GATF feeding

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keepinfish said:
So you moved him back in Feb. Im gonna be moving mine soon he is right at 12" and putting him in with my rays. How did you move him, like did you use rubber net? i know it will stress him our really bad and expect after a move it will take him a good while to want to eat.
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I moved him and rays he was with to new system (house) in Feb. Moving him was an adventure to say the least. Had him netted (rubber net) and while pulling it out of the water he somehow rocketed 10 feet across the room with one flick of his tail lol. Scooped him up and into the rubbermaid tub quickly with no visible damage luckily.

Moral of story would be to keep stress low and net him as quickly as possible and cover net with something immediately.

He should do well alone with your rays.
 
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Really a beautiful fish. Assuming you tried more tank mates at some point to see if it would make him more comfortable? Seems some atf are much more skittish than others. I really like this guy.
 
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I've had my gatf for about 18 months now (got him when he was around 4' and he's around 12" now) and I'd say he's extremely skittish by himself. But as soon as I add dither fish he gets more comfortable and is way more relaxed.
I had 3 sheep pacus (Acnodon Normani) with my goliath for a while. And the pacus are extremely skittish. My goliath would "feed" off of their skittishness and freak the f out all the time. The sheep pacus died, unfortunately, and I added a few tiger scats from my main tank into the growout. My scats are amazing in the sense that they don't freak out at all (they'll start looking for food about 10 seconds after I put them in a new environment), and the goliath became extremely calm. Recently, (3 days ago) I got a few Lapradei bichirs to grow out as well and they weren't liking the tiger scats's company. So I decided to move my scats back to my main tank and what do you know... Every time I got even remotely close to my grow out tank, the goliath would start freaking out again. I added a few scats back into the growout, and that seems to have calmed my goliath down.
Tl;dr my Goliath is 100% influenced by his (constantly moving) tankmates and their behavior.
 
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KNH said:
Really a beautiful fish. Assuming you tried more tank mates at some point to see if it would make him more comfortable? Seems some atf are much more skittish than others. I really like this guy.
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Thanks! Only other non ray he has been with for an extended period of time was an ornate bichir who grew to be quite large before I sold him to Russ earlier this year. Bichir had a bin I gave him to hide out in from the rays and the goliath.

Never risked putting any other mid/upper level water fish with him aside from a silver dollar group he whittled down to 1 over time. My old goliath coexisted with my indo pacific tarpon for a while... until one day he decided to amputate the tarpons back half and take his tail off.

Tarpon made a miraculous full recover over the course of a year and is a big chunky 17"+ fella now. Never had my bigger tigers (goliath's or my old brevis) really tolerate any other mid water swimmer for an extended period of time.

Single tank species (except for rays) once they get big from my experience. Dithers made him appear more comfortable but he they just seem to focus more aggression on the dithers. Both goliath's I've had slowly picked off any silver dollar groups I use to have over time until only one remained, and I removed him from the tank.

All fish are different with unique personalities for sure. I wouldn't put other mid level swimmers at risk with the two goliath's I've grown out, once they get over 1ft or so.
 
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