dats/archers?

[milkman407]

kk for starters are dates illegal in florida? i've never seen them at the fish store.. also how big do they get and are they brackish or freshwater??

also! is it safe to put archers in a freshwater tank? or is there a type of archer fish thats freshwater?

 

[ethnics]

my archer is in freshwater. he's been with some aro's, bichirs, cK's, for almost a year... they grow pretty slow. prolly less then 2" since i got him.

 

[milkman407]

Damn how big was he when u got him? lmao.. my lfs is selling them for cheap and they are in a brackish setup but i was just thinking i can add a lil more salt to my arow tank and pop a couple of them in there.. would they eat pellets/flakes or just live foods?

also i would prefer the archers over the dats but the dats are pure fw fish and also the dats grow faster which i prefer

 

[ethnics]

mine eats hikari gold pellets. medium or large... i got him at about 1.5 and now he's about 4"

 

[milkman407]

blah that much in only a year? thats not to good id be affraid something would eat them..are they nippy towards their own kind or outher fish?

 

[dacox]

also i would prefer the archers over the dats but the dats are pure fw fish and also the dats grow faster which i prefer

What type of dats were you looking at getting? Silvers should have some salt in the water. I think a brackish archer/silver tank would be sweet.

 

[ethnics]

not nippish at all. he gets along great with my aro in pure freshwater. there not monster fish man haha. i never seen any over like 12" if that

 

[davo]

personally wouldnt think about putting most species of archer in freshwater. but the silver datnoides are brackish, so maybe they would go with some archers... a thought?

 

[milkman407]

I wasent looking to make a brackish tank.. my 75 gallon 18" wide tank is setup with sand/lots of plants and a big peice of drift wood its only for when my larger arowana outgrows my 120 then i put him in the pond .. when that happens ill than put my 4" in the 120gallon.. i was just looking for fish to put in with the arowana

Now that i know what im gona do its this

75gal:
Some salt to make it slightly brackish but just enough so the arowana is healthy
school of archer fish i was thinking about 5 or so.

75gal:
silver arowana
5 archer fish
1 large normal pleco about 8"

waterchange every wendsday 35% fill with purified water add salt to the water

than when my larger one outgrows my 120 i will move all the fish into my 120 gallon and repeat the process..

also i just picked up for 70$ 2 royal plecos 4" 2 bichirs dont know what kind 4" and 5 bala sharks about 3" not a bad price if i do say so myself ... that will be thrown into my 120gallon.

my tanks are complete! WAHO

 

[ferco]

i believe all but Toxotes jaculatrix are brackish/saltwater... i kept my little guys in brackish at about 0.0004 i think... i can't quite remember... i fed my archers live crickets as often as i could... OK like every 2 days lol... they loved them, see the vids in my Sig. also check out my avatar, runner up to August POTM... i would recommend Archers to anyone who is willing to spend time with them... they leave a lot of mess if you feed them live food... will need something to clean up... lol i tried shrimps, with no real hope as the archers love them second only to Crickets... one shrimp lasted 30 mins! I was impressed lol. Also think about your tank setup, make sure you can feed them crickets without the crickets jumping out, and something for them to shoot at... i rushed mine so it LOOKED kinda rubbish but it did the job. and though just dropping the cricket in the water seems a good idea at the time, it doesn't pan out... sometimes they can climb up any tubes running out the back lol. I was lucky in my archers ate flakes, but this didn't help i suppose as when i went away for a long weekend i fed them up on crickets, and just for precaution i left a timed flake feeder... got back and found them eagerly awaiting a feeding lol... they always swim over to the glass... i picked up the feeder, hmm.. seems full, a littler heavier than before... lol they had been shooting at it! the food had gone all congealed, and manky, so it wouldn't fall out! they mist have got one feeding from it and tried to get more, greedy little... lol; Yes archers are very greedy.
So yea go for them! they're awesome!