GATF Planning

[nzafi]

Thank you for everyone's feedback. I have taken the plunge and ordered a 4in GATF from Wes. He/She will be residing in my 180g as a grow out which has a new matten filter plus circulation pump. Couple things:

1) I am not planning on having this as a high current tank. The long term plan is to add an aimara at some point either in this tank or the next tank and I want the GATF used to less than the suggested 50x turnover. I know this is controversial with some for and against the 50x theory. I will monitor how he is and if I need to, I will add another powerhead.
2) Do I start him automatically on dead food? Should I try filet or pellets first? My gut is telling me filet first, but I have read the theory of get them started on pellets asap as it just gets harder when they get older. I am guessing I should give him 1-2 days of just getting used to the tank before feeding also.
3) When do I introduce tank mates? I was leaning towards tank mates asap as I have read about the whole GATF watching other fish eating pellets and following suit. Long term I will need dithers if I add an aimara, so I was thinking of adding something now so that it grows with the GATF. I was leaning toward tiger barbs as that is what I have read. I also saw datnoids recommended in threads. I was even thinking silver dollars but not sure if they will be too aggressive for a 4in GATF.
4) What pellets tend to be accepted? I saw a number of folks recommending hikari carnisticks.

Getting excited!

 

[Jrp0405]

Exciting! Can't wait for pics...I thought about attempting a gatf, until the lfs wanted $700 to bring one in

 

[nzafi]

Exciting! Can't wait for pics...I thought about attempting a gatf, until the lfs wanted $700 to bring one in

Not sure what size you are looking for but Wes (FuguPuff) has 4in ones for $125.

 

[moe214]

I'd say introduce tankmates as soon as possible, so they can grow with him and also aid in weaning him on the preferred food. You definitly should introduce before you ever get the aimara, for whatever reasons, ime and others wolves tend to leave fish alone that live in the tank before them but then refuse new tank mates.

 

[KNH]

I had thin bar dollars, hooks and tiger dollars for awhile although the tiger began attacking them and seemed to be happier with them gone.

I'd suggest tilapia filet cut small to start. I personally don't feed these toothy guys hard pellets. Their teeth are made for meat. As he grows you can stuff pellets inside the filet but that's just my preference.

I'm not a fan of high turnover either. 50x seems like such overkill. My ray/atf tank has about 4x turnover.

Good luck with him. Post pics when he arrives.

 

[sunnysjourney]

Awesome. And I agree with what others have said so far. Couple of things I'd like to add:

1. As for the flow thing... When I got my GATF back in january of last year, I had high flow in his tank and reduced it gradually over time. There have been times when I've tried to reduce the flow in his tank abruptly and he has ended up bashing himself and injuring his nose pretty bad... Every fish is different, however.
2. They're pretty easy to get onto dead food when started at a young age.
3. A GATF's growth-rate is extremely slow, so be careful while choosing tankmates. My GATF was about 4" when I got him and when he was 6" I added a 4" leichardti arowana to his tank. Now that Leichardti is around 17" and the gatf.... 11". One thing about datnoids (especially Indos) is that they tend to pick on silvery fish, a couple of my tarpons were completely de-scaled by my indo datnoid. Tiger barbs can be nippy and a baby ATF is usually pretty timid.
   
4. As for pellets, my guy eats massivores, I break them up into 2 and feed a bunch.

 

[sunnysjourney]

One thing I forgot to mention is that when my GATF was small I had Congo tetras as his tanates. It worked out great.