Tig catfish, Brachyplatystoma tigrinum, ~15", in 4500 gal

[Asian Exotics]

I have finally finished their new home, an 1800 gal tank

Hi there Viktor,

Hope all is very well with you. Saw that your Tigs are doing very well in their new home too. I am about to transfer my tig after outgrowing the current tank. The new tank has a 4' X 4' footprint with 30" height.

It's comforting to see the method you use (pillow case) to transfer all 8 without incident. The funny part about here in Malaysia is that the LFS where I bought them told me Tigs are extremely sensitive and to never have them completely out of the water or they die. While shopping for equipment for the new tank, when I mentioned Tig, almost all would ask me why? And be prepared the Tig won't make it after the transfer. That got me worried as the new tank is ready, I'm planning to exchange water between both tanks once the feeders i have inside the new tank says the water is safe.

I just wish to ask you is there anything in particular I need to look out for when catching them? Or how will they react when they know they are being caught. I see they swim really fast, not surprising considering where they live.

I surely hope I don't lose my only one. I haven't measured, but guessing between 22"-24". And I had that tank specially for my Tig, so it'd be all for nothing if the Tig does belly up...

Thanks in advance,

CY

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Hey CY! IDK where your peers are coming from with this strange (to me) info. I've transferred my tigs great many times. I'd not recommend many successive transfers, but this scenario would be highly unusual and unlikely. I don't find tigs to be sensitive, neither to transfer / a bit of stress, nor to pathogens. They are pretty robust and hardy fish overall IME.

Catching them is usually easy because they don't run away as well as other fish do. When bothered by a net, they kind of reposition themselves again and again until you net them.

 

[Asian Exotics]

Hey CY! IDK where your peers are coming from with this strange (to me) info. I've transferred my tigs great many times. I'd not recommend many successive transfers, but this scenario would be highly unusual and unlikely. I don't find tigs to be sensitive, neither to transfer / a bit of stress, nor to pathogens. They are pretty robust and hardy fish overall IME.

Catching them is usually easy because they don't run away as well as other fish do. When bothered by a net, they kind of reposition themselves again and again until you net them.

That's exactly what I thought!..... The current one in my tank has never given me problems at all n I never had to handle the Tig. Only had a stressful period when I introduced sand, but besides that, seems very hardy n easy to keep. But with so many telling me they experienced the loss of Tigs through transfer or bagging to customers, so, I thought I better ask someone who successfully transferred 8 pieces at one go.

Thanks for clarifying, n yes, I too agree that catching should be very easy. Mine just doesn't move. Your pillow case technique is a very smart one Will try that. Am still considering featherbacks to join the Tig, but in a cruel trick as the price to pay for being so stubborn to refuse non live food, well, good luck to my Tig chasing down prey as the 4 X 4 has the overflow n filter returns column right in the middle making it an infinite swimming tank ??

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Bad news on this front. Lost two tigs in the 1800 gal in one month, six remain, seem strong, feed well. Same symptoms, loss of the ability to swim upright, spinning out of control. IDK. Maybe living with other tigs is too stressful. Or maybe it's too many fish altogether in that 1800 gal. Or maybe it is the time to clean out my 15,000 gal sump filter, which I last cleaned out 3 years ago after hurricane Irma.

Anyhow. Due diligence in reporting.

One was 22" 5 years old:



The other 25", 6 years old. This one is the only one of 8 that didn't feed much / refused to feed since the transfer to the 1800 gal, which can be judged by its thinness. By the size, I too am guessing this is the one that didn't feed 6-8 months in a 240 gal a while ago, then started in another 240 gal when it joined its 7-8 kin, then quit again in the 1800 gal. Not emaciated though, just on the thin side.

 

[dr exum]

sorry for your loss ,

15k gallon sump ?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I cleaned the sump, as promised in the prior post from Dec 28 2020.

Yet, over the next 5 months we have lost another 3 adult tigs, same symptoms, same everything. Maybe the old columnaris problem resurfaced. We had a supposed outbreak in 2018. Plus the stress of having to live together. Maybe. We have lost several LSN and Trachycorystes trachycorystes in the same way in the same tank, spinning death so called.

Anyhow, we have had three remaining tigs, look to be all male, all 24" or under. One has not been eating too well over the past 3-4 months, looks bullied a bit but I am still hoping 1800 gal is big enough for the now 3.

One. 22". 5 yo. Probably male.




Two. Our biggest. 27". 5 yo. Probably female.





Three. 22". 5 yo. Probably male.

 

[Matteus]

The things have been going well with the 8 tigs, actually quite well. They have all been feeding aggressively. Only one or two have been on the timid side but they came out too for the feedings. They like their pellets and thawed glass minnows or herring.

