Flagtail Prochilodus, red fin and yellow fin

[thebiggerthebetter]

I got the more colorful one, the red fin, from Rapps in Aug-Sept 2016 at 2". It was ~6.5" half a year later and is about a foot today.

The less colorful ones, the yellow fin, I have had three of, for about the same time. Got them from Sam from FishOnlineRUs at ~2" by accident (his error) - I thought I was getting the red fin ones. They are still 6" today. IDK their max size though. Looks like they are smaller-growing.

The video of the red fin in its 240 gal:

It's aggressive (territorially) with tank mates but when I placed it in the "jerk tank", it wasn't coping at all, having gone into a stupor kind of state, had to remove in a couple of days.

 

[sunnysjourney]

Yeah I had a yellow fin for a while and it topped out at 7", I don't think they get as big as their red counterparts.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Got two from Raymond Chan perhaps 1.5-2 years back at 4", ~$30 each. This is the most aggressive Prochilod between them and two types of flagtails, red fin and yellow fin. Actually to the point that the lone survivor eventually had to go into the jerk tank, 240 gal. Has been there since then. First a dorado was harassing it around. Then, a few weeks back, it started to bother the dorado, which had become its nemesis over the time in the jerk tank, which has been at least a year.

Funny enough, P. lineatus is one of the favorite prey of adult golden dorados.

The other one died suddenly and for no apparent reason (in a non-jerk tank at about 5").

This guy has been at ~10" for a while, perhaps 8 months.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Update.

The redfin has been doing well. Probably around 14"-15" now. Still in the same 240 gal. It couldn't handle the "jerk" 240 gal at all. Just kind of went into a stupor. So I had to take it out after 1-2 days. The yellowfins fared much better than the redfin but see below...

Of the three yellowfins only one remains, doing well. One, the smallest one, was killed a couple of years ago in the "jerk" 240 gal. I think the constant fight for survival and beakering did it... plus predation from the AUSD catfish due to size disparity... So I moved the remaining two out of there into a series of "normal" 240 gal.

They have done well in a few of those. Because of their aggressive and bite-prone and chase-prone nature (the bites are harmless but incessant, the chasing is relentless), they have changed several 240 gal tanks.

One recently passed, face, mouth were swollen, I suppose from columnaris as this has been killing fish in all our tanks for the last several months with more or less the same symptoms.

Consistent with Sunnys sunnysjourney , it measured at 8" at ~3.5 years old.

Striped prochilod aka Prochilodus lineatus, the favorite prey of dorados in the wild, is about a foot now and still resides happily in the "jerk" 240 gal.

The order of aggression is striped > yellowfin > redfin.

 

[sunnysjourney]

Update.

The redfin has been doing well. Probably around 14"-15" now. Still in the same 240 gal. It couldn't handle the "jerk" 240 gal at all. Just kind of went into a stupor. So I had to take it out after 1-2 days. The yellowfins fared much better than the redfin but see below...

Of the three yellowfins only one remains, doing well. One, the smallest one, was killed a couple of years ago in the "jerk" 240 gal. I think the constant fight for survival and beakering did it... plus predation from the AUSD catfish due to size disparity... So I moved the remaining two out of there into a series of "normal" 240 gal.

They have done well in a few of those. Because of their aggressive and bite-prone and chase-prone nature (the bites are harmless but incessant, the chasing is relentless), they have changed several 240 gal tanks.

One recently passed, face, mouth were swollen, I suppose from columnaris as this has been killing fish in all our tanks for the last several months with more or less the same symptoms.

Consistent with Sunnys sunnysjourney , it measured at 8" at ~3.5 years old.

Striped prochilod aka Prochilodus lineatus, the favorite prey of dorados in the wild, is about a foot now and still resides happily in the "jerk" 240 gal.


The order of aggression is striped > yellowfin > redfin.

The one I had was especially aggressive towards other characins. Eventually got killed by my VATF because it got super annoyed.

EDIT: don't know if you (or others) have read this blog post, it has decent information about the Semaprochilodus family. http://www.perthcichlid.com.au/forum/index.php?showtopic=30278

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Great write-up. Read it with delight. Thank you for posting.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

The last yellowfin passed on rather unexpectedly at 7.5". It had been very active, lively, and strong lately and I think it might have drown because the tank has filled up overnight all the way to touching the lids, or that's what I saw in the morning, no air left inside, and I don't know how long this had been going on and the yellowfin was already discombobulated, swimming funny, while I had seen it supplements its breathing with air. It passed soon thereafter.

It's kind of thin and its body shape has changed a lot in the last 6-10 months as its rear was getting thinner and the leading dorsal ray was getting extremely long (in the photo below an inch or two have been clipped) but I don't know whether any of this is normal or a sign of poor feeding, what not. Given the big head, I'd say it looks too thin. So perhaps no air was the last straw.

The damage is post-mortem by tankmates, esp. the Incisilabeo behri.




* * * * *

The redfin has been doing well. As I said above, I tried it unsuccessfully in the jerk tank. Since then, it grew a lot, enough to go into a 4500 gal, so I tried that several months ago. It couldn't cope there with the tank mates either (that crowd likes to test-taste everything new in their tank). Has spent a couple of miserable days in there and then back into its 240 gal. Next I'd like to try it in the 25,000 gal carp exhibit. Here is the latest video:

* * * * *

The striped Prochilod has been fine with its jerk tank mates in their 240 gal, grew notably, looks to be around a foot now. Never see any damage on it anymore. Latest video:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Fifteen month update. The striped Prochilod has been fine with its jerk tank mates in their 240 gal, grew notably, looks to be around a foot now. Never see any damage on it anymore. Latest video:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

The guy had been doing well and tacked on a couple inches, having reached perhaps 10"-11".

Nov 2019:

But lately it had stopped being able to cope with the Malawi labs incessant assaults, so I am trying it now in a new 1800 gal, where so far I saw it only chase its flagtail relative a bit and so far it's tolerable.

18:20 minutes:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

The big, ~16", redfin flagtail has been doing quite well in the cyprinid exhibit for a year or longer now.

And we got another one donated by Jordan and Sarah, which has just gone into a new 1800 gal, at roughly 6"-7":