My Year with the Goliath

[sunnysjourney]

Its tigerfish season! I want to share my experience keeping this beautiful fish for a year and hopefully it will be helpful for others looking to get one this season. Ill start off with a pic, and since the sticky on this sub forum has an excellent guide about keeping atfs, Ill just be talking about the things I regret doing and what I'd do differently.

Top: January 30th, 2017.
Bottom: January 30th, 2016.
Tank Dimensions: 135 US Gallon Trapeziod 4' L (front panel) X 2' (wide) X 2' (tall) X 4.5' (rear panel). And my GATF has been here for most of his life.
This guy is in the back left corner in the bottom pic.

So my guy went from about 4" to about 11" in a year. I started off with 3 goliaths and kept the one that had the best personality.
Regrets (In no particular order):

1. Within the first few months my tiger fish recognized me as a food source and was 'happy' to see me near the aquarium. This changed over time mainly because I kept messing with the setup. I was adding / removing fish constantly, moving decorations, etc.. Eventually, the GATF would freak out when I (or any other people) came near the tank. He has bashed up his nose plenty of times. I have come to realize that tiger fish don't like a lot of flux in their environment. If I had a chance to do it again, wouldn't mess with its setup at all.
2. I didn't train my goliath to take pellets from the get go. I just fed it tilapia and shrimp for the longest time and eventually, when I decide to switch, it took 2 months to get him to take pellets. This definitely contributed to its slower growth rate. So, again, if I had a chance to do it again, I would either start him on pellets earlier OR just keep feeding cut fish / shrimp.
3. Initially, I had 3 GATFs, 2 FATFs and 1 VATF in this growout. Needless to say, I should have just stuck with 1 specie. The FATFs are aggressive... Probably the most aggressive fish I've ever kept. All my non goliaths died, unfortunately due to a high content of chloramine in my city water.
4. The congo tetras I had with the goliath became food eventually and in my opinion, the main reason for taking more than 2 months to pellet train... I should have started off with tiger scats / silver dollars from the get go.

If all goes well, Ill be making another thread around this time next year.

Here are a couple of pictures from today:

 

[nzafi]

Awesome. This is helpful. Just got my first gatf yesterday at 4in. His home is a 180g. Currently by himself but I plan on picking up a school of silver dollars in the next week or two.

What pellets are you using. I'm thinking of ordering some hikari carnisticks.

 

[KNH]

Interesting to hear other peoples experiences. Nice looking fish.

 

[jonah h2o]

LFS has tigerfish in all the time! nice to know more about them!

 

[Quason778]

Its tigerfish season! I want to share my experience keeping this beautiful fish for a year and hopefully it will be helpful for others looking to get one this season. Ill start off with a pic, and since the sticky on this sub forum has an excellent guide about keeping atfs, Ill just be talking about the things I regret doing and what I'd do differently.

Top: January 30th, 2017.
Bottom: January 30th, 2016.
Tank Dimensions: 135 US Gallon Trapeziod 4' L (front panel) X 2' (wide) X 2' (tall) X 4.5' (rear panel). And my GATF has been here for most of his life.
This guy is in the back left corner in the bottom pic.

So my guy went from about 4" to about 11" in a year. I started off with 3 goliaths and kept the one that had the best personality.
Regrets (In no particular order):

1. Within the first few months my tiger fish recognized me as a food source and was 'happy' to see me near the aquarium. This changed over time mainly because I kept messing with the setup. I was adding / removing fish constantly, moving decorations, etc.. Eventually, the GATF would freak out when I (or any other people) came near the tank. He has bashed up his nose plenty of times. I have come to realize that tiger fish don't like a lot of flux in their environment. If I had a chance to do it again, wouldn't mess with its setup at all.
2. I didn't train my goliath to take pellets from the get go. I just fed it tilapia and shrimp for the longest time and eventually, when I decide to switch, it took 2 months to get him to take pellets. This definitely contributed to its slower growth rate. So, again, if I had a chance to do it again, I would either start him on pellets earlier OR just keep feeding cut fish / shrimp.
3. Initially, I had 3 GATFs, 2 FATFs and 1 VATF in this growout. Needless to say, I should have just stuck with 1 specie. The FATFs are aggressive... Probably the most aggressive fish I've ever kept. All my non goliaths died, unfortunately due to a high content of chloramine in my city water.
4. The congo tetras I had with the goliath became food eventually and in my opinion, the main reason for taking more than 2 months to pellet train... I should have started off with tiger scats / silver dollars from the get go.

If all goes well, Ill be making another thread around this time next year.

Here are a couple of pictures from today:

sunnysjourney great job bro!

 

[sunnysjourney]

Awesome. This is helpful. Just got my first gatf yesterday at 4in. His home is a 180g. Currently by himself but I plan on picking up a school of silver dollars in the next week or two.

What pellets are you using. I'm thinking of ordering some hikari carnisticks.

Yeah carnsticks are the best to start with, I think. I feed mine sinking massivores, I cut them up into 2-3 pieces.

Interesting to hear other peoples experiences. Nice looking fish.

Thank you. His growth rate might have been more if I had him in a bigger tank.

LFS has tigerfish in all the time! nice to know more about them!

Glad I could help.

sunnysjourney great job bro!

Thanks bro!

 

[Marximus]

Hi u still have your goliath?any updates on growth?