Two vittatus African tigerfish, ~16", in 4500 gal

[nzafi]

Many thanks, bro. That this 40" GATF is a killer I fathomed. I appreciated learning that some GATF reach 3'+ in as short a time as 4-5 years and can be apparently much more aggressive than previously thought... or simply more aggressive than others.

I used to go by what I had read that ATF leave fish they don't consider food alone, that is large enough fish. Boy, has that blown up in my face just now...

I also appreciated the helpful discussion about the water current needed for ATF in here https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...to-create-ideal-current-for-atf.672585/page-2

FWIW, my genetic makeup is 4/8th Belarussian, 3/8th Russian, 1/8th Chinese But yes, I am a Russian for all intents and purposes. Made in USSR. How do you like them Russian wives, huh? I got myself one too.

What's in your genes?

Naples, Italy or Naples, FL? There is a big difference! Just teasing yah. It'd be awesome to meet you and your family.

For that GATF, he did mention that he thinks the aggressive coincides with breeding season. If you got the GATF from Wes, you might have the ones that grow fast. He got them at 4in but he told me they had hit 6in already. greenerinks has a GATF that has shown remarkable growth. I have given up on my gatf experiment for now

I meant Naples FL, but I would prefer if they retired to Naples Italy, then I could send my daughter to Europe for the summers I have a odd history. Me, my parents, and grandparents are all of Greek descent, but my father was born in Sudan, my mother and I in South Africa, and then we ended up in NJ. My brother spent 2 years in Moscow for work so he has picked up lots of Russian. We send my daughter to Russian daycare so she is fluent in Enlgish, Russian, and learning some Greek. At some point I will need to learn more Russian that just random words

Cant wait to see how your GATF do as you grow them out.

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

I meant Naples FL, but I would prefer if they retired to Naples Italy, then I could send my daughter to Europe for the summers I have a odd history. Me, my parents, and grandparents are all of Greek descent, but my father was born in Sudan, my mother and I in South Africa, and then we ended up in NJ. My brother spent 2 years in Moscow for work so he has picked up lots of Russian. We send my daughter to Russian daycare so she is fluent in Enlgish, Russian, and learning some Greek. At some point I will need to learn more Russian that just random words

Kinda derailing the thread but my background somewhat like your background LOL
I was born in Viet Nam but grew up in Japan, lived in Hong Kong for few years after I finished College, then moved to South Korea for few years then ended up in America Sometime I don't know I'm a Vietnamese or a Japanese or Korean cause I can speak their languages and now I'm US citizen hahaha. However, I wish someday I will retire and live in a nice peaceful nature scenery in some part Japan Country side and enjoy my nature 24/7 drip system Koi pond

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

For that GATF, he did mention that he thinks the aggressive coincides with breeding season. If you got the GATF from Wes, you might have the ones that grow fast. He got them at 4in but he told me they had hit 6in already. greenerinks has a GATF that has shown remarkable growth. I have given up on my gatf experiment for now

I meant Naples FL, but I would prefer if they retired to Naples Italy, then I could send my daughter to Europe for the summers I have a odd history. Me, my parents, and grandparents are all of Greek descent, but my father was born in Sudan, my mother and I in South Africa, and then we ended up in NJ. My brother spent 2 years in Moscow for work so he has picked up lots of Russian. We send my daughter to Russian daycare so she is fluent in Enlgish, Russian, and learning some Greek. At some point I will need to learn more Russian that just random words

Cant wait to see how your GATF do as you grow them out.

Yes, I got my GATF from Wes. They are eating machines. If I skip a meal or two, they start going after tank mates of equal size. Too early to say anything definitive about their growth but they definitely grew notably in the 3 weeks I have had them. greenerinks what growth rate are you seeing?

 

[greenerinks]

I got mine at around 11" or so around I would say just under two years ago. It grew to 20+" (close to 22") as it's getting hard for her to turn around in a 2 feet wide tank.. I don't think she's grown much for awhile now, maybe 4-5 months. I went through a 2 month starvation period on her as she use to only eat live. Now she can eat no joke 25 small/medium market prawns in a single go.. has never killed another similar size tankmate, but killed many other smaller ones such as silver dollars/tinfoil barbs as dithers. She's taken quite a few chunks from my BD ray including tail sections... i need to get a much bigger setup going soon and I'm afraid to even move her when the time comes.

