My new favorite tank. Courtesy of Rare Fish

[DB junkie]

Yes, the dorsal thing is a dominance thing. The dominant Tatf will trim all the silver fishes' dorsal fins. This has held true with all 3 that I currently keep. When they are the alpha or kept alone they grow beautiful streamers off the dorsal. Something else I've noticed is these guys are tougher then lead on. When I move them from tank to tank they are NEVER dripped - I just flop them in a new tank. Takes them a few days to get appetite back but have never had any issues moving them this way.

The main reason I'm hesitant to add the menace Tatf to the 750 is cause of the pairing going on in that tank. The 2 Armatus are close as are the 2 Dorado. No matter what the Tatf is going to be the minority.

The Iggy jaws are what makes me think that the jaw thing can be misleading when using as the only means to ID. Maybe there's a Mala variant out there that grows faster then all other wolves, gets twice the size of other Malas and has a giant humpback like Lacs and Aimara? Maybe the easier solution to swallow is they aren't Malas...... lol. I don't know and honestly growing them out to find out has been a very enjoyable experience.

All I know is before I started buying fish from Wes I was bored with the hobby. Definitely not the case now. lol. From the eels to the wolves, cuda to the Tigers it has been a great learning experience. I've never had any fish amaze me more then Tatf. From a delicate little minnow to now what I believe to be one of the most menacing yet beautiful creatures in my tanks.

 

[DB junkie]

Love the stories and pictures! The lacs look really cool with the humps starting to form. How about some 750 pics? Cant just tease us with a story.

Thanks man! IF the 750 wouldn't lash out every time I clean the sides I'd be able to get some pics, but man do they get angry. I'll clean it up one of these days as I need to try to get some vids of the rays in there as the nicest rays I've ever had appear to really like each other.

 

[moe214]

Well that's good to hear, a lot of things get overhyped, it amazed me how such a predator would be so delicate. And makes sense. Do you think if you let the bigger taft in the 8x3 grow some and go in together would that change anything? Or all 3? The dorsal fin nipping makes me think they travel in packs in the wild for sure (or maybe only during mating season), or this habit wouldn't have been established. And for sure the jaws aren't the only way, pores, and LL scale count are some other ways. The jaw fold can be conflicting, like recently a lot of people ended up havin australis and not malabaricus. It's fairly easy to me to tell them apart. But not always for others. And I don't thing they are malas, it a,ways came down to a new species or hybrid to me. But I'm leaning towards new species. And not one in the malabaricus group but the lacerdae group. And the 750 update is coming soon I hope! Lol looking forward to any updates you have.

 

[DB junkie]

See, to me Australis sticks out like a sore thumb. Look just like Lac and Aimara even at small sizes. But they have a crazy stubby head/build to them, almost pug like as if they were a Hoplias crossed with a gold wolf.

All these newer Lacs and the Intermedius have been the ones that seem iffy/inconclusive to me.

 

[KNH]

Always interesting to read your updates Al. I picked up a small wolf but he disappeared after a few days. Pretty sure down the overflow..... whoops. I may give it another go.

 

[moe214]

See, to me Australis sticks out like a sore thumb. Look just like Lac and Aimara even at small sizes. But they have a crazy stubby head/build to them, almost pug like as if they were a Hoplias crossed with a gold wolf.

All these newer Lacs and the Intermedius have been the ones that seem iffy/inconclusive to me.

I feel like they're all easy to I'd with good pictures.. Australis, lac, aimara, curupira's, and mala are the easiest, the rest aren't as common so it can be a bit harder, but I've noticed as intermedius get larger they have quite an underbite, the majority atleast. Maybe this can be a casual hobbyist ID trait? Do you notice this with yours? And then ery and golds are easy. That being said, the possibility of a few undescribed species doesn't help us much lol..