Scary Featured Fish for Halloween

In honor of Halloween coming up, I thought we’d take a look at some of the scariest fish known to humans. Most of these are not creatures you’d put in an aquarium at your house. They are pretty cool to learn about, though.

Then I’ll add a few aggressive, slightly-less-scary freshwater fish you actually can keep at home. Want to learn more about scary and aggressive fish?

Jump right in.

Viperfish

Viperfish look pretty horrifying. They have long, needle-like teeth and hinged jaws that allow them to swallow large prey. Truly the stuff of nightmares. These fish live in the deep sea and not in hobby aquariums. Of course, lurking in the deep only makes them scarier.

Stonefish

You know all those stories about creatures hiding in the dark? Yeah, that’s kind of how a stonefish is. It hides on the ocean bottom, looking like a harmless rock until something comes by that it wants to jump out and snatch.

Stonefish also happen to be the most venomous fish in existence, so watch where you step.

Goblin shark

Goblins seem appropriate for this time of year, and the creepy appearance of this shark does not let you down when you’re looking for Halloween thrills. Goblin sharks grow up to thirteen feet long and live in the darker parts of the ocean.

Angler fish

You’ve probably heard of angler fish before. In addition to looking terrifying, they have abilities that are somewhat monstrous, as well. Aside from the fact that they lure prey to them by dangling a fleshy growth on a head string, they can open their jaws and stretch their stomach so wide that they can swallow prey twice their size.

On to the predators you can keep at home…

Wolf cichlid

A fish that’s like a werewolf? It’s a pretty good comparison.

Cichlids are fairly commonly kept tropical fish, and many of them are carnivores. The wolf cichlid, in particular, is known for being an aggressive species, so watch out because when feeding time comes, it’s not afraid to bite, as seen in this video:

It’s not recommended to keep wolf cichlids with other species.

Vampire tetra

No Halloween is complete without a few vampires.

The vampire tetra is a predator fish that you can purchase for your aquarium, though few people do. It is much different from the tiny neon tetra I covered in a previous article. In fact, the vampire tetra is around five inches long, and can grow as long as twelve inches in captivity.

In their native habitat, they get even bigger, growing as large as four feet and weighing up to forty pounds. These fish have extremely sharp fangs, thus the name. You can keep these tetras with other fish as long as those fish are too big for them to eat.

Check out our other article on caring for carnivorous fish here.