Our 2 foot, 5 year old wyckii

thebiggerthebetter

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The ever enigmatic and appealing Hemibagrus wyckii.

Planet Catfish Cat-eLog states wyckiis can be combined with other large fish in public-size aquaria. Does not explicitly say if with each other. Don't know how big a tank should be to attempt the latter, but I've had two ~16” wyckiis in a 25'x6'x3' pond section. That was a basement pond in my prior life in Rochester, NY.

Elegant black fish with coquettish white bands on the upper caudal lobe. These were easy to handle, and they let me lift them up and even out of the water with one bare hand for a moment and lower them back, all without a wiggle or a fight. They could easily defend themselves from 4-5 times bigger (by weight) hungry predators like our 2.5' TSN Terroristo and 2.5' TSNxRTC hybrid Evans. The wyckiis attacked them back, if those tried to test-taste them, and sent the food critics flying across the whole 25’ long pond to the other end (in a separate case, a 1’ wyckii did the same too). Needless to say, no one went into their clay pots and if they did, they darted out of there as if on fire.

For several months the wyckii pair did nothing but hid only ~5’ away from each other in two clay pots. I suppose they still respected the large predators and weren’t leaving the pots even at night and as a result never knew of each other’s existence and proximity because I've never seen them fight each other, nor any physical damage on them. Then, one day, when I was vacuuming (as I had done before many times) and lifted their pots, they, eventually, found each other. There was some serious dislike between those two. They would not stop fighting and even after I separated them by chasing one away into his farthest clay haven, I found them fighting 15 min later. Hence, one of them had to go behind a divider into a different pond section to join 1.5' wallago leerii, two 2' alligator gars and Co. The fish let me lift it out of water and throw behind the divider. Thus, peace was gained back...

Here are the two stooges:

Lopa.JPG

Wiki.JPG

...

Fast forward about 8-9 years…

I find it strange that 5-10 years ago wyckiis had been ~$5 for a 3"-er here in the USA. In the last few years, all I have seen was $100+ and mostly larger ones. I don’t know what happened, but I can’t bring myself to pay that much for a fish that used to be so cheap...

Lucky for me, our peer and a good friend Jeff aka V victor448 donated his ~2’, 5-year old wyckii, who is featured in the below video. I don’t think this guy would let me handle it as freely as I had done with the ones above. I am not sure of the reason behind such a drastic difference. I suppose it reflects the difference of being alone in a smallish tank, where everything is your territory, versus being in a formidable company in a large enclosure outside of the comfort zone and own territory.

So far, the new wyckii has only been confined to a 240 gal 8’x2’x2’, solo of course, and has been awaiting a 480 gal 8’x4’x2’ to be plumbed and set up. I can’t try it out in the “less aggressive” 4500 gal because it houses our 2.5’ ARTC. Perhaps if it wasn’t for the ARTC presence, it could work. ARTC is said to exhibit a nearly identical behavior and temperament to those of wyckii. Anyhow, if our wyckioides were of any indication… it's pretty mellow in 4500 gal, while it had been a nightmare to tank mates in 240 gal.


A collection of helpful links: http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=32376&hilit=+wykii

justarn 's classic wyckii story https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...-cat-in-a-300g-community.549472/#post-6561912

Fishman Dave’s https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...boys-living-with-wyckioides-and-wykii.701091/

Rpul’s and Moe’s: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/the-wykii.687043/

Moe’s plus collection of Arapaimag’s links on PCF: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/need-to-be-told-no.659854/

Tank size: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/hemibagrus-wyckii-tank-size.524980/

Cambo01 and input from Necrocanis, me, and others https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...rus-wyckii-black-devil-cat-info.522480/page-2

Shane’s https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/my-wyckii-grow-out-thread.547971/


 
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coolcomfort

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Love your videos and I've watched most of them. It is a shame this fish is so aggressive.