 

[nzafi]

I got mine at around 11" or so around I would say just under two years ago. It grew to 20+" (close to 22") as it's getting hard for her to turn around in a 2 feet wide tank.. I don't think she's grown much for awhile now, maybe 4-5 months. I went through a 2 month starvation period on her as she use to only eat live. Now she can eat no joke 25 small/medium market prawns in a single go.. has never killed another similar size tankmate, but killed many other smaller ones such as silver dollars/tinfoil barbs as dithers. She's taken quite a few chunks from my BD ray including tail sections... i need to get a much bigger setup going soon and I'm afraid to even move her when the time comes.

View attachment 1238248

I look at this pic end read this and makes me so annoyed how I screwed up with my gatf and didn't do better with it.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I got mine at around 11" or so around I would say just under two years ago. It grew to 20+" (close to 22") as it's getting hard for her to turn around in a 2 feet wide tank.. I don't think she's grown much for awhile now, maybe 4-5 months. I went through a 2 month starvation period on her as she use to only eat live. Now she can eat no joke 25 small/medium market prawns in a single go.. has never killed another similar size tankmate, but killed many other smaller ones such as silver dollars/tinfoil barbs as dithers. She's taken quite a few chunks from my BD ray including tail sections... i need to get a much bigger setup going soon and I'm afraid to even move her when the time comes.

View attachment 1238248

Thanks for the info, brother! So that's comparable to Ariberto's GATF growth, 22" for a 3-4 year old versus 40" for a 4-5 year old. How did it lose the eye? Yea, rehoming it will be a nightmare. Might want to pay a vet to sedate it, unless you yourself are proficient with sedatives. Beware of overdose. It's easy to OD and kill a fish.

If you guys are saying that this is the fast-growing kind, what's the norm for the slow ones?

I look at this pic end read this and makes me so annoyed how I screwed up with my gatf and didn't do better with it.

Haven't you just got GATF from Wes this month?

 

[nzafi]

thebiggerthebetter Yup. I got a GATF from Wes early in Feb and within 2 weeks it was dead. Can't be 100% sure of cause but I am confident it starved to death. It was not taking cut filet (tilapia) and was not accepting pellets (carnisticks). I had 3 3in tinfoil barbs to help train him but it did not help. I figured if he was hungry enough he would attack the barbs but he did not. I should have thrown some guppies in there just in case but thought he would last longer while fasting. I was wrong. I have since picked up a 4-5in suriname aimara from Wes instead.

From what I have read in threads for GATF growth is the fast ones putting on essentially 3/4 to 1in per month essentially like Greenricks. The slower ones was probably 1/2in or less. I have read of folks having a GATF for 3 years and its 16-18in. No idea how much is related to diet and tank size versus there being slow/fast GATF.

 

[greenerinks]

Here in china it seems that GATF has already been dissected as two sub sp.. they look almost identical besides minor diff to about and broadness top down (thicker than usual). Mine has been raised under my care in a tank smaller than many on this board 180x60x70 while growing faster than most. As for how it lost its eye, it was like this when I got her. Apparently suffered from a laceration from another true gatf of the same batch. When I got it, there was only 3 and all of them were slashing each other up pretty viciously. Funny thing is though, I had a vatf of similar size during that time and the vatf was the absolute boss between the few gatf tankmates. The vatf eventually got destroyed by a smaller dorado when I left it the vatf for healing. Even today while I'm planning my new monster tank, I'm still reluctant to house the dorado and gatf together... gatf with one eye is at too much disadvantage and if the other eye gets ****ed, game over. Just waiting to get it set up now....

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

thebiggerthebetter Yup. I got a GATF from Wes early in Feb and within 2 weeks it was dead. Can't be 100% sure of cause but I am confident it starved to death. It was not taking cut filet (tilapia) and was not accepting pellets (carnisticks). I had 3 3in tinfoil barbs to help train him but it did not help. I figured if he was hungry enough he would attack the barbs but he did not. I should have thrown some guppies in there just in case but thought he would last longer while fasting. I was wrong. I have since picked up a 4-5in suriname aimara from Wes instead.

