BARRACUDA OWNERS ACESTRORHYNCHUS
- Thread starter VampAro69
- Start date
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My experience
I've had six acestrorhythus falicrosis(SP) for about a month now.
They are kept in a 79x24x24" tank filtered by an FX5.
Other inhabitants are 7 silver dollar, 3 dwarf pike (saxallis?), 3 hujeta gars, 2 geophagus and 7 emerald corys.
The problems i've had are;
Whitespot almost immediatley after introducing them.
I've moved the dwarf pike as a precaution, also moved the hujeta yesterday after seeing an ace in one of the hujetas mouth.
Been feeding danios, although trying to get them to take non live.
I've had six acestrorhythus falicrosis(SP) for about a month now.
They are kept in a 79x24x24" tank filtered by an FX5.
Other inhabitants are 7 silver dollar, 3 dwarf pike (saxallis?), 3 hujeta gars, 2 geophagus and 7 emerald corys.
The problems i've had are;
Whitespot almost immediatley after introducing them.
I've moved the dwarf pike as a precaution, also moved the hujeta yesterday after seeing an ace in one of the hujetas mouth.
Been feeding danios, although trying to get them to take non live.
I've been trying to get mine off live food for 8 months with no such luck. I just gut load a ton of mollies and guppies, then let him chomp them down. Gave up on the non-live.
I will add in what I can. Acestrorhynchus falcirostris is the most common species in my area. At the LFS I work at, they just about always get ick right out of the bag. We now plan for this too when we order some. Actually this is the only fish that I know of that reliably catches ick from being shipped. They tend to have a pretty good survival rate when treated though.
I had one that was 6-7" and it was super skittish. I got it at 4" and once it reached 6" and I upgraded it from a 20 gallon aquarium to a 40 gallon, it became extremely nervous. It used to ram it's face on the glass if I was just about anywhere in the room and moved slightly. Sometimes even when it's tankmates moved suddenly, it would startle the barracuda and it would ram into the glass or try to jump.
I have also cared for a smaller, striped species but only at work. I believe it is A. isalinae. It's a small barracuda, and so far the largest I seen was about 3". I cannot confirm and ID as there aren't many reliable photos or IDing traits of the smaller species to my knowledge. These barracudas, appear far less skittish than A. falcirostris. They seem peaceful like most other species, but they will sometimes try to eat fish too large to swallow. I witnessed a 3" specimen who swallowed a 4" aba knifefish with the last 1 1/2-1 3/4 of it sticking out of it's mouth. I guess the mystery of missing abas and the sudden aba knife tails on the bottom was finally solved.
One last bit, in larger tanks barracudas will hunt down feeders in packs and it is a sight that cannot be missed.
I had one that was 6-7" and it was super skittish. I got it at 4" and once it reached 6" and I upgraded it from a 20 gallon aquarium to a 40 gallon, it became extremely nervous. It used to ram it's face on the glass if I was just about anywhere in the room and moved slightly. Sometimes even when it's tankmates moved suddenly, it would startle the barracuda and it would ram into the glass or try to jump.
I have also cared for a smaller, striped species but only at work. I believe it is A. isalinae. It's a small barracuda, and so far the largest I seen was about 3". I cannot confirm and ID as there aren't many reliable photos or IDing traits of the smaller species to my knowledge. These barracudas, appear far less skittish than A. falcirostris. They seem peaceful like most other species, but they will sometimes try to eat fish too large to swallow. I witnessed a 3" specimen who swallowed a 4" aba knifefish with the last 1 1/2-1 3/4 of it sticking out of it's mouth. I guess the mystery of missing abas and the sudden aba knife tails on the bottom was finally solved.
One last bit, in larger tanks barracudas will hunt down feeders in packs and it is a sight that cannot be missed.
I'm with Industrial on the cuda's hunting feeders down in packs. I only have one Ace, but I had very long plants in my tank that grew from the back and went all the way to the top, covering the top of the water. Anyways, the feeders would hide in there, but I would watch my cuda get all fired up (they aim themselves upward and twitch out before striking) and then shoot through the plants, coming out on the other side with a fish in his mouth. He still always brings his catch up to the front of the tank and it's almost like he's showing me. He's also extremely cool and is not skittish at all. Swims around my hand when i do a gravel vac from time to time. Love these fish.
TRD_Power;4985615; said:I'm with Industrial on the cuda's hunting feeders down in packs. I only have one Ace, but I had very long plants in my tank that grew from the back and went all the way to the top, covering the top of the water. Anyways, the feeders would hide in there, but I would watch my cuda get all fired up (they aim themselves upward and twitch out before striking) and then shoot through the plants, coming out on the other side with a fish in his mouth. He still always brings his catch up to the front of the tank and it's almost like he's showing me. He's also extremely cool and is not skittish at all. Swims around my hand when i do a gravel vac from time to time. Love these fish.
What kind of ace do you have?
I can't add a great deal to this thread but on the convertion to non live I use a group of Nandus to teach many fish to eat dead food. It took about a week with my Cuda's.
Industrial;4985844; said:What kind of ace do you have?
Well, we never came to an official conclusion, but here's the link where I tried to get an exact species:
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=391419
Looks like Guyanesis is where most of the votes are.
I still have 4 species of Cudas, almost 2 years now, none weened. In the past I've had Falcatus weened but not til they were 2+ years old and 8" then they started eating silverslide chunks and Hikari Arrowana stix.
Ace. Isalineae is unmistakable - 2 horizontal lines that run the length of the lateral line and stomach - large red dot were the tail fin meets the caudal area. Ace. Nasutus is similar but only has 1 horizontal line and the line continues thru it's beak.
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/piranha038/images/isalinae_lorenz.jpg
Ace. Isalineae is unmistakable - 2 horizontal lines that run the length of the lateral line and stomach - large red dot were the tail fin meets the caudal area. Ace. Nasutus is similar but only has 1 horizontal line and the line continues thru it's beak.
http://www.angelfire.com/biz/piranha038/images/isalinae_lorenz.jpg
