I personally like dorado the most due to their activity and ferociousness. Once they turn gold they are some of the coolest fish. I have always sided with dorado because I am an angler and love salmon and trout fishing and its like having a bull trout on steroids that turns gold.
Need to make a choice
- Thread starter nzafi
- Start date
Quason778
and
greenerinks
and
fugupuff
Thank you all three. I am actually thinking of trying a community between and GATF and an aimara. I am thinking of getting a GATF and beginning to grow it out over the next year so it can get to around 12in or so. Once it puts on some size I can then add an aimara that is smaller say around 7in or so. When I add the aimara I can always add some silver dollars. My biggest concern is the aimara will just put on a lot more size quicker than the GATF and if that happens he will become dinner. Definitely will need the bigger tank once I start adding the other fish because I don't 180g can support an aimara, gatf, and silver dollars for long.
C
Chicxulub
just wanted to get your expertise on this approach if you dont mind.
Btw - what is the tolerance to nitrates for these guys? I know there is always reference to pristine water but what does that mean? Is that always nitrates below 5-10ppm? I do 50% water changes every 5 days and even with just one aimara the nitrates will build up over time to between 15-25ppm. For you that keep ATF, are doing doing multiple times a week water changes or drip systems?
Btw - what is the tolerance to nitrates for these guys? I know there is always reference to pristine water but what does that mean? Is that always nitrates below 5-10ppm? I do 50% water changes every 5 days and even with just one aimara the nitrates will build up over time to between 15-25ppm. For you that keep ATF, are doing doing multiple times a week water changes or drip systems?
N nzafi interesting to note.. my GATF went from 12" to 19" within the first year actually.. this was by far the fastest GATF I have raised. I've had about half a dozen others that grew much slower. In regards to skittishness and personality, it depends on the individual fish. The big guy I have right now is not afraid of me and wasn't ever really to begin with. I've had another smaller one that seemed to be fine too, the rest of them seem to be much more nervous. That being said, bent snouts and broken noses was never really an issue even in my 6ft long tanks. I really don't think you need anything more than a 10x4 to house a monster comm. I can tell you I don't monitor my fish 24/7 but at the least once a day to feed and since mine are already larger, I skip one or two days a week of feeding. A large GATF just as
Thank you for your input. The reason they grow faster in Asia is, 1. live food/feeder is abundant and cheap. and in most warmer countries, like Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, water is plentiful, warm and cheap as well. So the frequent high volume freshwater supply with live food is the absolute recipe for fast growth.
In USA we use cut shrimp because feeders are expensive and often not healthy, and places like California water is premium. Last year people were fined for using too much water. These factors inhibit growth. In the wild, often fish probably detect some dissolved solute, or hormones in concentrated water and slow their growth to avoid dying in a dry out. Especially fish that live in extreme environments.
My biggest concern is the aimara will just put on a lot more size quicker than the GATF and if that happens he will become dinner. Definitely will need the bigger tank once I start adding the other fish because I don't 180g can support an aimara, gatf, and silver dollars for long.
I actually have all 3 of the said fish in stock right now. growth rate is fastest for dorado, then aimara, and then goliath, in captivity.
I am going to think on it a couple nights guys. I need the 180g to last up to 2 years (could move as early as 6 months). I am afraid that a 5in GATF will outgrow the tank in that time. The aimara does not need the same swimming space as a GATF so I honestly think I could stretch a 180g to max 20in if I have to versus I doubt it would hold an 16in GATF.
Well DB has a 16-18"(?) tatf in a 180. And there's the infamous picture of the 4' gatf with the gator gar in a 4' wide tank, in the atf sticky. Chicx said somewhere, that for whatever reason atf seem to do better in smaller setups sometimes.
moe214
my GATF is pretty much almost maxing out the width of my tank currently. A big fear and legitimate concern that happens is when a gatf darts out at a fast fast speed in a large foot print space, it runs the high chance of killing itself. In a smaller tank, a fatality is less likely to happen although you can never rule it out completely.
N
nzafi
I'd say just go with it and don't over think it too much. Even if it grows fast, what happens is that the fish stop growing but will reassume a growth spurt once you can actually get an upgrade.
fugupuff
I agree with your points that live feed make a huge difference in growth but I've began to speculate that there are diff sp. of true goliaths that grow ridiculously fast. Just as I believe
KNH
has a jumbo sp of a vittatus that's grown quite fast. I've had at least 6 other gatf a that ate the same feed but grew probably 2-3x slower..
sorry about your aimara 
i would go for another aimara imo a massive aimara is a
sight to see lol.
i had a VATF that litteraly jumped out of the tank and flew across the living room and
died instantly... was about 15" and it flew across and hit the wall hard...
i would go for another aimara imo a massive aimara is a sight to see lol.
i had a VATF that litteraly jumped out of the tank and flew across the living room and
died instantly... was about 15" and it flew across and hit the wall hard...
Some interesting points but I'll play devil's advocate here because my experiences are somewhat different.
As far as atf doing better in small tanks I find that difficult to believe. They are tremendously quick fish and you want more room as opposed to less when they decide to get up and go. The people I've spoke to that have issues with them hitting the glass have kept them in smaller tanks.
I don't feed live and have experienced good growth (vatf, gatf, dorado). Feed a quality food, decent variety and an appropriate amount and they flourish.
My experience with gatf is very limited but I obtained a 10" gatf who then put on 2" in one month. I decided to sell him and go with a smaller species so I could keep him long term.
I think if you are set on these 4 choices I would go with the wolf. It may grow quickly but will probably do better than the open water predators. Good luck.
