Taking a gamble - Hoping these are H. Brevis ATF.

[Red Aimara]

A new batch of juvenile ATFs came in to one of my friendly LFS.

Labelled as just ATFs, the store owner told me non of them are VATFs, possibly FAFTs with some contaminants.





Since they had just arrived, I waited for a week for their colours to "come back" as they are kept in a dark based tank.

Having gone thru the ATF ID thread countless times as well as digging and reading thru a lot of the Brevis ID posts here....I took a chance and bought two of the ones shown up there with "huge" heads and thicker body.

 

[Red Aimara]

As I am keeping a FAFT myself currently, I pretty confident in at least differentiating the Sahelian Tigers from the rest.

Step 1 - ruling out those with colours on both tail lobes; this will separate the VATFs (possibly TATF) from the rest.

Step 2 - The adipose fin colours on FATFs are really light grey to almost transparent; even the 12 inch one I am keeping does not have any dark or black pigmentation.



And surprisingly, the few large ones has some darker adipose fins (can really be seen on the pictures) compared to the smaller ones.

Step 3 - Thicker body and bigger head shape.



Based on the guide pic above, those smaller ones with slender body shape are ruled out and I picked two of them with the following features: thicker bodied, massive heads and pronounced underbite (to minimise the chances of VATF in case they are too small to show the full coloured tails at this moment.)

So there you go. My process of trying to "buy" a Brevis and hopefully they won't turned out to be something else.

The fishes will be kept at the LFS for another 2 weeks before I get their growout home set up. If they do grow into VATFs then I will probably sell them off.

Wish me luck!

 

[kno4te]

Good luck friend!

 

[nzafi]

Red Aimara where are you located?

 

[moe214]

What are the plans if they are brevis? As I'm sure you read the sticky lol

 

[Red Aimara]

Red Aimara where are you located?

Based in Southeat Asia bro.

 

[Red Aimara]

What are the plans if they are brevis? As I'm sure you read the sticky lol

I'd assumed you meant their potential size and ferocity?

There will be plans to build a pond if I managed to them to their fullest potential - or would keep one or two of my ATFs as showpieces and sell the rest.


In terms of aggression, I am thinking based on current size...they will not outgrow the current ATF comm in coming months or years. As with my Hoplias tank, will probably try the tested methods of peacekeepers, dithers and strong flow to things under control.

 

[moe214]

I was saying this because they are said to be more aggressive to other fish in general when compared to their cousins due to a feeding behavior in the wild where they prey on larger fish and are said to be much more bold. The sticky has a video of a 6" one that was supposedly bullying a gatf almost twice its size I believe, go read the brevis area of it you'll see why I asked lol

 

[greenerinks]

Nice work red, I think those are indeed actually brevis. Your logic in reasoning is sound and is exactly how I would have approached it. I can't wait until I get my hands on all the ATF species as well. Hope they grow fast so you could do the ultimate ATF comm next year!

 

[Red Aimara]

I was saying this because they are said to be more aggressive to other fish in general when compared to their cousins due to a feeding behavior in the wild where they prey on larger fish and are said to be much more bold. The sticky has a video of a 6" one that was supposedly bullying a gatf almost twice its size I believe, go read the brevis area of it you'll see why I asked lol

Believe me. I went thru the guide easily more than 5 times. LOL!

This is the very same reason I bought two as grow outs. Besides having an extra one as replacement, I'd hope their temperaments will be individualistic - giving me a choice to keep the one with a better suited behaviour.