Argentea - tell me about them...

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It the one at a place for pets? Almost bought it today if it is. Very nice looking argentea but I decided to buy the 2 incher for $12 instead lol
 
DMD123 said:
The large Argentea at the store is around 9" and he is with a ton of other fish including a pair of 12" Oscars,half a dozen Dovii around 5", some 7" pikes, JD's and a slew of other mean fish. He was definitely big enough to do damage or bully and he was pretty mild, not even a flare or a single conforontation. Maybe because he was not the biggest fish?

The other one at 4" was the biggest in his tank and only showed a tiny bit of aggression toward a couple of other vieja types in with him, but even then it was barely a gill flare nothing more.


In my set up the 4" Argentea would end up third in the chain. Most likely the Midas would be #1, the Pearsei #2, and then the Argentea. As the Pearsei grows he would end up as the dominant fish due to size with the Argentea next and then the Midas. This is where my concern lies, eventually I feel because the Midas is smaller he would suffer. Who knows maybe in 210g he might have a growth spurt.
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I know which one your talking about. That tank has so much aggression in it plus it is a bit overstocked, so it helps hold the aggression to a minimum. I have 3 6" Argentea sharing a 210 with Tbars, Regani, Bifasch, Fenes, 1 Carpintis, Zonatus, Nicarguensis, and a couple others. I have no issues at this time. Though all of them have been in there since they were 1.5". They are all getting relocated into a 250gal here in a couple weeks, but not much aggression. YET..

Also, you should visit Aquarist World in White center, he has an Argentea of similar size, but I think much nicer looking. And probably cheaper.
 
NormanLove said:
It the one at a place for pets? Almost bought it today if it is. Very nice looking argentea but I decided to buy the 2 incher for $12 instead lol
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Yep the fish is at A Place for Pets.

I saw the small ones for $12, and can tell you my Midas would have ate it. He is pretty mellow but live food is live food. He has only had a few of those type meals and they have been fairly cheap; Loisellei $3.99, Oscar $6.99.

Madness said:
I know which one your talking about. That tank has so much aggression in it plus it is a bit overstocked, so it helps hold the aggression to a minimum. I have 3 6" Argentea sharing a 210 with Tbars, Regani, Bifasch, Fenes, 1 Carpintis, Zonatus, Nicarguensis, and a couple others. I have no issues at this time. Though all of them have been in there since they were 1.5". They are all getting relocated into a 250gal here in a couple weeks, but not much aggression. YET..

Also, you should visit Aquarist World in White center, he has an Argentea of similar size, but I think much nicer looking. And probably cheaper.
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Thanks for the tip, I will have to check it out! When you say similar size are we talking the 9" or 4"?
The big one had a tear in its tail and was around $80ish I think, where as the small 4" was in perfect condition just some fancy wild caught for $59ish. I liked the smaller one better.
 
Here is my experience so far with trying to obtain a pair:

I started with a group of six 2" argentea at the end of January of this year. I placed them in a 90 gallon by themselves, and later added 5 freddys to also try to obtain a pair. I saw no aggression until about 3.5" between them, but soon after lost the smallest one due to it.
I then moved them and the freddys to my 125. After another month or so, I found the smallest argentea shredded despite multiple hiding places, moved it to a hospital tank and later re-introduced it. This month, that smallest one was murdered within the course of a couple hours. Then, within a couple weeks, the dominate male had killed the two other males (just guessing based on size). It was always very quick and I could never catch it... Everything would be fine and I would go to the store for a couple hours and come home to a dead fish.
So I am now down to two argentea. The biggest is 6" TL (measured the second biggest that was killed and it was 5.5"). I have one smaller argentea I am hoping is female and also hoping the male has reached sexual maturity and didn't want any competition in the tank. They don't seem to have formed any sort of bonded pair though so far. If he kills her, I am done with the species for now.
I don't see a lot of aggression from them to their tankmates, but they don't take any crap either. Not sure how this will change in the coming months.

As far as APFP, I was there a couple weeks ago and all the big fish in their CA tanks had bad ich. My pasionis I purchased are nice and healthy, but those big tanks had pretty nasty ich. Something to watch out for. Good luck.
 
My firend tommy has 7 Argentea's in a 210 gallon tank. He does not have any aggression issues. But there is no definitive way things will turn out. Fish have personalities just like people. Anything can happen. In this hobby it is trail and error.
 
Well I'm hoping to get everyone into the new 210g in the next two weeks. I want to put everyone in at the same time to give them all a good chance to get established fairly with the least issues. The Argentea is an awesome fish but one reason for the choice is my tanks decor. I will have a black background and a dark brown gravel. So I'm looking for a fish that will "pop" against it thus the Argentea. I would also consider an Albino type Oscar or something else in the vieja family.
 
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