Dat personality

[islandguy11]

Getting back to your original question jaws7777 -- cool as they are, I personally wouldn't call Datnoids very interactive fish, esp. when they're younger and more shy -- in a decorated tank they'll likely be hiding as much as swimming about, so it's possible your son might lose interest in a Dat after a bit, they're such slow growers it seems to take a lot of patience. I've had my Thinbar/NTT for about 6 months now -- just finally hitting a nice little growth spurt now, but he's still quite shy compared to most other fish I've had. krichardson has mentioned he'll likely get bolder as he gets bigger/older, which I'm sure is true, but again quite a bit of patience involved to where most Dats could be considered mildly interactive (and could never compare to say an Oscar or Flowerhorn in this regard). Just my 2 cents bro (and based on limited Datnoid ownership), not trying to totally turn him off about Dats, they really are awesome fish, just not what I would really call super interactive as bigger fish go.

Also the bigger ones I've seen at LFS (~18"-22") aren't shy at all, but they just float around chilling, and again don't seem particularly lively or interactive, impressive though they may be.

Btw, have you considered a Flagtail? Really cool fish, will clean the living daylights out of any tank and they have quite a bit more character than most Dats imho.

Actually my Dat and Flagtail are best buddies (the Dat uses the FT as kind of a big dither fish, makes him more confident to come out. Then he has the audacity to steal food from right in front of the the FT's mouth lol).

 

[jaws7777]

Getting back to your original question jaws7777 -- cool as they are, I personally wouldn't call Datnoids very interactive fish, esp. when they're younger and more shy -- in a decorated tank they'll likely be hiding as much as swimming about, so it's possible your son might lose interest in a Dat after a bit, they're such slow growers it seems to take a lot of patience. I've had my Thinbar/NTT for about 6 months now -- just finally hitting a nice little growth spurt now, but he's still quite shy compared to most other fish I've had. krichardson has mentioned he'll likely get bolder as he gets bigger/older, which I'm sure is true, but again quite a bit of patience involved to where most Dats could be considered mildly interactive (and could never compare to say an Oscar or Flowerhorn in this regard). Just my 2 cents bro (and based on limited Datnoid ownership), not trying to totally turn him off about Dats, they really are awesome fish, just not what I would really call super interactive as bigger fish go.

Also the bigger ones I've seen at LFS (~18"-22") aren't shy at all, but they just float around chilling, and again don't seem particularly lively or interactive, impressive though they may be.

Btw, have you considered a Flagtail? Really cool fish, will clean the living daylights out of any tank and they have quite a bit more character than most Dats imho.

Actually my Dat and Flagtail are best buddies (the Dat uses the FT as kind of a big dither fish, makes him more confident to come out. Then he has the audacity to steal food from right in front of the the FT's mouth).

View attachment 1366173

Thx bud. Absolutely good stuff. Better for him to read both sides of the debate.

Nice dat btw. These fish never really interested me until recently.

 

[Matteus]

Getting back to your original question jaws7777 -- cool as they are, I personally wouldn't call Datnoids very interactive fish, esp. when they're younger and more shy -- in a decorated tank they'll likely be hiding as much as swimming about, so it's possible your son might lose interest in a Dat after a bit, they're such slow growers it seems to take a lot of patience. I've had my Thinbar/NTT for about 6 months now -- just finally hitting a nice little growth spurt now, but he's still quite shy compared to most other fish I've had. krichardson has mentioned he'll likely get bolder as he gets bigger/older, which I'm sure is true, but again quite a bit of patience involved to where most Dats could be considered mildly interactive (and could never compare to say an Oscar or Flowerhorn in this regard). Just my 2 cents bro (and based on limited Datnoid ownership), not trying to totally turn him off about Dats, they really are awesome fish, just not what I would really call super interactive as bigger fish go.

Also the bigger ones I've seen at LFS (~18"-22") aren't shy at all, but they just float around chilling, and again don't seem particularly lively or interactive, impressive though they may be.

Btw, have you considered a Flagtail? Really cool fish, will clean the living daylights out of any tank and they have quite a bit more character than most Dats imho.

