Here is another video that shows the azuls (that were bought as Xingu, IIRC) better, much closer but not quite a close-up yet. Will keep at it.
Fish Story Aquarium and Rescue, Naples, FL; two 4500 gal 13'x13'x4.5'
- Thread starter thebiggerthebetter
- Start date
Currently we have one male and four female 2.5'-3' Oxydoras niger swimming in one of the 4500 gal, three rescues and two that I raised myself. The two of mine I bought around 3 years ago at ~3". They are 2.5' today.
The first rescue is named Gee and has been with us for 2 years. It had spent 25 years prior to that in a 6'x2'x2' where it reached 34" and could barely turn around. When you see Gee in the video, you will note that its tail and caudal peduncle are disproportionately undersized w.r.t. its body. That's likely from not being able to swim for 25 years. The water test logs of the previous owner also showed that 0.25 ppm ammonia was typical and 0.5 ppm was not rare over the 25 years. This speaks to an amazing resilience of this fish. I was afraid it wouldn't be able to adjust to new water after all this time in rather poor water but, surprisingly again, it's done well in our tank. It was heartbreaking to see how it had to learn to swim again. Nowadays, it hogs food and has grown a huge beer belly as a result as you will see as well
Another rescue is called Spike and came from a 400 gal tank from our colleague Sean in Ft. Myers, FL, who donated all of his fish to us. This was in Spring 2016. Spike was about 2' and quite round / stubby and it has quickly added 6"+ in our 4500 gal tank.
And a third rescue (from about 1.5 years ago) appears to be the only male in this quintet because it has the thinnest build, smallest circumference. I wonder if you can spot it in the video. His name is, unsurprisingly, Maniger. Close to manager... hehe... of course he is not... Gee is... He was about 16" at the time of transfer from his hometown of Orlando FL and today is 2.5'.
Also, I bought three ~3" Pterodoras granulosus from snookn21 back in Aug 2015. Their varied growth surprised me. They are 18", 13", and 10" (eyeball) today. The 18"-er's sides are very wide and it resembles an (american) football.
Needless to say they all are huge vacuum cleaners. They'd rather clean up only pellets but when they realize that pellets are no more and baitfish is being served now they, perhaps begrudgingly, suck in the fish too. They are very gentle giants, never hurt any tank mate or their kin.
The first rescue is named Gee and has been with us for 2 years. It had spent 25 years prior to that in a 6'x2'x2' where it reached 34" and could barely turn around. When you see Gee in the video, you will note that its tail and caudal peduncle are disproportionately undersized w.r.t. its body. That's likely from not being able to swim for 25 years. The water test logs of the previous owner also showed that 0.25 ppm ammonia was typical and 0.5 ppm was not rare over the 25 years. This speaks to an amazing resilience of this fish. I was afraid it wouldn't be able to adjust to new water after all this time in rather poor water but, surprisingly again, it's done well in our tank. It was heartbreaking to see how it had to learn to swim again. Nowadays, it hogs food and has grown a huge beer belly as a result as you will see as well
Another rescue is called Spike and came from a 400 gal tank from our colleague Sean in Ft. Myers, FL, who donated all of his fish to us. This was in Spring 2016. Spike was about 2' and quite round / stubby and it has quickly added 6"+ in our 4500 gal tank.
And a third rescue (from about 1.5 years ago) appears to be the only male in this quintet because it has the thinnest build, smallest circumference. I wonder if you can spot it in the video. His name is, unsurprisingly, Maniger. Close to manager... hehe... of course he is not... Gee is... He was about 16" at the time of transfer from his hometown of Orlando FL and today is 2.5'.
Also, I bought three ~3" Pterodoras granulosus from snookn21 back in Aug 2015. Their varied growth surprised me. They are 18", 13", and 10" (eyeball) today. The 18"-er's sides are very wide and it resembles an (american) football.
Needless to say they all are huge vacuum cleaners. They'd rather clean up only pellets but when they realize that pellets are no more and baitfish is being served now they, perhaps begrudgingly, suck in the fish too. They are very gentle giants, never hurt any tank mate or their kin.
