Argentine "big head" brassy dorado

Anyone else pick up the argentine big head brassy dorados wes had? I shot him a email real fast when I saw the list although I was skeptical they were the same as the bighead brassys. He assured me they were the same ones that sold for quite a price a year and a half ago. So naturally given wes is such a great guy and a expert I picked one up also given Robert paulsons famous temperament. It came in at around 1.9 inches Id say. Smallest dorado I've ever seen. He's a little skinnier than a pencil atm but feeding pretty good on pellets and cod. Looks reminiscent of a franky to me but rn it's super tiny and who knows its bullet shaped head may become more rounder as he starts to get up to 3-4 inches. Enjoy! And if you got an "argentine brassy" from wes too please post some pics


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DB junkie said:

Luckyyyyyyy....... Very jealous.

I could buy a cheap car with what I spent on Robert and Raymond. Yet I'd do it again. To see a pair swimming together is quite a sight......

Will be exciting to see how its temperament ends up being like.... Hopefully he's friendly like I've experienced!! Sure would be great if these guys aren't as grumpy as Frankies......

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Thanks man. Coming from you man I know you spent a fortune on them... However there is still some suspicion in my mind that this is a franky... After owning that franky I've been hooked to these guys completely fearless and so much fun. Been doing a lot of research. Rob (chicx) stated in the sticky that franciscanus are found in the Amazon and tributaries only. So it basically limits it to brazil... Or so they say... I've been doing some digging around and I've seen pictures of Uruguayan dorado and dorado from decidely subtropical regions outside of brazil that appear the same morphologically to fransiscanus. This is odd to me however because Robert is a "bighead" dorado. The shape of Roberts head distinguishes him from any dorado I've seen.
I have a couple theories:
1. the bighead is a totally different species than brasiliensis. However I like my other theory better, it seems to make more sense since those Uruguayan dorado appear the same as frankies, or:
2. The bighead is brasiliensis, and the other dorado found in Argentina and Uruguay is a subtropical geographical variant of franscicanus.
I talked to Ken about this a little and he agreed that he'll bring back some small dorado if he catches any. Hopefully I'll be able to see the difference... Might even be able to borrow my franky back from its current owner and compare them side by side with each other, since I'm not well versed in scale counting and taxonomy.
Either way with either species I'd be fine with as long as he/she plays well with everyone. That's why I sold my franky cause if he decided he didn't like a fish pretty soon it wouldn't be a fish anymore. I'm glad to see you still enjoy your dorados very much you should def post another update I reread Roberts growout thread several times actually


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Zeke said:

I have no idea what species the one that I had in 2006 or so was. It had to have either Salminus badassus or the Salminus tankterroromygodus. I was surprised when it didn't keep all of my other actually mean fish hidden in the rocks 24/7. Yeah right, Lol!!!

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Hahaha they're definitely they're probably the most awesome fish I've ever kept. I've seen some that weren't terrors but most of them including my old guy were freaking murderers. Thing killed $200 worth of fish... Sure as hell miss my elopicthys bambusa... He would be about 8-9 inches by now I'd say


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Zeke said:

Yeah, mine was really a bully. I sold it to a fellow in Tacoma, Washington at about 8-9". He was gonna put it in a big display tank in a restaurant up there in Sasquatch country.

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Nice I hope he didn't massacre everything in that tank though!


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Well it's been a week with this little guy and I can say with confidence that he's grown a full cm in less than a week! Feeds like a pig on nls and cut cod. Looks more like a argy bighead everyday. Any input or opinions or anything is appreciated! Sorry about the dirty glass and tank I'll try and clean it up by next week


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KNH said:

Nice pick up I've never seen a dorado that small. He will be a monster in no time.

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Thanks I hope so! Hopefully a peaceful monster at that!


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