Yellowcheek

Care at a glance

Overview

Sold now and then as a slim, silver juvenile, this fish grows into a two-meter open-water predator that no home aquarium can hold, so treat this entry as a warning rather than a care sheet. In the wild it is a fast, restless hunter of the middle and upper water that chases down other fish, and it would eat almost any tankmate and injure itself against tank walls, so it can only ever be kept alone. Housing an adult means many thousands of liters, realistically a public aquarium or a large pond, so the figure of 20000 liters is really shorthand for do not buy it. If kept at all, it eats whole fish and other large meaty foods.

In the wild

The yellowcheek ranges across east Asia, from the Amur basin of Russia and China south to rivers in northern Vietnam, patrolling open river channels after prey. Unlike most catalog fish it is a temperate species, living in cool to warm water of about 15 to 25 C at a neutral pH of roughly 7.0 to 7.5. It needs long, open, oxygen-rich, flowing water to hunt in. Nothing about a home tank recreates the river a two-meter pursuit predator needs.

Good to know

Elopichthys bambusa belongs to the family Cyprinidae, the carps and minnows, yet it is built like a barracuda, reaching about two meters and over fifty kilograms. It is among the largest predatory cyprinids in the world. A hard knob on the lower jaw fits a notch in the upper jaw, helping it grip the fish it catches. It is a food and sport fish across its range rather than an aquarium subject, and its breeding is not documented in aquarium terms.

Did you know

It is one of the largest fish in this catalog and, despite hunting like a barracuda, it is technically a member of the minnow and carp family, a two-meter relative of the goldfish and the humble pond minnow.

Common questions

Related species

• Tor mahseer

  Tor tor

  Freshwater

  59.1 in (150 cm)502 gal (1,900 L)61–77°F (16–25°C)

• 

  Black Shark

  Labeo chrysophekadion

  Freshwater

  23.6 in (60 cm)660 gal (2,500 L)68–79°F (20–26°C)

• 

  Hampala barb

  Hampala macrolepidota

  Freshwater

  19.7 in (50 cm)238 gal (900 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)
• Eyespot hampala barb

  Hampala dispar

  Freshwater

  13.8 in (35 cm)159 gal (600 L)72–82°F (22–28°C)

• 

  Deccan mahseer

  Tor khudree

  Freshwater

  39.4 in (100 cm)502 gal (1,900 L)64–79°F (18–26°C)

• 

  Giant danio

  Devario aequipinnatus

  Freshwater

  5.9 in (15 cm)50 gal (190 L)72–81°F (22–27°C)