in a 75.

I think they normally stay around 4", but maybe they get bigger. I've never had any bigger than 4"

yea i have had some around 6 inches they are cool fish. i put in some more danios and they still heard them but i have noticed some type of pairs going on so far i have 2 pairs that i cant tell cuz they hang out with the group but i have seen them leaving the group more offten and i think they are already going to breed but idk its really weird because they are acting like arowanas when they are breeding and i have heard a lot about the fry not being very strong or healthy and idk if i wanna focuse on the babys from the ABFs or my obby rays. i might have to ask a couple of my friends to help me raise the fry in some of there baby tanks they got. i think there is like bubble nests or something like that in the floating plants.


Right now in the tank there is

7 abfs
4 amazon leaf fish
2 rocket gar (temporery)
1 pair of sengals (never leave eachothers side)

i hope the sengals breed i wouldnt know wat to do cuz i have never bred them before and if they do breed ill make a new post in the bichir section.

I have a LOVE TANK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lol i own as a breeder.

Sounds like a great tank , I've been planning to try a tank like this for awhile

Would love to see pics if you've got them?

yea ill try to get pics soon ill try to get pics of the african butterflyfish hearding all the fish and a few of the pairs.

yeah if you can get some pics or vids that'd be awesome! sounds like very interesting behavior! and good luck with all the breeding projects you got going

and definitely keep us updated on any breeding! good luck!

i woke up this morning and guess wat i found a crap load of free swiming fry i removed all the fry i could get and they look like ABF fry im still working on the photos i cant get my camera working and i dont really got the funds to buy one right now cuz my chilles havent breed yet and thats where i make a lot of cash and my obby rays havent breed yet. im gona make another larger pond/aqurium like pod thing that u can see from side veiw so i can get a place to breed some id sharks or maybe even paroon sharks idk yet tho pretty much anything i can get my hands on. and i might go on a id shark rescue mission type thing. but thats for another post that i will type when im done with this so yea.

congrats! so those bubble nests in the plant were the ABF's? did the parents patrol the nest? how long ago do you think they hatched since they're free swimming already? good thing the other fish didn't get to all of them

well the pearnts where patroling the nests for awhile and where being really agressive for like 3 or 4 days and now they arnt that aggressive i really dont know how long it took them to hatch i didnt really want breeding this soon cuz of them space requirements of the breeding thing i got a lot of tanks but not set up for babys and i wasnt planing on them breeding so fast but yea soon i can sell them and ill see how good they grow up im probly gona save a few of them to grow up to adlts.

thats neat! you should document this...i don't know if it's too late for this time, may be next time
i don't know how often african butterfly breeds in captivity, from what you said, it seems to have happened before, but frankly you're the first i've heard