ARTC Suggetions

[Linds13]

I acquired this guy with a large group of fish a local guy had living in a 55 gallon tank a few months back. since then he has been in my indoor pond. 800 gallon. 8 round by 3 deep. I do have other large catfish in the pond as well as Pacu. He is roughly 8" currently and does not bother anyone hangs kinda hides out usually. Should I just save the trouble of him actually doing something when bigger or leave him and give him a chance to behave? If I pull him out and put him alone what size space should I give him to him self?
I do keep many predator type fish however he seems to have one of the worse reps I have seen and I am curious what any of you would do with him. He was kinda a surprise with the other fish I got with him I did not know about him till I went to pick them up but I also was not going to leave him in the nasty tank he came out of pics are the day I got him in one of my tanks.

 

[moe214]

I like to give fishes a chance, it's up to you on whether or not he's worth the risk. The problem is, when he attacks it'll likely be at night first, and they can cause a lot of damage extremely quickly. He's small so he won't bother anyone yet. But when he's bigger the pacu will probably be the only safe fish because of its shape, but even then it will likely be stressed a lot. You can try smaller faster fish and give them a place to escape to, but he will move decorations as he pleases once he has to weight to throw around. They can get quite large but don't get to stocky. For a full grown one I'd say something like a 12'x6' would do for life. The max size isn't clear with these, most sites say 38" I believe, but if you go on google you can see a pic of one that is clearly atleast 4' in length, and I've read of people claiming larger ones. That being said 8x4 would be bare minimum but you may have to upgrade. And even then with catfish you're technically not suppose to allow their whiskers to touch both sides of the tank when it's stretching them out, but good thing these don't scare easy huh lol. If it were me I'd give him up as I wouldn't plan to keep such a large aquarium with just one fish. That's why I plan to keep his smaller cousin, the wyckii one day, which is suppose to not be as bad, and stays a more manageable size and have been reported being with other fishes more so then this one(don't think I've read of a case yet). I also find wyckii to be more attractive being jet black. But that's personal preference.

 

[Dragonfirehead]

You will soon find out how this guys temperament next few days. I had a 15" killer that killed everything in sight. I also have a 8"er that has a moderate/mild temperament.i seen 2 footer in my lfs that is a pussy, also seen another 1footer from another lfs that didn't bother no one. So it really depends on the individual. Don't listen to the book and Internet readers that have no hands on experience. Good luck

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Welcome to MFK!

The guys above are giving good, experience-based advice.

If you are ready to dedicate the fish its own tank (if, and it is likely, it comes to that) for life, which could be a few decades, then by all means, you should keep it. If not, it is the easiest to find him a new forever home while he is still small / shippable.

I doubt it'd exceed 3' by much. Hence, it'd need at a bare minimum a 6'x12', as stated above or a 8'-10' round pond. Again, both at a minimum, which is not nice.

 

[moe214]

Their attitude seems to progress with size, if I may add. 8 inches is a small one still which is why you're still safe, if your other fish are bigger, you can try to put him in there and maybe he'll be intimidated by their size. But TBTB had 18" wyckii's with fish significantly larger and they had no problems scaring anyone off from their hides. When I kept mine he was my largest fish, not by much but he was larger. And he killed everything except a 1' leporinus that he couldn't catch.

 

[Linds13]

Thank you all for the input on him I got more recent pictures of him tonight finally was able to catch him out and about and caught him. He is between 10-12 inches now. Has gotten a lot better color than in the ablove pictures which were from when I got him probably 3 months ago. Only way I could get pictures of him
I think I will list him for sale locally for now. Any suggestions on pricing for him?

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Nice.

I'd not worry about $. I'd worry about finding the right forever home and keeper.

 

[moe214]

Nice.

I'd not worry about $. I'd worry about finding the right forever home and keeper.

+1, they're awesome fish for the right owner

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Nice.

I'd not worry about $. I'd worry about finding the right forever home and keeper.

And chances are this task will prove to be very, excruciatingly challenging. There is probably only person in a million hobbyists who will be willing and able to dedicate a 1000 gal tank to a lone 3'-3.5' ARTC for 30 years. Though you may get lucky still.

Keepers with ponds may be more likely.

Professionals is another option.

 

[headbanger_jib]

I started keeping the artc in 2009 at 1.5"

It died in 2013 during a power outage

It was 33"