I bought 6 vultures from snookn21 in Jun-Jul 2015 at very skinny 4". They are a lot of fun, quirky, inquisitive, active, non-hiding, and apart from a few exceptions have not proven so far their fearsome reputation IME. (See this thread for more on our 6-pack: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...ultures-and-5-black-ears.675034/#post-7584959 )
One was exceptionally thin, borderline emaciated and snookn gave it to me for free but they all proved very easy to feed and care for. They have grown to about 14"-20" today, a couple 20", a couple 17", and a couple 14", and have been in one of our 4500 gal for about a year now with a hundred of other tank mates. They like keeping together most of the time, sitting on the bottom and facing the strongest current, then once in a while they'd do their laps and settle down in their spot again. It is not uncommon for one or a few to sit separately and in a different spot with weak current, mostly the biggest ones do that.
When they were young and in a 240 gal, they would go into a wildest, highly entertaining feeding frenzy when the food hit the water, twisting and turning their bodies in an unbelievable Olympic gymnastics fashion, and flying around like Brownian motion rockets and stopping on a dime, trying hard to get each piece and last crumbs as quickly as possible and swallow as quickly as possible, pellets or cut up baitfish. Nowadays, they feed with dignity. Somewhere between 8" and 12" the frenzies stopped, perhaps right around their rehoming into the 4500 gal. So I don't really know unfortunately if they grew out of it or if it was the larger and different tank.
They don't beg and don't seem to care where their food comes from. No keeper interaction have I noted in 4500 gal.
Here is their updated video and some photos / videos from when they were younger:
Here they are early on, ~1 month after arrival, in Aug 2015, ~5", bad video but short
A photo from July 2015, got mass, not much length yet:
View attachment 1224663
One was exceptionally thin, borderline emaciated and snookn gave it to me for free but they all proved very easy to feed and care for. They have grown to about 14"-20" today, a couple 20", a couple 17", and a couple 14", and have been in one of our 4500 gal for about a year now with a hundred of other tank mates. They like keeping together most of the time, sitting on the bottom and facing the strongest current, then once in a while they'd do their laps and settle down in their spot again. It is not uncommon for one or a few to sit separately and in a different spot with weak current, mostly the biggest ones do that.
When they were young and in a 240 gal, they would go into a wildest, highly entertaining feeding frenzy when the food hit the water, twisting and turning their bodies in an unbelievable Olympic gymnastics fashion, and flying around like Brownian motion rockets and stopping on a dime, trying hard to get each piece and last crumbs as quickly as possible and swallow as quickly as possible, pellets or cut up baitfish. Nowadays, they feed with dignity. Somewhere between 8" and 12" the frenzies stopped, perhaps right around their rehoming into the 4500 gal. So I don't really know unfortunately if they grew out of it or if it was the larger and different tank.
They don't beg and don't seem to care where their food comes from. No keeper interaction have I noted in 4500 gal.
Here is their updated video and some photos / videos from when they were younger:
Here they are early on, ~1 month after arrival, in Aug 2015, ~5", bad video but short
A photo from July 2015, got mass, not much length yet:
View attachment 1224663
In Jun-Jul 2015, I bought a small ~2"-3" false piraiba aka Brachyplatystoma capapretum from Aquarium and Reef Center, Cape Coral, FL, for $90. Overall, my experience with this fish has been poor and difficult. As opposed to true piraiba, this fish is very skittish and prone to darting and swimming around wildly hitting anything and everything in its path, no matter the tank size. It's done it in 240 gal regularly and I even saw it once in 4500 gal.
From reading around and online pictures, it seems this phenomenon is almost invariably characteristic to false piraibas raised in captivity. Even Enrico Richter's specimen had a badly curved snout. I did come across 1-2 possible exceptions -
SirCatfish
and
Jonathan_G
My approaching the tank as well as tank mates seem to trigger this phenomenon, sometimes merely placing food in the tank does the same thing. It often or usually ends with the fish running high speed head-on into a wall and stopping then. It has never broken its snout or jaws badly all at once but rather its snout suffered enough blows that gradually it curved down and reached a pretty significant degree now as you will see from the video.