Actually my Dat and Flagtail are best buddies (the Dat uses the FT as kind of a big dither fish, makes him more confident to come out. Then he has the audacity to steal food from right in front of the the FT's mouth lol).

View attachment 1366173

I agree with this. Brilliant idea of the flagtail. I have a few now. My wife loves them. Won’t let me get rid of them. They are smiley looking and have kissey faces when they are sucking algae or pellets.

 

[Matteus]

They also seem to mimic other fish. My smaller one thought it was a pbass for a long time and would attack food like them, and couldn’t figure out why the bass would chase it away. My big one thinks it is a tinfoil barb, he chases the tfb’s atound playfully like they do to each other, and often shoal together. Lol

 

[islandguy11]

They also seem to mimic other fish. My smaller one thought it was a pbass for a long time and would attack food like them, and couldn’t figure out why the bass would chase it away. My big one thinks it is a tinfoil barb, he chases the tfb’s atound playfully like they do to each other, and often shoal together. Lol

Totally agreed on this! When I first brought home my FT and put him in with (my first, RIP) Xback, he started following around the Xback and acting like he was an Arowana lol (until the Xback got sick of his antics and made it known she didn't really want to be friends).

 

[Matteus]

Getting back to your original question jaws7777 -- cool as they are, I personally wouldn't call Datnoids very interactive fish, esp. when they're younger and more shy -- in a decorated tank they'll likely be hiding as much as swimming about, so it's possible your son might lose interest in a Dat after a bit, they're such slow growers it seems to take a lot of patience. I've had my Thinbar/NTT for about 6 months now -- just finally hitting a nice little growth spurt now, but he's still quite shy compared to most other fish I've had. krichardson has mentioned he'll likely get bolder as he gets bigger/older, which I'm sure is true, but again quite a bit of patience involved to where most Dats could be considered mildly interactive (and could never compare to say an Oscar or Flowerhorn in this regard). Just my 2 cents bro (and based on limited Datnoid ownership), not trying to totally turn him off about Dats, they really are awesome fish, just not what I would really call super interactive as bigger fish go.

Also the bigger ones I've seen at LFS (~18"-22") aren't shy at all, but they just float around chilling, and again don't seem particularly lively or interactive, impressive though they may be.

Btw, have you considered a Flagtail? Really cool fish, will clean the living daylights out of any tank and they have quite a bit more character than most Dats imho.

Actually my Dat and Flagtail are best buddies (the Dat uses the FT as kind of a big dither fish, makes him more confident to come out. Then he has the audacity to steal food from right in front of the the FT's mouth lol).

View attachment 1366173

Ps. This flagtail is gorgeous by the way. Still has so much colour. What size is it in this pic?

 

[islandguy11]

I agree with this. Brilliant idea of the flagtail. I have a few now. My wife loves them. Won’t let me get rid of them. They are smiley looking and have kissey faces when they are sucking algae or pellets.

Nice pix Matthew, I can understand why you wife likes them so much. Btw, I'd keep an eye on your Flagtails and your new Stingray -- I saw that big FT at my LFS slurping on the slime coat of a huge Stingray last time I was there.

 

[Matteus]

Nice pix Matthew, I can understand why you wife likes them so much. Btw, I'd keep an eye on your Flagtails and your new Stingray -- I saw that big FT at my LFS slurping on the slime coat of a huge Stingray last time I was there.

I have been watching like a hawk. So far no one cares about the rays body, but most are interested in the tail that sticks out of the sand. I hope no one grabs on or they might not make it.

 

[islandguy11]

Ps. This flagtail is gorgeous by the way. Still has so much colour. What size is it in this pic?

Thx. That pic was about 2 or 3 weeks ago, about 7.5" I'd guess, but still growing like a sprout. Here's one from yesterday, with natural indirect sun light, tank lighting off.

 

[jaws7777]

Well you guys sure do make FT appealing.

My little guy read through the threads. Even asked if we were going to krichardsons house after dinner lmaooo.

Like father like son the whole IT, NTT and so on confused the crap out of him. He really likes them even though theres a chance we could strike out with personality. He likes the idea of trying to train it to hand feed from a young age. A buddy is gonna pick up a small indo for me some time this week.