Chicxulub, how often are Forskahlii brought in? I don't think I've ever seen one in a home aquarium. Also, is there any reason why they only get to 12" while the others get much larger? I've seen fishing pics and the record Forskahlii was 39 inches which is very close to vittatus, brevis, and tanzaniae. Just wondering what it is that keeps them from getting larger like their relatives.
Question for all you Armatus keepers.
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Forskahlii are normally available in small numbers year round. The are however imported like clockwork every year in a May-June timeframe.
Actually, the world record forskahlii was 9 pounds and 28 inches. It was caught by Jeff Currier; the date of capture isn't recorded. Here's a pic:
The vast majority of forskahlii caught are about a foot long and maybe a pound. Here's an example of a typically sized fish:
As for the 39 incher, that was in fact the world record vittatus as caught by Jennifer Daynes in 2001. It was 35 pounds, eight ounces. Pic:
That fish was an exceptional specimen of a large, old female. I expect now that there is an increasing fishing pressure being applied on brevis and tanzaniae, specimens comparable to this vittatus will be found of those species as well.
My pleasure.
FATF are a beautiful and very underrated fish IMO. I would love to have a school of them some day.
Ok, I feel like an absolute goober. I apparently got the dimensions wrong on my tank, I found the old paperwork and shipping manifest from the maker earlier in some documents and saw that it listed the dimensions as 96x36x24. I could have sworn that it was 96x30x24, sure enough when I measured it the dimensions are actually 36.
I can't believe that I forgot the actualy dims, and to think I almost traded it for a shorter tank.... Dodged a bit of a proverbial bullet.
So yay for me and my soon to be fish will have even more room.
I can't believe that I forgot the actualy dims, and to think I almost traded it for a shorter tank.... Dodged a bit of a proverbial bullet.
So yay for me and my soon to be fish will have even more room.
I can't believe I forgot how big the tank was. I was wondering why I kept thinking my buddies tank didn't look any wider than mine. I feel like such a goof.
I grew my Armatus to 18" in my 450 gallon and it wasn't big enough. Other fish stressed him out due to not enough room and he jumped through the overflow box and landed on the floor. The tank wasn't even overstocked so I would say 300 gallon is too small. I had a buddy that was keeping an armatus from my import in a tank over 1000 gallons and it too jumped out. You might get lucky and be able to keep it for a while but small armatus are fragile and I just recently had a 6" one die from my red neck severums harassing him. I am done with payara as they seem to require more then what we can give them.
I had Tats too and they don't even fall in the same category of personality as the armatus. Tats are boring!
I had Tats too and they don't even fall in the same category of personality as the armatus. Tats are boring!
I'm going to have to agree with you in that my tank is simply not large enough for an Armatus. Concerning tats though, I can't see how a small shoal of them can be anymore boring than the pickerel that I used to have. He would pretty much never move, just sitting in the middle of the tank waiting for food to pass by his face so he could snatch it up.
I have to admit, Armatus arent the most "fun" fish to own, or even "interact" with. But they make up for it in the coolness and rarity factor, plus the big teeth are a bonus. I rarely buy/keep fish that dont have a nice set of chompers. The wife still nags me from time to time about the armatus and how she never sees him doing anything, I just tell her that hes the king of that tank and doesnt need to do anything other than look good lol
