Any Vieja fans out there??

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terrors r us

Plecostomus
MFK Member
Feb 23, 2006
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Edmonton,Canada
HI, I used to own synspiluns and black belts and I have learned that black belts
are much more aggresive. The BB would of easily killed the synspilums if I did't interject.
A friend of mine used to own some bi-faciatums and they too were very aggresive.
My question is ;in a 200 gallon tank would these three species plus a fenustrus , zonatus
and an argentea. I would like to get 6 juvies of each and at the end only keep a breeding pair of each species in the 200gal tank. Would this work??????
 
It would be strictly trial and error. I had a 12" fenestratus in a 265 with a 12" oscar, 15" jag, 18" chinese perch, 24" silver arowana, and for a while an 18" albino channel cat.

The only fish that the fenestratus didnt beat the living hell out of was the arowana. I came home from work one day and he was swimming back and forth, basically killing the jag and perch. Luckily I caught it in time to get him out, but one more day and I would have had a big dead jag and a big dead perch.
 
I find with the exception of snyspillum most veja are aggressive. I've kept maculacauda,argentea, hartwegi,regani(which are mild also),& some others & they always held their own & in many cases dominated tanks Only aggressive amphilophus, chachou, & tomocichla held them back of course other veja species. Argentea are one of the prettiest fish I know.
 
:eek: I'm shocked...... a fenestratus killing a large jaguar...amazing.
My 10 inch black belt would somtimes lip lock with my 10 inch feaste but
this particular festae was a pussy..... They didn't do it to often and no damage for either..
O.K. so take the synpilum out of the picture; now in a large enough tank you think
chances of this working are pretty good;blackbelts,argenteas,bifasciatum and fenestratus.
Lets say in a 200gal tank. Am I correct with this statement if they were all raised
together from juvies?? Also how about the zonatus? Where do they fit in the picture? With
the synspilum and regani or with the other four bruisers??
I didn't realize that some vieja species were as tough as red devils and the likes.....
Now my wish list might have to change again.....just when I thought I had it
figured out...
 
I absolutely love Viejas and I have 12 of them representing 10 of the 17 Vieja species (I am looking very HARD for those other 7 species EVERYDAY!!!). What has already been said I find pretty accurate BUT you still have to look at the personality of each fish. My first 6" Bifas was a HELLION!!!! He would fight a buzzsaw if I would let him and he chased everybody all the time. I finally got an 8" pair of Bifas and the both of them are not that dominate at all (traded in the 6" Bifas... LFS didn't even know what it was). The most aggressive Vieja I have is my 8" Synspilla. There are sooo many factors that come into play with situations like these there really is no hard rule of thumb. It has always been and I fear will always be trial and error. I have to admit I was shocked to hear about the death of that 15" Jaguar. I keep my Jaguars in separate tanks because I figured they would tear the Viejas up. If anyone reading this has any LARGER Viejas they would be willing to sell and ship to NC... please let me know ASAP... I pay top dollar for great specimens!!!
 
my jag didnt die, but he got his ass kicked.

My LFS has my old fenestratus (12") for $30 if anyone wants it lol....
Totally awesome fish, just wicked mean.
 
I have one Vieja species. I think it's a zonatum, but it was purchased as a guttulatum. It's the fastest growing fish I've owned. Very aggressive too.

vieja3.jpg
 
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