Despite the craziness, the fish fed ok for me, preferring baitfish, cut and whole, just not growing nearly as much as other keepers report. Mine added on ~7" in 1.5 years, while others say theirs reached 1.5'-2' in about the same time frame.
It has now been in 4500 gal for a couple of months and had done well until maybe a week ago. Somebody has been biting its tail too much and it stopped eating. I plan to give it 1-2 weeks and if things don't improve, will have to pull it out back into one of the 240 gal. Gambling, I know. But it's rather miserable in a 240 gal I have seen from experience and I have no other tanks between 240 and 4500 gal.
My guy at ~4"-5", still intact.
View attachment 1225325
Mike
SirCatfish
fish, seems rather intact:
View attachment 1225326
Enrico's fish with a bent snout:
View attachment 1225328
From reading around and online pictures, it seems this phenomenon is almost invariably characteristic to false piraibas raised in captivity. Even Enrico Richter's specimen had a badly curved snout. I did come across 1-2 possible exceptions -
SirCatfish
and
Jonathan_G
My approaching the tank as well as tank mates seem to trigger this phenomenon, sometimes merely placing food in the tank does the same thing. It often or usually ends with the fish running high speed head-on into a wall and stopping then. It has never broken its snout or jaws badly all at once but rather its snout suffered enough blows that gradually it curved down and reached a pretty significant degree now as you will see from the video.
Despite the craziness, the fish fed ok for me, preferring baitfish, cut and whole, just not growing nearly as much as other keepers report. Mine added on ~7" in 1.5 years, while others say theirs reached 1.5'-2' in about the same time frame.
It has now been in 4500 gal for a couple of months and had done well until maybe a week ago. Somebody has been biting its tail too much and it stopped eating. I plan to give it 1-2 weeks and if things don't improve, will have to pull it out back into one of the 240 gal. Gambling, I know. But it's rather miserable in a 240 gal I have seen from experience and I have no other tanks between 240 and 4500 gal.
My guy at ~4"-5", still intact.
View attachment 1225325
Mike
SirCatfish
fish, seems rather intact:View attachment 1225326
Enrico's fish with a bent snout:
View attachment 1225328
Sun catfish have been a staple of the catfish stock of almost every LFS for a long time, a decade for sure. Their reported wild max size is 18" SL or I guess ~21" TL. The biggest I've come across in captivity however is ~15" TL, which is still pretty remarkable. Of my octet, some are 8 years old, could be even a decade, but none broke even 1' yet TL. Rather, they have been the same size for the last 3-4 years. Most of them are FL rescues except a couple that survived their trip from NY to FL back in 2011.
I have kept them in a 1500 gal pond, 240 gal tank, and then they went into a 4500 gal about 1.5 years ago. They were rather miserable in the tank. Very skittish despite having plenty of calm tank mates. Fed poorly. Maybe they got spoiled having lived the prior 3 years in a 1500 gal pond. It had taken them a long time, perhaps 6 months in the 240 gal to lose most of their beer bellies they acquired in the pond. Then they became very relaxed and very fat again in the 4500 gal. I can't control their food uptake in the 4500 gal and they take full advantage of it.
Once in a while they may have a dispute or a few to establish or enforce their hierarchy. It can get vicious and fins would be missing chunks and the body slamming with pectoral fin stubbing and scraping may get intense but this is usually followed by relative calm for many months or even years.
They swim a lot in the large tank, actually like 75% of the time. Perhaps it helps that the 4500 gal is bare but they are very relaxed and often swim at varying depths in the 4.5' water column. In the morning, it is not usual to find them swimming not far from the top or mid water, usually it is a very laxed swim, with slight tail motion.
