I bought 6 vultures from snookn21 in Jun-Jul 2015 at very skinny 4". They are a lot of fun, quirky, inquisitive, active, non-hiding, and apart from a few exceptions have not proven so far their fearsome reputation IME. (See this thread for more on our 6-pack: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...ultures-and-5-black-ears.675034/#post-7584959 )
One was exceptionally thin, borderline emaciated and snookn gave it to me for free but they all proved very easy to feed and care for. They have grown to about 14"-20" today, a couple 20", a couple 17", and a couple 14", and have been in one of our 4500 gal for about a year now with a hundred of other tank mates. They like keeping together most of the time, sitting on the bottom and facing the strongest current, then once in a while they'd do their laps and settle down in their spot again. It is not uncommon for one or a few to sit separately and in a different spot with weak current, mostly the biggest ones do that.
When they were young and in a 240 gal, they would go into a wildest, highly entertaining feeding frenzy when the food hit the water, twisting and turning their bodies in an unbelievable Olympic gymnastics fashion, and flying around like Brownian motion rockets and stopping on a dime, trying hard to get each piece and last crumbs as quickly as possible and swallow as quickly as possible, pellets or cut up baitfish. Nowadays, they feed with dignity. Somewhere between 8" and 12" the frenzies stopped, perhaps right around their rehoming into the 4500 gal. So I don't really know unfortunately if they grew out of it or if it was the larger and different tank.
They don't beg and don't seem to care where their food comes from. No keeper interaction have I noted in 4500 gal.
Here is their updated video and some photos / videos from when they were younger:
Here they are early on, ~1 month after arrival, in Aug 2015, ~5", bad video but short
A photo from July 2015, got mass, not much length yet:
One was exceptionally thin, borderline emaciated and snookn gave it to me for free but they all proved very easy to feed and care for. They have grown to about 14"-20" today, a couple 20", a couple 17", and a couple 14", and have been in one of our 4500 gal for about a year now with a hundred of other tank mates. They like keeping together most of the time, sitting on the bottom and facing the strongest current, then once in a while they'd do their laps and settle down in their spot again. It is not uncommon for one or a few to sit separately and in a different spot with weak current, mostly the biggest ones do that.
When they were young and in a 240 gal, they would go into a wildest, highly entertaining feeding frenzy when the food hit the water, twisting and turning their bodies in an unbelievable Olympic gymnastics fashion, and flying around like Brownian motion rockets and stopping on a dime, trying hard to get each piece and last crumbs as quickly as possible and swallow as quickly as possible, pellets or cut up baitfish. Nowadays, they feed with dignity. Somewhere between 8" and 12" the frenzies stopped, perhaps right around their rehoming into the 4500 gal. So I don't really know unfortunately if they grew out of it or if it was the larger and different tank.
They don't beg and don't seem to care where their food comes from. No keeper interaction have I noted in 4500 gal.
Here is their updated video and some photos / videos from when they were younger:
Here they are early on, ~1 month after arrival, in Aug 2015, ~5", bad video but short
A photo from July 2015, got mass, not much length yet:
