Needlefish?!?!

Question
My husband and I have a 55 gallon fish aquarium with African Cichlids. His friend recently saw our tank, and purchased one for himself, setting up with a large variety of tropical fish, he bought a needlefish, but was starving it, and it would eat his fish. My husband got it from him, and put it in our tank. We don't really know a lot about this fish, just that he has to eat live fish, and he'll bite us. (we can't find much more information on it) We bought a bowl for feeders so we can feed him often, but still when we buy a new cichlid he eats it. Should we keep him or will he continue to eat our new fish? We recently purchased a 125 gallon tank, and are breaking it in slowly, but I don't want to add him to this tank if he is going to continue to eat our other fish. I honestly don't like this fish, because our cichlids are already an aggressive fish, and it seems the more they get feeders, the more aggressive they get.

Answer
Hi Cora,
As you have found out, Needlefish are very much carnivorous and will take anything they think will fit in their mouths. This usually means any fish under 5 inches or so. Needlefish also grow quite large, up to a foot or more is not uncommon.

And its likely the reason the needlefish keeps eating your cichlids as you add new ones is he is associating the addition of any new fish with feeding times.

Probably the best thing you could do would be to take him to a petstore. If you could find a locally owned petshop, they might be more willing to take the needlefish.

I hope this helps!
Karen~