For those of us who keep/kept predatory fish, cats, birds or any creature including ourselves. as a predator you look for weakness. most fish look for prey that is smaller. some fish look for open spots to attack some have large teeth to incapacitate their prey(ie. many characins) first then deal the death blow. if a predator gets large it will use size to an advantage. if it is about the same size or smaller it may use group tactics(ie. piranahs),or sneak attacks. some predators use speed & agility(ie. snakeheads & gars).Others may just stun the prey(knives,elect. cats,lionfish). either way a predator has to give itself the edge in order to acheive to desired outcome of killing the victim. I have hampala barbs that attack anything 2/3rds their size. their teeth are visible though they have no psuedocanines like parachromis or wolfish. they usually only successfully eat thin bodied prey as they are not designed to shred. i kept 3 species of piranahs in the past all of them in a one on one situation just shredded the fins fist then when the fish couldn't swim went for the gut. all the cichlid species I've kept grasp their prey though parachromis & nandopsis are the best equiped for this. the one thing I will say though is that as a group compared to other apex predators cichlids lack teeth structure, agility & speed.
This is not to say they are not capable of killing because I've had 7' managuense kill 9" snakeheads by biting the belly; & a 6 inch male convict chase a 8" wolfish out of the tank after it took a chunk out of it.The convict turned & used its' speed which shocked me, to attack the wolfish eyes & belly. I found the wolfish on the floor a few hours later dried up. All of these incidents happened when a weakness was exploited. with the exception of the convict who started the fight because the wolfish wouldn't move out of a cave it wanted(not to eat it),all the fish killed were eaten because the victor was a predator who until it got hungry lived with its' prior tankmate. just enjoy fish for what they are. Each has its' own niche.
