Irwini questions

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BuffaloPolypteridae

Feeder Fish
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Aug 5, 2013
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Buffalo
thinking about picking up an irwini w/ my black volta from JA, currently run a 4 x 18 70 gallon dont remember the height (garage sale buy, things pretty old but i re did the seams and let it run for a while in the garage to make sure it didnt bust). Will be building a 200 by spring, already gathering materials just cant afford it all at once.

the thing is i know these get huge, and when i move out i want to build at least 300 gallons in my own living room or just the man-cave area. No worries on it getting stunted other then if it outgrows my bichirs, which after ten inches slow down a bit. The Irwini are 4-5 inches, how long would they be good in the 70? i know some fish grow crazy fast so i dont want to stunt it, my original idea is trying to find a few full grown regular raphael striped and spotted but the megalodoras is so much more fossil fish looking
 
They grow pretty slow compare to the other cats. It will max out at about 22". They are good with smaller fishes too. They won't bother your bichir at any size. It will live in the 70 gallon for a couple years without problem with average feeding. If you power feed, it will grow a little faster but still very much slower growing than the red tail and tiger shovel nose cats. They do hide sometime so put the piece of rock or driftwood in front of the tank so you can see it. Sinking pellets are the easiest but float pellets will work also. Floating pellet will work if that is the only food available. They will come up to the top for it once trained. It is pretty awesome to see it come to the top for food. Good Luck.
 
Twilight's pretty much nailed it for info , very slow growers mines about 10" now and ive had him at least 3 yr , spends most of time hidden in pipe but comes out as soon as food hits the water , takes floaters from top loves hikari gold , I didn't see much of mine untill it hit 6/7" didn't even see it eat for first 8 months of having him , good luck there quality gentle giants once settled in
 
They top out at 22" ???
 
My lfs had one about 18" few years ago that someone had brought in , thats what made me get one it looked like a dinosaur with fins :D
 
Wow man that's a great job on growing him out!! He's beautiful

I was told by the LFS shopkeep they can get up to 30 but he had no idea how fast, just wanted to make sure I wasn't going to stunt him. Now its time to decide if I want the Irwini or a baby palmas polli.

Thank you all for the info, just wanted a consensus from some experienced owners on here to make sure I didn't mess up such an ancient creature. Exactly, I love how ancient and fossil fish looking it is! Very impressive fish, and a good bottom cleaner too I've heard.

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BuffaloPolypteridae said:
... The Irwini are 4-5 inches, how long would they be good in the 70?
Click to expand...

IME, from 4"-5" most will reach about a foot in 0.5-1 year. Then they slow down a lot. I've never seen one bigger than ~1.5' in captivity but I do hope they exist. In the wild they can get close to 3'.

I have had a couple that just refused to grow. Their growth rate was ~1/10th of the above. IDK why. They looked the same, were in the same tank with the fast-growing guys but ate, consistently, only 1/10th too.
 
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