Awesome info. This kind of info is hard to find especially when it is in Chinese.
Please feel free to post more of the subject on this thread. If you have captive breed specimen to share that would be great too.
R
RPG_MOTH12321
Thanks for your appreciation!
Personally I have tried to raise a 3'' juvenile yellowcheek in my 27gal. Unfortunately it died because of unown reason after passing 6''.Here i'll try my best to present aspects of Elopichthys, for general keeping advises to anyone who's interested in these beasts.
On growth and reproduction: the growth rate of Elopichthys varies a lot based on tempreature. In Yangtze they may reach 20'' in their first year and mature in another 2-3 years(already28-30'').However, in Amur river it may take as much as 3 times more time for a individual to reach similar size. So slow growth is just fine and really doesn't matter a lot. According to some researches, pellets are actully better than frozen or living fish in term of enhancing growth in youngsters, but Im not sure if this work with larger individuals such as those in this thread.
Elopichthys tend to reproduce in lotic, turbulent rivers and can reproduce under captivity with help of hormone injections. I DONOT advice any foreign pals to release their Elopichthys into wild however. For anyone who is interested, Elopichthys is among the closest relatives of the grass carp Ctenopharygodon idella and white carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, two notorious invasive species.
In unlimited conditions Elopichthys can grow to monsterous size. The largest individual recorded (shown below)is 5'5''and 143lbs. However, their are uncomfirmed records of Individuals growing to 6' or more.
In China, keepers often joke Elopichthys as "CATF".Because of its ability to reproduce in captivity, in China a 4'' Elopichthys only cost about 30¥ while a similar sized VATF or GATF may cost five times more the price.Their biology and ecology are pretty much the same though, so tips on ATF keeping may serve well on Elopichthys.
There have been records of large Elopichthys tearing their prey by their toothless beaks which I show below. However in most situations tankmates longer than 40% of their lemgth should be considered safe. However unlike ATF, Elopichthys doesn't ignore bottom dewellers until they reach about 1'.Actully, gobies are among the regular preys of young yellocheeks .
The timid nature of the creature made it very difficult to keep in closed aquaria.The commercially bred Elopichthys are released into artificial lakes as soon as they reach 3-4''.Kendragon's 3 individuals are, to my knowledge, the bestly kept ones.So, best wishes for them to become monsters~
