Your thoughts on recent mini tiger boom

Gage Zamrzla

Blue Tier VIP
MFK Member
Jun 25, 2010
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Penn Valley, CA
What's everyone's take on the current flood of "mini tigers"? I currently have 3 at about .25" a piece. I've been told here and by a few people on another Singapore based forum that they're currently very very easy to come by. Any thoughts on if these are captive bred or if this trend is potential doom for a fish with an already iffy population and history? I've only been into fish for almost 2 years so I wasn't around for cheap STs and their decline, are these mini tigers not uncommon like I'm thinking? I'd really like to get classic-chassis, krichardson, T1 and Ade's opinion on the matter.
 

stevenrox

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Nov 11, 2008
1,234
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I AM LEGEND!
Wouldn't be surprised if they're all wild caught. A few year back we had vendors and multiple importers bringing in indos. Some as cheap as 3$ a piece. If someone is breeding them out there, I think they would focus more on ST's rather then indos.
 

Gage Zamrzla

Blue Tier VIP
MFK Member
Jun 25, 2010
1,242
167
371
Penn Valley, CA
One thing that might be worth mentioning, one of mine has the classic 4 bar look while the other two have clean 3 bars on each side. I'm not saying or guessing these are ST, I'm wondering if they're 3 bar IT or NTT. Would it be farfetched to think they could be mixed together while shipping?
 

classic-chassis

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Mar 2, 2008
1,420
1
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Thailand
All Indo, NTT, and Pulcher are wild caught.
NTT will be the next fish to become really scares out of NTT and Indo. Mainly because of where they're all caught, which is The Mekong in the north east of Thailand.
The river in that area is drying up quicker than usual in summer because of the Dams up river in China. In addition to this I only every see 2 or 3 inch fish for sale, so where are the big ones? Eaten would be my guess, the same as the ST in Thailand.
I'm also no expert on Dats. I own 3 NTTs. Never owned and indo or a pulcher. I got interested in the subject because I asked the question about captive bred indos on here. I saw thousands of tiny indos for sale in Bangkok. The were being sold in plastic bags on the side walk near Chatuckak market. Vendors were telling me captive bred, but I could find no evidence of it at all. I visited big fish farms here and saw nothing. I also visited a university to talk to the staff in the Faculty of Fisheries about the ST breeding programme in Thailand and to get their thoughts on Indo breeding, and I spoke to a member of staff at the Department of Fisheries on the same subject. I'm 100% certain Dats are not farm Bred, especially pulchers.
As for the small ones that keep being shown. I reckon some of them are real, but the vast majority are not pulcher. I've been told by 2 separate catchers and sellers of NTT to steer well clear of them, and any that are found in Bangkok's Chatuchak market are not the real thing. These guys were catching ST in Thailand years ago, they know what they're talking about and have the contacts in JJ market to get you what ever you want.
About 5 months after seeing all the baby indos in plastic bags I was offered "st" in Chatuchak market. I challenged the seller and said that it wasn't ST, but indo. He asked me how can i tell the difference, it looks the same. It was only 400BHT, compared to the normal 200BHT for regular indo.
For me there are too many clues pointing in the same direction. I might be wrong but that's my own feelings.
 

shua71

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 26, 2009
933
0
46
Los Angeles
I haven't seen any here in socal? So I wouldn't really call it a boom. What puzzles me is that I know they're not captive bred because it would be posted up everywhere online. But how the hell do you catch a .25" fish in a river?
 

Ade

Piranha
MFK Member
Jun 7, 2008
3,534
28
81
London
All Indo, NTT, and Pulcher are wild caught.
NTT will be the next fish to become really scares out of NTT and Indo. Mainly because of where they're all caught, which is The Mekong in the north east of Thailand.
The river in that area is drying up quicker than usual in summer because of the Dams up river in China. In addition to this I only every see 2 or 3 inch fish for sale, so where are the big ones? Eaten would be my guess, the same as the ST in Thailand.
I'm also no expert on Dats. I own 3 NTTs. Never owned and indo or a pulcher. I got interested in the subject because I asked the question about captive bred indos on here. I saw thousands of tiny indos for sale in Bangkok. The were being sold in plastic bags on the side walk near Chatuckak market. Vendors were telling me captive bred, but I could find no evidence of it at all. I visited big fish farms here and saw nothing. I also visited a university to talk to the staff in the Faculty of Fisheries about the ST breeding programme in Thailand and to get their thoughts on Indo breeding, and I spoke to a member of staff at the Department of Fisheries on the same subject. I'm 100% certain Dats are not farm Bred, especially pulchers.
As for the small ones that keep being shown. I reckon some of them are real, but the vast majority are not pulcher. I've been told by 2 separate catchers and sellers of NTT to steer well clear of them, and any that are found in Bangkok's Chatuchak market are not the real thing. These guys were catching ST in Thailand years ago, they know what they're talking about and have the contacts in JJ market to get you what ever you want.
About 5 months after seeing all the baby indos in plastic bags I was offered "st" in Chatuchak market. I challenged the seller and said that it wasn't ST, but indo. He asked me how can i tell the difference, it looks the same. It was only 400BHT, compared to the normal 200BHT for regular indo.
For me there are too many clues pointing in the same direction. I might be wrong but that's my own feelings.
Nice one classic...! Your post says it all.
Could not agree more
 

simoncym.

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Oct 25, 2009
355
1
33
singapore
What's everyone's take on the current flood of "mini tigers"? I currently have 3 at about .25" a piece. I've been told here and by a few people on another Singapore based forum that they're currently very very easy to come by. Any thoughts on if these are captive bred or if this trend is potential doom for a fish with an already iffy population and history? I've only been into fish for almost 2 years so I wasn't around for cheap STs and their decline, are these mini tigers not uncommon like I'm thinking? I'd really like to get classic-chassis, krichardson, T1 and Ade's opinion on the matter.
why didnt ask for my advise...:popcorn:
 
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