GATF comm
- Thread starter Reddragon
- Start date
I've had 5 juvies on one tank. It worked out fine untill I had to do a bunch of moving around and 4 of them stressed and died.
they were with a couple of big ornate polys.
I know that' doesn't really help you out but most people who have GATF will tell you that thier growth rate and skittish nature is what will keep you from having multiples in a home aquarium unless it's very large And you are willing to put the time in to grow them out.
The one I have now I have had for over 8-9 months and I've seen right around 3" of growth. so getting some juvie and growing them to 15" will take 2-3 years.
they were with a couple of big ornate polys.
I know that' doesn't really help you out but most people who have GATF will tell you that thier growth rate and skittish nature is what will keep you from having multiples in a home aquarium unless it's very large And you are willing to put the time in to grow them out.
The one I have now I have had for over 8-9 months and I've seen right around 3" of growth. so getting some juvie and growing them to 15" will take 2-3 years.
not exactly 2 15" but have 2 12" , 2 10", 2 6" GATF together with 6 8-10", 1 6" VATF, 2 6" brevis, 3 9" armatus, some scombs, cudas, various + 1.5ft blk arrow and it's fine. Had a silver arrow in there before that started as a dither but got too big for tank and removed. My guess after keeping these fish is that they're less skiddish when in numbers of own kind. found GATFs to be the least skiddish of all ATF.
had a single 16" VATF in a tank with a 1.5ft silver arrow, 2ft red tail high back gold arrow, 2 ft channa micro, 2 12" monos. And he was fine with tank mates but when lights and fast movements sent the VATF crashing into the lid. (that worked fine for a few months until i forgot to feed the channa and it ate half the VATF -smallest fish in terms of height. that sucked.)
dont have experience with dats and atf but atf's take off with a quickness when provoked (directly/indirectly). Had some small VATF with small cichlas and ciclids. They were really really skiddish because some of the ciclids swam around really fast and the vatf were constantly darting around to avoid them. dats dont swim around fast but do the pecking thing. ATF will avoid it one or two times but if it feels it's being chased, it'll freak out.
had a single 16" VATF in a tank with a 1.5ft silver arrow, 2ft red tail high back gold arrow, 2 ft channa micro, 2 12" monos. And he was fine with tank mates but when lights and fast movements sent the VATF crashing into the lid. (that worked fine for a few months until i forgot to feed the channa and it ate half the VATF -smallest fish in terms of height. that sucked.)
dont have experience with dats and atf but atf's take off with a quickness when provoked (directly/indirectly). Had some small VATF with small cichlas and ciclids. They were really really skiddish because some of the ciclids swam around really fast and the vatf were constantly darting around to avoid them. dats dont swim around fast but do the pecking thing. ATF will avoid it one or two times but if it feels it's being chased, it'll freak out.
My experience is that the larger ones will always beat up on the smallest ones, which will then stop eating and will waste away unless you move them out.
Once you do this, then the big gatf's will pick on the next smallest ones, and so on...
Having only two large ones will mean a quick death to the weaker one...believe me, I know by experience.
Look at what a 15" gatf will do to a feeder goldfish...it will try to do the same to another gatf.
Maybe if you had a really huge tank, the fish would be able to escape attack and avoid much of the stress that will cause them to waste away, but hardly anyone has a tank this size already or will ever get one, no matter what they say right now.
So it's probably best to keep just one.
Believe me, I've tried to do what you want to, and it just does not work and is not practical...you're better off blowing your discretionary $$ on other things and avoid all the stress.
BTW, 3-4 yrs. ago when these fish were really uncommon and $600 or more, I had more than a dozen in my tank (I didn't pay that much though) and it was cool for a while.
I remember that some of the first ones I saw for sale were over $1,000.
They were kept with a dozen vatf of the same size, but after a few months the vatf's were sold off because they were beating up the gatf's too much.
Once the gatf got a little bigger, they started to get a lot more aggressive and the smaller ones started getting beat up really bad.
Every day when I got up in the morning, I expected to see dead or shredded tiger fish in my living room tank...that was a ****ty feeling!
I sold some off, some wasted away and bit the dust, and for the last 2 yrs. I've kept the last one in a community tank with other big fish. It's about 15" right now and doing well.
BTW, the one I kept was the largest and most aggressive one of the school and it terrorized all the others before they were sold off or died. It's the big one in the middle of the first picture.
Ironically, it's the one fish in the tank which gets it's ass kicked every once in a while. But they are quick healers and it always recovers after a week or two.
Hope this helps.
Once you do this, then the big gatf's will pick on the next smallest ones, and so on...
Having only two large ones will mean a quick death to the weaker one...believe me, I know by experience.
Look at what a 15" gatf will do to a feeder goldfish...it will try to do the same to another gatf.
Maybe if you had a really huge tank, the fish would be able to escape attack and avoid much of the stress that will cause them to waste away, but hardly anyone has a tank this size already or will ever get one, no matter what they say right now.
So it's probably best to keep just one.
Believe me, I've tried to do what you want to, and it just does not work and is not practical...you're better off blowing your discretionary $$ on other things and avoid all the stress.
BTW, 3-4 yrs. ago when these fish were really uncommon and $600 or more, I had more than a dozen in my tank (I didn't pay that much though) and it was cool for a while.
I remember that some of the first ones I saw for sale were over $1,000.
They were kept with a dozen vatf of the same size, but after a few months the vatf's were sold off because they were beating up the gatf's too much.
Once the gatf got a little bigger, they started to get a lot more aggressive and the smaller ones started getting beat up really bad.
Every day when I got up in the morning, I expected to see dead or shredded tiger fish in my living room tank...that was a ****ty feeling!
I sold some off, some wasted away and bit the dust, and for the last 2 yrs. I've kept the last one in a community tank with other big fish. It's about 15" right now and doing well.
BTW, the one I kept was the largest and most aggressive one of the school and it terrorized all the others before they were sold off or died. It's the big one in the middle of the first picture.
Ironically, it's the one fish in the tank which gets it's ass kicked every once in a while. But they are quick healers and it always recovers after a week or two.
Hope this helps.
tks guys for sharing. the current 15" i have was the last to be introduced to my comm more recently, he does get nipped somtimes by a 6" redhook 
. so far he's doing fine with dats 12-18", pair of asian x-backs 20", masheers 9", channa 13", CLs 9-10"........ i hope the new guy will do well 
. so far he's doing fine with dats 12-18", pair of asian x-backs 20", masheers 9", channa 13", CLs 9-10"........ i hope the new guy will do well 
