ARTC Hemibagrus wyckioides, Mr. crankypants, 16"

Fishman Dave

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Nov 14, 2015
2,105
4,301
164
53
West Yorkshire
Ha ha, yes something like that. The pond I have is dark and has lots of of pipes, rocks and bogwood for various cats. Right now the wykii lives behind the liner and is around 2ft in length. The Wyckioides (now down to one as I think the largest killed the second and the Wykii killed the largest) is the small one with the slightly bent tail. He is only 12-14" and whilst he doesn't stand a chance in a fight with the Wykii he knows it so no longer tries to get behind the liner and instead lives in a pipe. He has just been returned to the pond as spent 2 month in rehab after finding him with bites and abrasions whilst he was learning Wykii is boss.

whilst in the rehab tank he has almost flatly refused to eat, even though he would come out and about and even up to the water surface to me. Again, any feeding seems to be in darkness. This was also the case with the one I had years ago until it reached about 18" and then suddenly became much more confident.
The wykii is different altogether and feeds from hand even in daytime.IMG_20190109_210435.jpg
Hello peaking out from behind the second liner at the viewing pane.
 

thebiggerthebetter

Senior Curator
Staff member
MFK Member
Dec 31, 2009
16,283
14,496
3,910
Naples, FL, USA
The ARTC experience of mine has been cut short. This week it decided abruptly to depart. I can only assume for a "natural" reason because it has not been sick and fed the day before as always on its beloved pellets. Looked good. No change in behavior either. Saddened I witnessed the passing.

ARTC I think are farm raised for food and if this is the case, I'd be more than sure that we are getting culls from such operations, which in turn means that we get inferior fish with problems of varying severity. That could begin to explain why this fish was so short-lived. Has been 3 years with us and perhaps 1-2 years with Rouben R rmkblades before that. So likely about 5 years old all in all.

Came at 14" in Mar 2016 to us and passed at 34" (tip to tip) in Feb 2019 after 3 years... including the initial year or longer when it wasn't feeding well at all in a 240 gal.

As soon as it stopped breathing, the vulture catfish started their dismantling ripping out pieces from the ventral side of the gill covers. I witnessed it too and promptly took the ARTC out:

100_8433.JPG 100_8434.JPG 100_8435.JPG 100_8438.JPG 100_8439.JPG 100_8440.JPG 100_8440-1.JPG
 

coolcomfort

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 2, 2018
113
84
36
40
USA
Looks like a healthy fish. It's unfortunate we never get to see the full sizes of what these fish can be.

Could ARTC be fit inside of tank with themselves?
 

thebiggerthebetter

Senior Curator
Staff member
MFK Member
Dec 31, 2009
16,283
14,496
3,910
Naples, FL, USA
...Could ARTC be fit inside of tank with themselves?
As in multiple ARTC in one tank? If it is big enough to allow for establishing multiple territories plus an ample space between them, I imagine it could be tried. They will still find each other and fight.

Other than that, see the link to Fishman Dave's thread I linked above on the prior page and his other posts on ARTC. He has had up to 3 in 1500 gal but with a doubled liner where the inner liner was torn.

*********************

So you are the Achilles from the YouTube that was talking to me! What's the link in your signature? I go there but to no avail.
 
  • Like
Reactions: moe214

Redtailedcat

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 27, 2010
628
46
46
Ontario Canada
that is a very eire in details on how your Artc died and how mine died, il go threw the details here,

my artc was approximately 4.5 years old and 30-34'' rasied from a very small 4'' baby, he had a very constant diet a mix of shrimp, tilapia , and pellet he was alone for a good portion of his life due to his aggressive behavior towards tank mates this lasted quite some time from about the time i got him to till the artc was a little over 24'' when we finally decided to try him with the other large cats ,rtcs,shovelnose , marble achara, other notable tank mates where alligator gars and a pima, shortly after adding him to a tank with larger tank mates the aggression was gone just like that no rhyme or reason just gone, diet consisted of the same as he was brought up eatting, minus the odd convict that was still in the tank, back in aug of 2018 i woke up to check the tanks every morning like i always do only to find the artc barley hanging on in his favorite spot in the tank he was moved to a 180 gal hoping it would either bring some life back in him or at the very least let him go in peace, 1 hr later he was gone with no reason or cause for his death water conditions were 0amo 1ppm nitrate 0 nitrite 7.3ph , no visible damage on the artc no even so much as a scratch, was eatting well the day before , no change in habits . no outbreaks of any known diseases .it seemly died for no reason that i could find, it was a play back of how my first artc died to the T seemly passing for no reason at all , other tank mates where perfectly healthy and active. ive since got my hands on another one about 6'' long so we will see how it goes this time , they say the 3rd times a charm,
 

coolcomfort

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 2, 2018
113
84
36
40
USA
that is a very eire in details on how your Artc died and how mine died, il go threw the details here,

my artc was approximately 4.5 years old and 30-34'' rasied from a very small 4'' baby, he had a very constant diet a mix of shrimp, tilapia , and pellet he was alone for a good portion of his life due to his aggressive behavior towards tank mates this lasted quite some time from about the time i got him to till the artc was a little over 24'' when we finally decided to try him with the other large cats ,rtcs,shovelnose , marble achara, other notable tank mates where alligator gars and a pima, shortly after adding him to a tank with larger tank mates the aggression was gone just like that no rhyme or reason just gone, diet consisted of the same as he was brought up eatting, minus the odd convict that was still in the tank, back in aug of 2018 i woke up to check the tanks every morning like i always do only to find the artc barley hanging on in his favorite spot in the tank he was moved to a 180 gal hoping it would either bring some life back in him or at the very least let him go in peace, 1 hr later he was gone with no reason or cause for his death water conditions were 0amo 1ppm nitrate 0 nitrite 7.3ph , no visible damage on the artc no even so much as a scratch, was eatting well the day before , no change in habits . no outbreaks of any known diseases .it seemly died for no reason that i could find, it was a play back of how my first artc died to the T seemly passing for no reason at all , other tank mates where perfectly healthy and active. ive since got my hands on another one about 6'' long so we will see how it goes this time , they say the 3rd times a charm,
You don’t think it could’ve been to natural causes?
 
zoomed.com
hikariusa.com
aqaimports.com
Store