I have finally finished their new home, an 1800 gal tank:

And in it they have gone recently. They have been there for a week and a half and maybe only now starting to show signs of interest in food. Can't keep close track of all of them but eventually I will. I hope they will have transitioned nicely in the end. Right now it is too early to tell. They don't have to keep so close to each other anymore as it had been for years in that 240 gal, so they spread out. I don't see any evidence of fighting but they will be settling in for a while, finding their places in the tank.

Wow Viktor. This is amazing. I still remember a few years back I watched a 45 min video of a walk through of your facility. Back when it was 10x 240g tanks and the pair of 4300 tanks. After I watched that, all I could think about for months were the tigs. Out of all the fish in the entire video, that was the one that I just couldn’t shake for the life of me.

I have spent years drooling over them but never able to find any in my area. Eventually one store had a few of them but they were $700 cad for 3-4”Fish which at the time I could not justify to my wife. Then last year I was finally able to bring some in but I had to sell them all before my big move.

now I finally have a new batch and I was going to ask you about what size you had to separate them at. But now I am finally seeing this thread, not sure how I have missed it after all these years. It seems like I am always learning from you and growing in my hobby as I watch both your failures and “viktories”. Thank you for all the advice over these years and I truly appreciate your transparency through out the process. I’m sorry for the losses in this area, I hope the remaining 3 will last you much longer. Do you know what the typical life expectancy would be for these cats would be? I wonder if they are just reaching max capacity when they randomly die with no explanation??

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Thank you, mate, you are always a great pleasure to listen to even though you are badly deluded about me Seriously though, I just try my best and 50% it's not good enough. Thank you for the kind words, support, and tough and cold Canuck love over the years

We have 2 remaining, not 3. So far they have been okay but one doesn't eat much, while the other feeds well. Could be because the other doesn't let him near, even in an 1800 gal.

The 10 tigs in one tank was an experiment from the start and I pin it to failures. I believe they might have been stressing each other too much, even if no fighting but just feeling the unnatural-for-them presence of each other, and that could have weakened their immune system and they have been succumbing one by one to a pathogen in that 25K water system running two 4500s and the 1800.

I read people keep their tigs 10-15 years (talking about the cases of seemingly natural passing, not accidents etc.), so this must be the minimum. I'd expect a couple decades on paper. Our remaining pair is roughly only 6 years old.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

An interesting thread on tig's fasting: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/24”-tig-fasting.743408/
Previous thread on the same 24" tig with problems with sores: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/tigrinus-catfish-w-infection.743140/

 

[Yaponchik]

I cleaned the sump, as promised in the prior post from Dec 28 2020.

Yet, over the next 5 months we have lost another 3 adult tigs, same symptoms, same everything. Maybe the old columnaris problem resurfaced. We had a supposed outbreak in 2018. Plus the stress of having to live together. Maybe. We have lost several LSN and Trachycorystes trachycorystes in the same way in the same tank, spinning death so called.

Anyhow, we have had three remaining tigs, look to be all male, all 24" or under. One has not been eating too well over the past 3-4 months, looks bullied a bit but I am still hoping 1800 gal is big enough for the now 3.

Hey Viktor. I just came back again across this thread and the way that these fishes passed on surprised me a lot. I'm so sorry for your loss.

Just this week, a close friend of mine experienced the same. 1 juvenile tig kept with a piraiba, couple of pbass and a stingray. Out of the blue just started spinning around, having buoancy issues. We suspected bacterial infection but before we could decide on a method of action it passed on.

This is the surprising part. A ~13" juruense kept in a totally separate 2.5k gal pond. Before the tig died, this also started exhibiting the same spinning and buoancy issues. Both these fishes eat well. The only common factor is water, and perhaps food (but why didn't the piraiba get it?)

We have extremely hard well water (8.4 pH). But I personally don't trust the source, so I do filter them using standard 4 stage filters prior to storage tank, and an additional 4 stages again, then to a large UV filter before going to the fish tanks (I run a continuous drip) - my friend and I are neighbors and if it were really the water, my tigs cpuld have experienced the same as well but who knows.

I've had a lot of success and a major reduction on bacterial infections on my established tanks - I swear by using UV filters. IIRC, your water should be much cleaner then mine as you do RO/DI no? Do you also have UV filters after your 15k sump? A die off like this... It's now really nagging me.

My experience with columnaris is much different, but I don't think it could kill fishes these big without showing external lesions at least. I feel that these are still bacterial in nature, and compounded by stress, could have sent the tigs immune system into a nosedive, whilst also increasing its virulence.

I would love to hear your opinion on what you think this may have been!

Thank you as always.