arapiamas gigas?

[jconley]

Holy s***!

 

[iORi]

...YOU ARE A MONSTER!!! HOLY SNAPS THAT'S NICE TANK!

 

[pophead]

impressive
meh, you've got nothin on me, I've got 2 tanks.
lol

 

[Zoodiver]

Not my tank, just under my care at the time those were taken. I've moved on to bigger tanks. Although, my next arapaima tank (currently underway) is 1/4 smaller. Oh well. it will be much nicer to look at.

 

[fishcatch22]

holy mother of all monster fish! I bow before you!

 

[Zoodiver]

I like the one where you just see my head behind one. Everyone used to ask me "Why are you swimming behind a wall?" I got to say "It's not a wall, it's a 14 foot fish!"

 

[Zoodiver]

I found a shot similar to the one I was looking for. it gives you a better idea of how large the window was to see into the arapaima tank. What you see is just the exhibit front. It's a circular display that stretches back about 1/4 of a city block around an artifical island and about 20 feet deep at the lowest point.
The window is actually 6 sheets of acrylic. Three think, and then two halves fused together at a verticle seem down the middle. You can kind of make out arapaima on the left end, some peacock bass in the middle and the white blur next to the kid in the striped shirt on the right is a motoro. Sorry for the terrible quality. I guess you'll have to go to Dallas and get the full effect.

 

[Opiate]

you feed them yorkies and chihuahuas

LOL

 

[freeskierrocket]

Wow, very nice indeed..............have you ever been attacked or bitten!! by an A. Gigas.....while in that Monster tank.....cleaning?????

 

[Zoodiver]

They dont' really 'attack' per say. They can mess with you while in with them. If they feel threatened, they have the ability to "flex" their entire body at once, which sends a wake anlong with a "boom" you hear under water. The water moving from the temor is enough to knock you around. Being that you're in the water, there's nothing to do but hold onto your head. I've been smacked into rock work several times by them. When you're dealing with a 400 lb animal, they can toss you around like a rag doll.

Their bites aren't very damaging because they have small teeth. However, their tongues are based on a very hard bone. They use it to crush food against the roof of their mouths. The bone plate is also very course. If you got your hand stuck in it's mouth, it would be like running it between two cheese graters.

Here are two pics looking straight on into juvie mouth to show the bone tongue and the top row of teeth. (This animal was about 14"-15")