Armatus Payara setup

fishy5 said:

Hello this is my first post just letting you guys know! I have an Armatus Payara around 2.5 inch I was going to put him in a 55 gallon with my bass but, he was too small. I eventually decided to put him in a 20 gallon fish tank with a power filter at the top. Right now the tank has gravel, a big colosseum decoration (where the payara hides inside), some feeder fish, and of course the payara. I have 2 questions
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1. should I keep the colosseum and just keep the tank the way it is or, should I buy a big powerhead for the tank and put some driftwood and no cave to hide.

2. (this isn't really a question) My payara hides in the cave all day and comes out at night to feed,swim, and do whatever fish do. Is this bad? Should I take his hiding place out? please help!

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sunnysjourney said:

Welcome! I don't have an armatus but I'm currently housing 8 scombies . They like to hide when they are full and they like to come out and hunt when:
a) either they are hungry
b) or when a fish that can fit in their mouth swims close to them.
And I like to watch them hunt so I have my setup like this:
View attachment 1024047
This way the payaras are always visible to me. The catch is this:
With the way I have it setup, there is a chance that the payaras can injure their eyes on those branches. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that won't happen. I have had them in this setup for about a month now without any injuries.

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