From the 220 to the Pond

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Yeah fish don't always get to the size that is considered "max size" cichlids will regularly get over 12" in the wild but in the aquarium those species will stay around the one foot mark.

If anyone here has been to an aquarium and seen large wild caught fish they are always much much bigger than the same species that are kept in the home aquarium. For example giant snakeheads can get 5 feet long, and there are pictures of people holding them on google, but sure those fish might be over 20 years old and are from the wild.
a tank raised juvenile fish will probably max out at 3 feet and the same goes for red tail cats. for them to get bigger we are talking owning the fish for 5 or more yhears and then you would be in a position to get larger accomodation for them.

theres a reason why its called the maximum size and not the average size.
 
Well the problem is, even if an RTC does not reach its max size, it will still go over 3' and a 3' catfish which is sturdy and does not care about bumping into things in a 4' wide pond won't work, especially not if there are smaller species in that pond.

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Rafini said:
Yeah fish don't always get to the size that is considered "max size" cichlids will regularly get over 12" in the wild but in the aquarium those species will stay around the one foot mark.

If anyone here has been to an aquarium and seen large wild caught fish they are always much much bigger than the same species that are kept in the home aquarium. For example giant snakeheads can get 5 feet long, and there are pictures of people holding them on google, but sure those fish might be over 20 years old and are from the wild.
a tank raised juvenile fish will probably max out at 3 feet and the same goes for red tail cats. for them to get bigger we are talking owning the fish for 5 or more yhears and then you would be in a position to get larger accomodation for them.

theres a reason why its called the maximum size and not the average size.
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Good logic. There is a school of thought that most fish get bigger in proper care than in the wild because they are fed better and live longer. And we are talking experts - ichthyologists and highest-level amateurs and aficionados expressing this opinion. The problem is that proper care at least for giant fish occurs in 1 out of 1,000,000 tanks.

The prospective keeper should think through the growth rate too and the possible circumstances in their life down the road.

Taksan, a member here, raised and kept a pair of 4' RTCs in a 15,000 gal pond for 27 years.

As for the max, here is a 160 cm 63" one: http://www.fishing-worldrecords.com/record/2925/show while fish aficionados who have visited SA on fish trips report seeing RTC at the market at 5' without head (head's 1/3 of the body length), which brings us to 6.5'-7' for absolute max. That's likely extremely rare, like at 8' human.
 
different if it was a tank, but because you can essentially dig a pond to be bigger, why not just extend it slightly, could make all the difference?
A lot of fish are kept in tanks that are just as wide if not a bit more wider than them. but ponds are by definition supposed to be huge natural environments for the fish that are being kept
 
His pond is indoor, so it's not as flexible as an outdoor pond. And IMHO keeping an RTC in a glass tank is impossibe unless your tank is really out of the normal huge.

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Chub_by said:
His pond is indoor, so it's not as flexible as an outdoor pond. And IMHO keeping an RTC in a glass tank is impossibe unless your tank is really out of the normal huge.

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Agree with you there, I wouldn't even attempt to keep those cats long term without a pond being somewhere in the future.
 
thebiggerthebetter said:
Good logic. There is a school of thought that most fish get bigger in proper care than in the wild because they are fed better and live longer. And we are talking experts - ichthyologists and highest-level amateurs and aficionados expressing this opinion. The problem is that proper care at least for giant fish occurs in 1 out of 1,000,000 tanks.

The prospective keeper should think through the growth rate too and the possible circumstances in their life down the road.

Taksan, a member here, raised and kept a pair of 4' RTCs in a 15,000 gal pond for 27 years.

As for the max, here is a 160 cm 63" one: http://www.fishing-worldrecords.com/record/2925/show while fish aficionados who have visited SA on fish trips report seeing RTC at the market at 5' without head (head's 1/3 of the body length), which brings us to 6.5'-7' for absolute max. That's likely extremely rare, like at 8' human.
Click to expand...

+1

I don't buy into the notion that a fish will not grow as large in captivity as in the wild. This may be true if it's being kept in a undersized enclosure, but a captive specimen has every advantage over a wild specimen to grow to be one of the giants of it's species. It's pretty common to see examples of super sized specimens in public aquaria...you don't see it very often in private tanks because most private keepers just don't have the resources to properly care for the true giants and to do so consistently over the decades of the fish's life.

The average adult size of an RTC kept by MFKers is of course going to be much smaller than it's adult counterpart in the wild, but only because the average RTC keeper on MFK (if you are honest about it) has no business buying the fish in the first place. The majority are kept in tanks <500 gallons and that is far too small for this fish to grow to it's full potential.
 
On the Internet I found out that RTCs get 134 cm at max size and TSNs 104 cm. Is that right if so that's a pretty big difference? And yes, I plan on growing the Arows up in the same tank from about 6 inches. And I also was told by people on this site that Florida Gars max out at 24" and I was would be able to keep 3 in my 220 for life. What fish would I be able to keep in the 220" for life?


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Ok I think I got it now the Pond will have
2 SA
3 Peacock Bass
1 Sting Ray
Ill go with 1 Gar
And maybe a Lima if I can end up finding one.

How does this sound?

And in the 220
1 CKF
1 Ornate
And then something else probably.


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