Building My 50,000 Gallon Monster Mega Tank

[sje106]

Yes twice but I had no luck because I believed the advice that they can be raised and kept in fresh water.

My fault

The first Two I got way back in 1982 from Tropic Aquaria Brampton for $2.00 each at 3" and kept one 2 years when it passed away at 11".

The second time I got four from the Glass Zoo in Guelph at 3 1/2" for $4.99 in 1995 and although they (3 of them) got to be 12" they also died because of lack of salt.

They can be kept in fresh water when young but really need brackish water and then ideally full marine as adults.

I killed them.........

They are also called Sea cats, Columbian sharks and bi colour catfish.

Their genus is actually Ariposis (formerly Arius and Haxanematichthys) and the species I had was jordani.


They of course are in the order of Siluriformes and the only catfish I've owned in the Ariidae family.

Have you owned them and what experience did you have?

Yes i have also heard about the fresh water living. i think you done very well to get them that size without salt. I had a shoal of 8 that got to 6-7 inch's and then they dropped one by one. i think they shoudl go into brackish water earlier to be honest.

For the love of god i couldn't remember the family names for them lol
I must be going cuckoo

 

[arapaimag]

Yes i have also heard about the fresh water living. i think you done very well to get them that size without salt. I had a shoal of 8 that got to 6-7 inch's and then they dropped one by one. i think they shoudl go into brackish water earlier to be honest.

For the love of god i couldn't remember the family names for them lol
I must be going cuckoo

They really look good in a group so your 8 at 6-7" must have been really neat to see.

 

[NightStorm]

One amazing story.

And one gorgeous fish! I will be looking into the Paraneetroplus melanurus.

Thanks.

That fish puzzled me too for a long time only because I am not familiar enough with all the Central American (technically North American) cichlids.

I got the fish from Barry McKee of the Durham fish club as a gift in 2001. It is kind of an interesting story. He gave me a pair of fish because he had not been able to spawn them.

The male was about 7" and the "female" was about 5". We floated the bag in the 15,000 for about 20 minutes then released the fish. The male on seeing all the bigger fish in the tank actually appeared to have a heart attack as we watched and sunk to the bottom of the tank dead within 20 seconds of being released. The "female" was fine and sought cover among the rocks and bogwood. There is driftwood in the tank but she preferred the bogwood at the 6 foot depth.

In time the "female" eventually bred with a fish I bought as a Paraneetroplus (formerly Vieja, formerly Theraps, formerly Cichlasoma) sinspila female (formerly synspilus, formerly sinspilum) but appears might be a P. Bifasciatum or a P. sinspila/bifasciatum hybrid.

Yes the "female" was an immature male when I got it. I have the same problem distinguishing sexes when I see teenagers at the mall.

The fish you asked me about is a Paraneetroplus melanurus (I thank Brian Ma of Mississauga for telling me) and is in the last 2 pics.

The cichlid in the first 2 pics is a female Amphilophus urophthalmus.

 

[scriving]

You keep any datnoids ?

 

[sadatru]

OMG i so want 1, u sir are a true genius.

 

[sje106]

it did look good yes. i'd like to have a nice shoal again with more numbers. would look brilliant.

I'm not sure what there are like when bigger shoaling wise or do they become more independant.
tbh i've never seen one over 10inches. would be great to see a big one.

Do you have any large Scleropages Jardini? are they aggresive at all?

I know you have an uropthalmus in the tank, but do you have any large Festae?

 

[arapaimag]

You keep any datnoids ?

I've never had any success keeping datnoids. There are a lot of excellent hobbyists with fantastic datnoids on this site.

I tried 1 Datnioides microlepis = Indonesian datnoid I got From Tropic Aquaria at 1" and only kept it alive for 2 years and got it up to 10".

NOT VERY GOOD

Then in 2006 Neoprodigy the founder of MFK gave me one that was 3" long and I only kept it alive 1 year and got it up to 7"

NOT VERY GOOD

I really like the D. microlepis , D. pulcher, D. undecimradiatus and D. campbelli species.

Bill Gibbons from Innerkipp raised a couple of D. polota up to great size.
One he sold to Dragon Aquaria in Mississauga at 24".

Steve & Shelly had it on display for a few months before they sold it.

The first pic is in a tank around a 180g at Dragon it later went into a 350g.

The poor pic was taken at Bill's house.

 

[arapaimag]

OMG i so want 1, u sir are a true genius.

Thanks but far from it.

Every time I have a fish die I realize that.

3 fish I have had die in 2011 include:

My 18" Tetraodon mbu, 28" Mastacembelus favus and my 18" Leuciscus idus.

When you have a pet for a long period of time it hurts even more to lose it.

here is a video of the puffer.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsDjcfrGMpg

 

[arapaimag]

Do you have any large Scleropages Jardini? are they aggresive at all?

I just have one at present which was given to me in 1998 at 9". It has been a very slow grower and is only 17-18" at present. I've had it 13 years and the previous owner had it about 2 years so it does show it's age at times. It's been in the 15,000 all the time except for the first couple of months when it was in a quarantine 180.

It has seldom been aggressive except when eating or challenging for food.

 

[sje106]

that is surprising you find it such a slow grower. my Jardini grew from 4inch to 15inch well within a year.