From what I have read in threads for GATF growth is the fast ones putting on essentially 3/4 to 1in per month essentially like Greenricks. The slower ones was probably 1/2in or less. I have read of folks having a GATF for 3 years and its 16-18in. No idea how much is related to diet and tank size versus there being slow/fast GATF.

Hmm... sorry to hear that. I got 6 GATF from Wes at ~3" and placed them in a 240 gal with 10 juruense catfish also at ~3"-4". They started taking cut thawed fish within 1-2 days all by themselves along with thawed bloodworms too. When I missed 1 or 2 feedings, they killed one juruense, the smallest one of course. I must feed them on the clock.

I am guessing yours was not comfortable alone / in that setup and hence never developed a healthy appetite. They are very jumpy when small. Dithers help with them tremendously it seems. IDK why they haven't in your case. I agree that a 2 week fast for a 3"-4" GATF is too much, in fact I am surprised it lasted that long. I'd be pulling my hair out after 3-4 days...

Thank you for the growth info. Yea, that's what I remember reading too - 2-3 year old GATF not reaching even 1.5'. It's interesting that Greenerinks raised his in a 6'x2'.

Here in china it seems that GATF has already been dissected as two sub sp.. they look almost identical besides minor diff to about and broadness top down (thicker than usual). Mine has been raised under my care in a tank smaller than many on this board 180x60x70 while growing faster than most. As for how it lost its eye, it was like this when I got her. Apparently suffered from a laceration from another true gatf of the same batch. When I got it, there was only 3 and all of them were slashing each other up pretty viciously. Funny thing is though, I had a vatf of similar size during that time and the vatf was the absolute boss between the few gatf tankmates. The vatf eventually got destroyed by a smaller dorado when I left it the vatf for healing. Even today while I'm planning my new monster tank, I'm still reluctant to house the dorado and gatf together... gatf with one eye is at too much disadvantage and if the other eye gets ****ed, game over. Just waiting to get it set up now....

Thanks for this. I am a bit dubious about the GATF subspecies but IDK the state of ATF taxonomy. Is it well established and feels like it is finished off (it never is, hence, I am saying "feels")? Judging from Chicxulub's efforts, it is not well established though, so you may be right then...

I didn't get it - did you get 3 GATF or were there 3 when you were buying yours and got just that one? Was it the biggest?

Who was housed with your VATF? How many GATF?

That's disturbing that the 3 GATF were so vicious to each other. I thought they'd be schooling. Albeit when I had 5 small VATF they schooled and when I had 3 one-footers they enforced dominance earnestly, no schooling whatsoever then, and they, probably, ended up killing the gamma VATF, so now I only have two left, one's most clearly dominant but not bigger.

Well, you saw the result of Ariberto's 2' dorado + 40" GATF = dead dorado. I've had a 10" dorado with my 16" VATF pair and they did seemingly ok. They spent maybe a month or so together in 4500 gal. At first I was worried for the dorado. Then I was worried for everyone else in that 4500 gal - dorado is arguably the nastiest fish that has ever been kept in our hobby. That's what our legend Michael Bryce aka A arapaimag told me once and that's what I have been learning firsthand too with my first dorado (S. franciscanus according to moe214 ).

I pulled the dorado out of 4500 gal after it almost destroyed several other fish, including two 18" yellowcheeks and now it's been busy for the last week harassing a 2x bigger pacu in a 240 gal. It oozes hate toward that pacu, who had been in isolation before for being a jerk to other fish, including relentlessly biting fins of four 14" green wolves.

 

[nzafi]

thebiggerthebetter I think you are right about the cause of not eating. Others have had luck with 1 ATF and just a couple barbs but for whatever reason it did not work with me. If I branch into ATF again I will probably get 3-4 and then sell some off as they get bigger.

I really like my new aimara from Wes though. Hope he becomes a monster. Do you have any aimara or just just the green wolves you mentioned? Btw, for your FRP you assembled on-site but its massive. Do you know if the company ships some of their FRP is assembled state?