They take pellets and fish and anything in between, even when I think they can't possibly eat anything more. The interaction with the tankmates is rather peaceful. At least can't recall them being aggressive to any other fish except rarely between themselves. Fin-nipping tank mates, yet, have been tasting their fins, usually soon after introduction, which largely or almost completely subsided soon thereafter.
in 240 gal tank
View attachment 1226092 View attachment 1226094
I have kept them in a 1500 gal pond, 240 gal tank, and then they went into a 4500 gal about 1.5 years ago. They were rather miserable in the tank. Very skittish despite having plenty of calm tank mates. Fed poorly. Maybe they got spoiled having lived the prior 3 years in a 1500 gal pond. It had taken them a long time, perhaps 6 months in the 240 gal to lose most of their beer bellies they acquired in the pond. Then they became very relaxed and very fat again in the 4500 gal. I can't control their food uptake in the 4500 gal and they take full advantage of it.
Once in a while they may have a dispute or a few to establish or enforce their hierarchy. It can get vicious and fins would be missing chunks and the body slamming with pectoral fin stubbing and scraping may get intense but this is usually followed by relative calm for many months or even years.
They swim a lot in the large tank, actually like 75% of the time. Perhaps it helps that the 4500 gal is bare but they are very relaxed and often swim at varying depths in the 4.5' water column. In the morning, it is not usual to find them swimming not far from the top or mid water, usually it is a very laxed swim, with slight tail motion.
They take pellets and fish and anything in between, even when I think they can't possibly eat anything more. The interaction with the tankmates is rather peaceful. At least can't recall them being aggressive to any other fish except rarely between themselves. Fin-nipping tank mates, yet, have been tasting their fins, usually soon after introduction, which largely or almost completely subsided soon thereafter.
in 240 gal tank
View attachment 1226092 View attachment 1226094
Wes sent me his one-eyed Tor malabaricus or Tor khudree malabaricus in Aug 2015 at about 15". It is not as aggressive a feeder as other mahseer I got, especially when it comes to fish, cut or whole. It grew some, perhaps currently to ~18", 1.5 years later. No one appears to bother it, nether does it bother its tank mates:
Five years ago I got 4 Sailfin Marbled Pims, aka Leiarius pictus, at ~8" from snookn21. They did well in a 120 gal and then went into a 1500 in-ground concrete pond for 2-3 years. One was lost early on, I only presume to a predatory attack because I've never found it. Quite possibly it was one of my jau catfish.
Two years ago the trio went into one of the 4500 gal, where I could finally observe them conveniently and consistently.
They hit about 2' in about one year and then screeched to an almost complete stop, perhaps gaining 1"-2" every following year.
Just like their cousins Marbled Pims, they are utterly non-predatory. They have been housed with fish they could swallow and barely notice, like 3" koi, for 4-5 years and have never done it. They prefer pellets strongly to frozen-thawed marine baitfish I feed the tank. They appear to take the baitfish only after a fast and when given no other option.
Their interaction is confined to themselves, they don't seem to interact much with other tank mates, of which there is a hundred of very diverse fish. During the first half a year, the biggest one (by maybe an inch or two) was dominating. Then in the summer time, unexpectedly the smallest one took over its spot and held on to it for a long time. Nowadays, I don't know anymore. They are getting hard to tell apart too, which is not helping.
When the dominance is challenged, their fighting can get a bit rigorous with body slamming and pushing, poking, and scratching each other with their pectoral spines, which leaves deep white (no red) grooves. This I have seen 2-3 times in 2 years. Their dorsal fins often get tattered too but the tails and other fins are usually intact. The enforcement is manifested in the chasing around the tank and an occasional getting a hold of a dorsal fin.
Meanwhile, here is a video featuring two of my pictus (the third one decided to keep its mugshot off the world wide web):
Here are some photos of the current trio:
View attachment 1228723 View attachment 1228724 View attachment 1228725 View attachment 1228726 View attachment 1228727 View attachment 1228728 View attachment 1228729 View attachment 1228730
Here is a smaller one, 1.5', from my prior life in Rochester, NY. Got this one from George Fear personally (Shark Aquarium) back in 2010.