A little unrelated, did I read that your ARTC in the 4500 "peaceful tank"? If so, how is that going? I was under the impression the ARTC was very similar to the wyckii in terms of aggresion. I'm surprised it hasn't been overly aggressive in that tank.

EDIT: Just saw the video you made over it (here). What an impressive fish, i'm surprised you have managed to keep it in that tank without it hurting others. If it grows to be 4 feet, i'm assuming you'd put it in the catfish tank correct? That would be quite the sight.
 

thebiggerthebetter

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Love your videos and I've watched most of them. It is a shame this fish is so aggressive.

A little unrelated, did I read that your ARTC in the 4500 "peaceful tank"? If so, how is that going? I was under the impression the ARTC was very similar to the wyckii in terms of aggresion. I'm surprised it hasn't been overly aggressive in that tank.

EDIT: Just saw the video you made over it (here). What an impressive fish, i'm surprised you have managed to keep it in that tank without it hurting others. If it grows to be 4 feet, i'm assuming you'd put it in the catfish tank correct? That would be quite the sight.
Thank you.

I don't think your question is unrelated but all about our ARTC is in its thread. https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/posts/7626006 I too am surprised how well it's been behaving so far but I try to watch it closely. Where the ARTC will reside at what size will depend on its de'mean'or :)
 

moe214

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Thank you.

I don't think your question is unrelated but all about our ARTC is in its thread. https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/posts/7626006 I too am surprised how well it's been behaving so far but I try to watch it closely. Where the ARTC will reside at what size will depend on its de'mean'or :)
As much as I’d like to see that, I don’t think it’d work well cause there’s more fish in there that will try to challenge it. I’d mainly worry about it and the jaus going at it. But we can only speculate till it’s tried if you ever do so. In tournament last video I believe the feeding, I was looking at the wyckioides and sperata, they looked like they put on some good size to me.
 
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thebiggerthebetter

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Five month update. The fish put on a few inches, tip to tip now 2' if not a bit longer.

Its diet is 80% thawed fish and 20% Hikari Massivore, by weight. The tank light being on throws off the fish a bit but not too much. Usually it is even more assertive and protective... If I let him, he'd skin the tips of my fingers, haha...

 

thebiggerthebetter

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11 month update. The fish has broken 2' definitely, maybe around 26"-27". If you will, listen to the narration in the video update. I feed it massivore in the video too (it takes the whole of split second):

 

thebiggerthebetter

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The wyckii has finally been recently released into the "peaceful" 4500 gal. It was dismayed and taken aback at first by so many tank mates and the space. Then it picked the best corner (current and food wise) in the front left and started defending it from everyone. Eventually over weeks growing its territory to about 1/3 of the tank's 12'x12' bottom, including two corners and generous strips along two sides. So his home in his view is a wide L-shaped swath.

Sometimes one can see wyckii on one half of the tank and the rest 50 catfish laying around on the other. This picture is so it.

Its biggest challenger is a much bigger Sperata aor, about 30"-36", also an aggressive Bagrid catfish and no stranger to constant fighting, several bouts every day, but wyckii wins. The wycki was missing a good chunk from its dorsal fin but now it's almost healed up. The aor wears scuffs and bite marks often but wyckii not so much anymore.

The wyckii started out defending its territory rather viciously but nowadays has relaxed a lot and often joins the crowd, especially during the feedings, which it had not been doing before, clearly despising everyone haha...

 

thebiggerthebetter

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The wyckii has been fine in the 4500 gal, especially now that its nemesis Indian shovelnose had been removed from the tank a couple of months back due to too much regular damage from the wyckii (the InSN was adopted out).

It is mostly relaxed versus the 240 gal tank but not like the ARTC wyckioides which turned sweetheart. The wyckii still maintains some clearance around self, I am guessing especially at nights, in the dark, but its tank mates remember this in the daylight too... It seems more tolerant during the day and I don't recall last time I witnessed the wyckii snap at its tank mates.

In this video it is featured at the beginning 0:50 to 1:50 min and at the end 13:35 to 14:10 min:

 
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