Dorado. aka river tiger.

[Vincentii]

from people that I've talked to who have grown these guys out to over 20" say that after 15" they slow down big time. One guy told me for his to get from 15" to 22" took almost 5 years!!! but IDK what his were eating.

15''is fine with me. . . mine are only going into a 300g.

 

[ceeej31]

thats good growth rate. must of fed it a good diet.
and i had a gut feeling that dorados would be quite safe with rays. dorados are all-out predators and eat what they know that will only fit into their mouths. unlike cichlids, that tend to bully a fish to death over terrotory if its not to their liking.
i think they are just an amazing species. got obsessed with them after watching a David Attonborough documentary about the infamous 'river tiger'.
saw one eat a fish 3/4 its own size . . . and was a fan every since.

while you are right that dorado are for the most part strictly predatory, but they can also be flat out mean at times

 

[Vincentii]

i can imagine. i was thinking of also getting a shoal of pink-tail Chalceus to go with them too. had to cross that fish of my list incase it ends up as a Dorado snack. the tank in question is just going to be dorado and rays as from now on.
i will try concentrate on them and turn them into fine examples.

 

[DB junkie]

Better get more then you plan to keep. More then likely the runts will be picked off by the dominant ones. Rays are a threat as the Dorado don't typically go to the bottom, until feeding times. When food hits the water they go into a frenzy and will not be intimidated by anything. Dorado goes down to pick up a piece of food and ray pounces at the right time and presto.... glitter. I lost 2 Dorado to rays in the past but they jumped the divider and 4 inch Dorado becomes an adult ray scoobie snack.

Truley amazing fish though. Just constant non stop swimming. I'm gonna be sad if I end up having to let mine go for messing up tankmates.

 

[Vincentii]

my rays are well mannered. ive kept them with allsorts of fish with them during their time in the current tank . kept them with dist.sexfasciatus, flagtails, oscars, arowana,geophagus's, pearsei and never have they showed any aggression during feeding time. (both rays are over 14'')
my only concern is when its feeding time the dorado's bite rays. . . those jaws are formidable!

 

[DB junkie]

I used to trust my rays as well. After seeing them kill a few Armatus and Dorado my trust is gone. No fish tastes better to rays then Characins. But I guess if yours have manners maybe they'll be OK?

 

[Vincentii]

thats got me thinking. maybe its best i keep dorado in a species tank only. the idea of my rays eating 6 dorados @ £70-95 per fish, whilst im sleeping gives me head-aches already.

another question. on a scale of 10. how easy is it to keep dorado's? im saying its a characin, so my assumptions are that they are easy to keep and adapt to different waters?

 

[DB junkie]

You should be fine mixing the Dorado with rays, just always that chance you know.... 95% will never have a problem, just have to factor in that 5%. If you're going to have problems I'm guessing it will be at feeding times. The Dorado usually move fast enough that the rays tend to stay clear. I have Dorado with rays but the Dorado are within a few inches of the ray's diskwidth.

Some Characins are hardy and some are very fragile. I think Characins in general are some of the tougher fish families to keep. The Dorado seem to be some of the toughest Characins out there though in my opinion. Thier healing abilities are flat out amazing. 1-10 10 being most difficult I'd give them 3-4. I've kept quite a few and never lost one from anything but enviromental faactors - fighting/jumping/rays eating.

 

[I<3fish]

thats got me thinking. maybe its best i keep dorado in a species tank only. the idea of my rays eating 6 dorados @ £70-95 per fish, whilst im sleeping gives me head-aches already.

another question. on a scale of 10. how easy is it to keep dorado's? im saying its a characin, so my assumptions are that they are easy to keep and adapt to different waters?

Just remember, these fish we are talking about aren't tetra's or other small fish. These guys grow to immense sizes (50 pounds is not unheard of.) And I think the tank requirements alone should be fairly large. I say keep the waste levels low, the temp should be in the mid 80's, the amount of oxygen in the water should be high due to the high temperature, and the current should be moving pretty good as i'm sure you already know that the best spots to catch them are in places where the water is moving fairly rapidly. All in all I think they are a great fish and I will probably get a few as soon as I get my 300 gallon settled in for a while and all the fish out of my 140 growout tank.

 

[Vincentii]

thats reassuring to know. i will do more research and study the behavior of the dorado at freeding times when i get some in a few weeks time. its staple ive decided is going to be masivore pellets, cichlid gold pellets and fresh trout cut into small cubes. and probably invest in a pair of aquarium tongs to individually feed my rays so as to not create chaos.


install a powerhead at oneside of the tank to create nice strong current to recreate the flowing rivers of where the dorado lives in the wild.


. . . another new tank in my house soon! dammm this hobby is soo addictive!