View attachment 1228731
Here is my first ever one, the bigger one from Rochester, NY, 2'+ in 4000 gal pond, 40'x6'x2.5'. Got it from Pets Plus in Lockport, NY in 2009. Lost both during my move to FL.
View attachment 1228736 View attachment 1228737 View attachment 1228738 View attachment 1228739 View attachment 1228740 View attachment 1228741 View attachment 1228742
Two years ago the trio went into one of the 4500 gal, where I could finally observe them conveniently and consistently.
They hit about 2' in about one year and then screeched to an almost complete stop, perhaps gaining 1"-2" every following year.
Just like their cousins Marbled Pims, they are utterly non-predatory. They have been housed with fish they could swallow and barely notice, like 3" koi, for 4-5 years and have never done it. They prefer pellets strongly to frozen-thawed marine baitfish I feed the tank. They appear to take the baitfish only after a fast and when given no other option.
Their interaction is confined to themselves, they don't seem to interact much with other tank mates, of which there is a hundred of very diverse fish. During the first half a year, the biggest one (by maybe an inch or two) was dominating. Then in the summer time, unexpectedly the smallest one took over its spot and held on to it for a long time. Nowadays, I don't know anymore. They are getting hard to tell apart too, which is not helping.
When the dominance is challenged, their fighting can get a bit rigorous with body slamming and pushing, poking, and scratching each other with their pectoral spines, which leaves deep white (no red) grooves. This I have seen 2-3 times in 2 years. Their dorsal fins often get tattered too but the tails and other fins are usually intact. The enforcement is manifested in the chasing around the tank and an occasional getting a hold of a dorsal fin.
Meanwhile, here is a video featuring two of my pictus (the third one decided to keep its mugshot off the world wide web):
Here are some photos of the current trio:
View attachment 1228723 View attachment 1228724 View attachment 1228725 View attachment 1228726 View attachment 1228727 View attachment 1228728 View attachment 1228729 View attachment 1228730
Here is a smaller one, 1.5', from my prior life in Rochester, NY. Got this one from George Fear personally (Shark Aquarium) back in 2010.
View attachment 1228731
Here is my first ever one, the bigger one from Rochester, NY, 2'+ in 4000 gal pond, 40'x6'x2.5'. Got it from Pets Plus in Lockport, NY in 2009. Lost both during my move to FL.
View attachment 1228736 View attachment 1228737 View attachment 1228738 View attachment 1228739 View attachment 1228740 View attachment 1228741 View attachment 1228742
We currently have three remaining aluminum catfish, aka African big-eyed or Chrysichthys catfish. Two C. ornatus and one supposed C. nigrodigitatus (these are drab and hard to ID to the species level). They are about 8-10 years old and are about a foot long, despite the nigrodigitatus attaining 2'-2.5' in the wild, according to the literature https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=519 . Ornatus do not exceed 1' https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?task=&species_id=520 .
I bought three ornatus from George Fear of Shark Aquarium in 2010 already at about 6". They grew to ~10"-11" in a couple of years and stayed at that size. One passed about 3-4 years ago. Stopped eating and wasted away. Two others have done better but one started wasting away too about a year ago. It developed some upward curvature in its spine. I am unsure of what this means. It still feeds but less and keeps losing weight, got pretty thin. The third one is blind in one eye (got poked in the eye when it was 6") but retains a robust body. For some reason or other, I've always had problems with their maxillary barbel tips perpetually rotting no matter what https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31955&hilit=ornatus+barbel .
We had two rescue nigrodigitatus at 1' (got them too at around 6"), of which one fell victim to my jau's displeasure about 3-4 years ago while the other is still alive and relatively well today. The surviving rescue was mangled pretty bad when I got him. Having been housed with bad cichlids, it came missing all fins (just knobs) and with a mangled up snout / mouth.
These catfish are easy to feed and are very peaceful IME. I've always wondered why ornatus have such an enormous mouth fit to wrap around say a 1' koi but never use it, not even on 3" koi and other easy snacks. They prefer pellets to marine baitfish.
