Five 2.5'-3' nigers and three 10"-18" granulosus in 4500 gal
- Thread starter thebiggerthebetter
- Start date
Road trip to Predatory Fins, Boca Raton, Florida, USA. Swapping large fish - tropical gar, niger catfish, and oscars - for smaller fish - Lithodoras dorsalis, gulper catfish, black ear shark catfish, Aral barbel, Indo-Pacific tarpon, and Chinese hi fin loaches:
A wonderful 12-years long story by Egon about his niger. ~12 yo, 3 feet, 28 pounds: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/new-cat-niger.318905
I'll copy my post from Egon's thread too:
"A wonderful story and an amazing follow through. This is great to learn from. Thank you so much!
Nigers can live many decades, I am guessing 50 years should be achievable in the right conditions. Our oldest is a rescue named Gill at 31 years old currently, we got him at 25 years old in 2015. He spent 25 years in a 180 gal 6x2x2ft, in water having 0.5 ppm ammonia by liquid API test on average according to the keeping records through the years. His prior owners are nice, highly educated people (a medical doctor), really, just were ignorant when it came to fish and their needs. They adore Gill and still come to visit him in his 4500 gal once in a few years.
Gill grew to 34" in that 180 gal and his back / cranial is very high. I assume because of the tight tank that's the way his body decided to grow - no sense in growing in length when there no space, so let's grow in height. Currently he is well over 3 feet, perhaps around 3.5 feet. His tail is still too small for his body, as it has not been used much for 25 years.
Nigers and any fish we keep can die for great various reasons, as any pet we have, despite even seemingly good care or just our best efforts. My gut feeling when it comes to unexplained deaths is that primarily these occur from pathogens working latently inside a fish, and most usually these are new pathogens that come with new fish. At least my rescue experience with high fish turnover tells me that. Outside of the new pathogen hypothesis, care, water, diet, prior history, genetics (including wild vs farmed, mutations, care during early upbringing), presence or absence of stress at any level, low, high, or medium, all play into a fish longevity."
I'll copy my post from Egon's thread too:
"A wonderful story and an amazing follow through. This is great to learn from. Thank you so much!
Nigers can live many decades, I am guessing 50 years should be achievable in the right conditions. Our oldest is a rescue named Gill at 31 years old currently, we got him at 25 years old in 2015. He spent 25 years in a 180 gal 6x2x2ft, in water having 0.5 ppm ammonia by liquid API test on average according to the keeping records through the years. His prior owners are nice, highly educated people (a medical doctor), really, just were ignorant when it came to fish and their needs. They adore Gill and still come to visit him in his 4500 gal once in a few years.
Gill grew to 34" in that 180 gal and his back / cranial is very high. I assume because of the tight tank that's the way his body decided to grow - no sense in growing in length when there no space, so let's grow in height. Currently he is well over 3 feet, perhaps around 3.5 feet. His tail is still too small for his body, as it has not been used much for 25 years.
Nigers and any fish we keep can die for great various reasons, as any pet we have, despite even seemingly good care or just our best efforts. My gut feeling when it comes to unexplained deaths is that primarily these occur from pathogens working latently inside a fish, and most usually these are new pathogens that come with new fish. At least my rescue experience with high fish turnover tells me that. Outside of the new pathogen hypothesis, care, water, diet, prior history, genetics (including wild vs farmed, mutations, care during early upbringing), presence or absence of stress at any level, low, high, or medium, all play into a fish longevity."
Goban's Pterodoras granulosus, final size 27", 8 years old: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...d-of-my-pterodoras-granulosus-journey.745390/
Our two resident Oxydoras niger continue doing well in their 4500 gal:
Myth buster, fish don't grow to tank size: Gill 32yo niger catfish 3.5ft, 25 years in 180gal 6x2x2ft
That's a lie! The Petco employee told me my RTC would grow to the size of my 50g and it did! Now my RTC is 3ft and growing!
Three rescue 8" pterodoras from Matthew:
2ft rescue niger from Orlando:
2ft rescue niger from Orlando:
Blast from the past: June 2015, the less aggressive 4500 gal: