Armatus with Rapheal Catfish...

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I hear you bro after that crazy videos from River Monsters of the Armatus eating another one 2/3 thirds his size and eating another one eating a PBass. Also my Armatus seems to relax at night in his calm spot so a catfish cruising around at night like a giant Gulper or even Rapheals could bother him.

I was wonder about a dozen giant leaf fish. They seem to not move much and can blend in with Anubias and cattappa leaves maybe he wont notice them and I can have a school of them living with him?

Yup. My armatus is chill all the time too. He ignores my much smaller bichirs when they go up to his face. the thing is, armatus with silver fish is a whole lot a different story. My armatus killed all the silvery fish I put in the tank. I think the leaf fish would be reasonably ok with the armatus. My large concern is that you have a beast of an armatus so his personality could be different than my 11 incher. It could be risky because my armatus did prey on my large docile angelfish. Leafish and angelfish have a quite similar shape. Cant garentee how its gonna end up in the long run. My armatus has his killing sprees at night. I'm assuming the leaf fish is going to be significantly smaller?
 
Yup. My armatus is chill all the time too. He ignores my much smaller bichirs when they go up to his face. the thing is, armatus with silver fish is a whole lot a different story. My armatus killed all the silvery fish I put in the tank. I think the leaf fish would be reasonably ok with the armatus. My large concern is that you have a beast of an armatus so his personality could be different than my 11 incher. It could be risky because my armatus did prey on my large docile angelfish. Leafish and angelfish have a quite similar shape. Cant garentee how its gonna end up in the long run. My armatus has his killing sprees at night. I'm assuming the leaf fish is going to be significantly smaller?

Lmao you trust it with bichirs LOL. Mine ate 2 endili LOL. endili were 5-6" and arm was 7-8" xD.


I my arm with GCK. the did fine for little while...then fighting starting GCK started to kick its ass..then tables turned..had to rehome the GCK
 
Lmao you trust it with bichirs LOL. Mine ate 2 endili LOL. endili were 5-6" and arm was 7-8" xD.


I my arm with GCK. the did fine for little while...then fighting starting GCK started to kick its ass..then tables turned..had to rehome the GCK

yup nothing bad has happened yet. lol Lives peacefully together for a year.

knifes are difference since the knife like to pick fights with fish. The armatus will obviously want to fight back.
 
yup nothing bad has happened yet. lol Lives peacefully together for a year.

knifes are difference since the knife like to pick fights with fish. The armatus will obviously want to fight back.

how long you have yours for.


OP, just put fish bigger then it or same size.you should be good
 
how long you have yours for.


OP, just put fish bigger then it or same size.you should be good

I have had my weeksi, retropinnis, and dehezi for around 2 years now. They never grow. They are around 6 inches. I had them before my armatus. I got my armatus around this time last year. They have been living in harmony for that amount of time. Even when my armatus had his 1 month long hunger strike, he didn't lay a fin on my bichirs. lol
 
how long you have yours for.


OP, just put fish bigger then it or same size.you should be good

I hear you bro that would be nice. When I transfer the Armatus I am gonna do a measurement. I been estimating 22"+. Seems most of the fish I think are cool at that size like Black Arowanas and Clown Knifes I have gotten advice of them being territorial and cool catfish would bother him at night. My Armatus has always lived alone. My plan was to have 3 Armatus but seems I hear that might not be able to last forever.
 
I hear you bro that would be nice. When I transfer the Armatus I am gonna do a measurement. I been estimating 22"+. Seems most of the fish I think are cool at that size like Black Arowanas and Clown Knifes I have gotten advice of them being territorial and cool catfish would bother him at night. My Armatus has always lived alone. My plan was to have 3 Armatus but seems I hear that might not be able to last forever.

i think your safest option is just to keep the armatus alone for the rest of his life since he's a big boy now. A monster like that is too risky to lose. Usually when a fish like armatus is kept alone for so long, it'll just think the entire tank is his turf. Little way to change that. Usually successful cohabs happens when you introduce fish when they are smaller. Just my opinion.
 
What about a huge Royal Blue Eyed Plecostomus. I have always loved those guys. Do they eat hikari pellets and would be suitable tank mates?

I see the legend on here with 3 Armatus. So I do have hope to have a few of them in my tank. But from what I have seen of my Armatus he is a bold beast that does not tolerate any living creature. Hopefully he will change with more room to swim next week. :popcorn:

Ive talked to more than a couple asian fish keepers and they are keeping multiple adult payara, and payara tigerfish combos with years of success. My lil brother is in japan and the payara have been readily available to them for years over there, so they have tried a lot more combos with the fish than we have. Most people over here that i talk to have had one armartus its not full grown and have never tried a combo that would pose any threat to their army. All their info comes from the internet or somebody told them who hasnt really tried and combos either. Most of them paid so much for tiny little armys they were afriad of losing them, now that the price has droped i think u will see a lot more combos. Anytime you keep large predators u run the risk of something going wrong,but i belive much off the stuff we here comes from folks who just couldnt risk losing their prize possesion. Im thinking of doing multiple payara myself if i dont get some gobys im waiting on, starting to shuffle some stuff now so i can grab 2 more bigger tanks. Also think u might have a problem because of the size of your fish but u never know until u try LOL.
 
Ive talked to more than a couple asian fish keepers and they are keeping multiple adult payara, and payara tigerfish combos with years of success. My lil brother is in japan and the payara have been readily available to them for years over there, so they have tried a lot more combos with the fish than we have. Most people over here that i talk to have had one armartus its not full grown and have never tried a combo that would pose any threat to their army. All their info comes from the internet or somebody told them who hasnt really tried and combos either. Most of them paid so much for tiny little armys they were afriad of losing them, now that the price has droped i think u will see a lot more combos. Anytime you keep large predators u run the risk of something going wrong,but i belive much off the stuff we here comes from folks who just couldnt risk losing their prize possesion. Im thinking of doing multiple payara myself if i dont get some gobys im waiting on, starting to shuffle some stuff now so i can grab 2 more bigger tanks. Also think u might have a problem because of the size of your fish but u never know until u try LOL.

Any smaller fish is pretty much a goner with a solo 22 inch armatus. lol

haha like I said, the asain fishkeepers most likely kept a large group of armatus and then eventually were down to a small 3. Armatus are very risky fish to cohab but no body seems to like that fact. Sure there are the lucky ones whose fish is left unscathed from the worst.

here's a little link to answer your question: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?276316-updates-on-recently-aquired-Armatus

the life story of a guy trying to cohab a large group of armatus and ATFs. not saying your idea is going to end up this way but it's definitely possible.
 
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