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....
Hey bro, atleast it won't be like the aimara and dorado lol the aimara is to slow to catch the dorado where as the gatf might just be faster coming from rapids vs the dorado's open calm waters. Ever watch the vids of them in the wild? Beautiful sight.
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...
He had made a thread about this, there are many reports of atf going up to 2 months without feeding when trying to be transferred over to live. I don't remember if it was said in the thread but it probably would have been better and made it if we had said to feed it what it wants first to know it's eating and fatten up some.
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...
According to the sticky their were I think 5 different gene pools found for vatf, so that could contribute to finding to different growth rates whether it's two different species or not.
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?
He only got one I believe, it was with other ones.
Who was housed with your VATF? How many GATF?
One vatf and one gatf, don't remember his stock lol.
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.
It is commonly known, that when small atf school tightly and loosen up as they get older but still school, which is where you'll see aggression, since they like to be a bit more separate. If I must say, 3 wouldn't school together imo. This applies to all except gatf AFAIK. Gatf in the wild get upwards of 4' as we know, they school when small like all fish for safety, but as they get larger they get increasingly more solitary so of course more aggressive towards eachother.
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
).
And a 2' fish with a 40" predator, what could you expect there lol
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.
I have a similar question as nzafi, any plan on getti an aimara
curious how big you could get it with your set ups. Wolves are my favorite.
