Fish Story Aquarium and Rescue, Naples, FL; two 4500 gal 13'x13'x4.5'

[thebiggerthebetter]

Here is a video featuring six 4-line Pim catfish that we currently house in 4500 gal. They are 8"-10" (eyeball estimates). These are all Pimelodus blochii or of the blochii type, which, AFAIK, is characterized by a large black spot at the base of their dorsal fin.

Four of them look more or less like the usual blochii and are rescues. Another I bought for $30 about 4 years ago from Aquabid that claimed it was P. maculatus, which of course it wasn't as it still had that black spot of the blochii group that maculatus doesn't have. Still, it's body spotting pattern is different, crisp (it was different when I was buying it too at 3" with large black spots) and you will see in the video that it differs from the rest of the blochii, albeit other than the coloration, it looks identical. With years its spots became smaller w.r.t. to the body size, crisper, and 100x more numerous.

The last one is a survivor of a group of 3 that I got 6 years ago that I thought were Pimelodus tetramerus because of their more pronounced 4 lines on each side (true today and back then too at 2"). Consistent with this tentative ID is the fish's size too as it is clearly the smallest of the group at about 8" and has not grown any in a couple of years. The other two fell victim I suppose to one of my jau catfish a long time ago in a 500 gal pond.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Out of my large syno collection (which can be seen here https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=30939&hilit=120+gal ) I only got four left and there is only one of them from Rochester NY collection still, the large hybrid named Krol now nearly devoid of the spots because of age.

So the synos are - large hybrid Krol at ~12", smaller hybrid ~8", larger eupterus - a rescue from 2011, ~10", and smaller eupterus - a rescue from 2014, ~8". They have been in 4500 gal for a couple of years now.

I believe the larger hybrid and the smaller hybrid are the same kind of hybrid and their looks differ only due to age - this is the question I posed in this thread: https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=42768&hilit=syno+hybrid

Anyhow, here is a video of them in 4500 gal:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I've dipped my toes in with tigs, aka Brachyplatystoma tigrinum, 3 times. This is my second tig ever that I got from George Fear of Shark Aquarium back in the Summer 2015. Came at ~3"-4". It's not easy to say what size it is today but looks about 15".

It's been easy to feed - it likes its pellets and fish, actually preferring pellets, which are nothing fancy - Zeigler Bros. catfish farm pellet (that RD. would not even feed to his fish for free, he says) at ~$30 for 44 lbs before shipping.

When it was in 240 gal, it was pretty aggressive to ~any other Brachie. In 4500 gal it appears to have been better behaved, not bothering other Brachies and no one appears to bother it. Currently there are two more Brachies in the tank - another tig at ~12" (in the opposite corner) and a vaillantii at ~15" (this guy swims all over like a boss, still has both long extensions on both caudal lobes). I had to pull out my troublesome capapretum last week as some tank mates (not sure who, never caught) were bothering it too much. I'd not be surprised if they were the three mentioned above but it'd have to be at night.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I got two bolt catfish at 3"-4" from Ted's Fishroom the Summer of 2015 ($90 each), which makes them now about 2 years old. Now they are about a foot already. I fail to discern any external differences between the two. Very lively assertive catfish, easy to feed, not vicious with tank mates, graceful yet robust with beautiful markings, but they have zero tolerance for each other. It became evident from the start. Ted shipped them to me separately, of course, but I combined them for acclimation. When I returned in a few minutes after I had just let them out of their bags into an acclimation cooler, I found the bigger one had already dug into the smaller one. Yikes.

Luckily they heal well. So they grew up to about 6"-7" in separate 240 gal tanks in about 6 months. Then I combined them in one of our 4500 gal. They haven't fought too badly at first but then it gradually changed. They do keep away from each other but every time they bump into each other, it turns into a cartoonish ball of two bending and flying bodies (if there was dust, they'd be in a cloud of dust) where each simultaneously tries to bite the other and avoid being bitten by the other or pull a fin out of the other's mouth... Time has not helped it. Their fins are usually ripped and barbels are half bitten off, as you will see in the video below. Lately I started noticing that the dominant one has started giving an occasional chase to our much larger 16"-22" vulture catfish.

I am thinking I will need to separate them again next time I pump down the tank. Here is a short video compilation. The dominant one occupies the coveted bottom section right in the middle of the strongest current. The indomitable challenger scours the walls all around the tank and the viewing window:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

The cigar sharks have been growing very well. I think they are now ~22", having tacked on a couple of inches.

The following video though is from the same day as their first video, that is from Dec 2016 when they were ~20", just a different angle and some pellets in the water:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Here is my first flowerhorn. Got it as a rescue from Tampa about 4 years ago. The prior owner said it's low grade or some such. It doesn't have much red but IDK much about them. I got it at about 8" and it is now about 14", maybe more, hard to say. It lived in various ponds and tanks and has been in one of our 4500 gal for about the last 1.5-2 years.

It'd give problems to almost any other fish in a 240 gal but in 4500 gal it's been a complete opposite, very mellow. Our 10"-12" umbee used to dominate it a bit but now it appears that it does.

Here is a video of the fish:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Another video now showing the 5 giant gourami, 3 red tail ~12"-14", tattooed pink ~22", & common~16", in 4500 gal. The red tails show up for a brief moment though, I need to film them better in the future.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Another video compilation of the bigger of the two unknown mahseer from Ivan Aw3s0m3 sold as golden thai mahseer. (Shot the same day as the first video)

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Here is whatever little footage I scraped up of our two Distichodus lusosso, ~15", ~2 years old, in 4500 gal. They often chase each other and engage in what appears as fighting but never show any bodily damage. Easy fish, like thawed fish but are quite fine with pellets too. Appear to play well with tank mates in 4500 gal. In smaller tanks they can be unpredictable and crabby as apparently all Distichodus.

They do engage in the same behavior with their equally-sized cousin D. sexfasciatum while leaving another one, that's roughly 2 feet, alone.

I got them from Toyin of Rehoboth Aquatics.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

We currently house 3 rescued adult Marbled Pim catfish aka Leiarius marmoratus and two of them are featured in the following video. A lot is known about them so I'll try to only mention anything noteworthy about ours.

The male (from Ft. Myers, FL) is thinner and is about 24" and is by far, like 1000x more active than the two females (I only go by their girth to sex them, having not tried anything else). He is first in the video.

Second at the end of the short footage is an ~28" female that we got about 4 years ago. She is an example that... well... things happen. I got her from a prior owner (in Sarasota, FL) out of a 4'x4'x2' rubber liner pond where it grew to ~2' along side a bunch of clown loaches and other small fish. She looked good though.

She's done well in our ponds too for a couple of years and for a year she's been fine in one of our 4500 gal. Then one day I noticed she's losing one eye, probably having got poked in it. Well, unfortunate but it is fathomable. Then some months later she broke her snout and not just at the end but the bone plate broke right about in between her eyes. I've no idea how or why it happened. She healed up apparently ok but the snout now... well, you can see for yourself, it's like a snow plow.

You try your best but sometimes things completely unpredictable happen. I still am clueless as to what happened. During that period of several months she was relatively active or might be even restless. She's been sedentary, calm before and after that period.

A third one is also ~30" (also from Ft. Myers), is sedentary, and came from a tank that was fed feeder fish sometimes, so I didn't risk placing it in the "peaceful" community. It went into the other 4500 gal with all the "street toughs" where it's been faring ok. In general, these catfish are utterly non-predatory, preferring very strongly pellets to thawed fish. Mine lived for many years along side 3" koi and other easy would-be snacks but never touched them.