They are the most modest fish in behavior, always keeping to themselves, rarely swimming around and even then just a tiny bit from spot to spot, usually just laying here and there. They just lay like logs day and night. They have zero interaction with tank mates and with a keeper / feeder. In fact, if I was not much into catfish, I'd say these fish (especially the ornatus) are the most boring catfish I've ever owned (out of non-hiders, which they are). Does your experience agree or not?
Here is the trio in 4500 gal:
And some assorted photos through the years:
View attachment 1229291 View attachment 1229292 View attachment 1229293 View attachment 1229294 View attachment 1229295 View attachment 1229298 View attachment 1229299 View attachment 1229300 View attachment 1229301 View attachment 1229302 View attachment 1229303 View attachment 1229304 View attachment 1229305
I bought three ornatus from George Fear of Shark Aquarium in 2010 already at about 6". They grew to ~10"-11" in a couple of years and stayed at that size. One passed about 3-4 years ago. Stopped eating and wasted away. Two others have done better but one started wasting away too about a year ago. It developed some upward curvature in its spine. I am unsure of what this means. It still feeds but less and keeps losing weight, got pretty thin. The third one is blind in one eye (got poked in the eye when it was 6") but retains a robust body. For some reason or other, I've always had problems with their maxillary barbel tips perpetually rotting no matter what https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31955&hilit=ornatus+barbel .
We had two rescue nigrodigitatus at 1' (got them too at around 6"), of which one fell victim to my jau's displeasure about 3-4 years ago while the other is still alive and relatively well today. The surviving rescue was mangled pretty bad when I got him. Having been housed with bad cichlids, it came missing all fins (just knobs) and with a mangled up snout / mouth.
These catfish are easy to feed and are very peaceful IME. I've always wondered why ornatus have such an enormous mouth fit to wrap around say a 1' koi but never use it, not even on 3" koi and other easy snacks. They prefer pellets to marine baitfish.
They are the most modest fish in behavior, always keeping to themselves, rarely swimming around and even then just a tiny bit from spot to spot, usually just laying here and there. They just lay like logs day and night. They have zero interaction with tank mates and with a keeper / feeder. In fact, if I was not much into catfish, I'd say these fish (especially the ornatus) are the most boring catfish I've ever owned (out of non-hiders, which they are). Does your experience agree or not?
Here is the trio in 4500 gal:
And some assorted photos through the years:
View attachment 1229291 View attachment 1229292 View attachment 1229293 View attachment 1229294 View attachment 1229295 View attachment 1229298 View attachment 1229299 View attachment 1229300 View attachment 1229301 View attachment 1229302 View attachment 1229303 View attachment 1229304 View attachment 1229305
Wesley Wong graciously transferred 4 of his mahseer to me in Aug 2015 - khudree, malabaricus (which may be another khudree), soro, and progenious. Tor progenious was probably ~18"-20" back then. It's done well in one of my 4500 gal tanks and reached roughly 22"-24". Pretty peaceful fish, at least I've not witnessed any aggression from it toward its very motley crew of tank mates.
To my eye, it is the prettiest mahseer in my humble collection (I too have a stracheyi and two unknown ones labeled enigmatically as Golden Thai mahseer). Not for the color, which looks platinum, but for the body structure.
Surprisingly, it prefers to keep away from the front window in sharp contrast to the other mahseer. So for now all I have is this "What's in the video?" kind of a vid (in a vague analogy to the popular "What's in the bag?" game). When / if I get a better video, I'll certainly post it here.
To my eye, it is the prettiest mahseer in my humble collection (I too have a stracheyi and two unknown ones labeled enigmatically as Golden Thai mahseer). Not for the color, which looks platinum, but for the body structure.
Surprisingly, it prefers to keep away from the front window in sharp contrast to the other mahseer. So for now all I have is this "What's in the video?" kind of a vid (in a vague analogy to the popular "What's in the bag?" game). When / if I get a better video, I'll certainly post it here.
