Lates Niloticus tank size, growth rate & colour

[Marcus_H]

Hello,

maybe someone here knows about these giant perch-likes from africa!

There are always some specimens for sale wich git breeded and sometimes labeled as more colourfull or are supposed to stay more colourfull since the normale lates niloticus will be just grey for most of its lifespan.

Is there something to it or is that just plain BS?

Same thing about the size: As far as i know, the 400lbs monsters are of course the exception, but there are breeders claiming that their fish will not reach more than 50", which is of course still a huge fish but would be much more easier to handle than the true giants from nature.

Maybe someone can tell us more about how big they really get in the aquarium and how fast they grow, i would guess they grow really fast in the beginning but are slowing down after reaching 30-40"?

Greetings

 

[duanes]

There are at least 11 species of the genus Lates, some as small as 12", but niloticus isn't one of them. I've seen photos of some at least 6ft in length.
And I doubt that given proper care would stay small, although I admit to never owning one, although they were occasionally available in LFSs, as to whether they were true niloticus, that is another question.
There are also some Centropomids here is the new world that very closely resemble the Lates and range from Florida, into S America, and can be relatively small, but are generally salt water species. Some are caught in estuaries here in Panama, and known as snook, or Calva.

 

[krichardson]

That sounds like the bay snook Duanes.....as for niloticus there seems to be two different types in the hobby.The more commonly known Nile perch and the more rare Royal Nile perch.The Royal is said to have a better pattern and coloration and of course,costs more than the common variety.
I am not sure if they are two distinct species or if they are just regional variants.

 

[Marcus_H]

Yeah royal that was the word. Indeed there are videos of Niloticus (or not ) where you can see them at quite some size but still showing a nice pattern:

It seems they tolerate even much smaller tankmates, but question is how long it takes until they rey need a 1000gal tank and weather or not they will outgrow even something like 3000gal...

 

[krichardson]

They won't outgrow any tank if they're growth is stunted and different things factor into their growth rate....water quality,quality food,and so forth.

 

[duanes]

I find with the right care, fish will easily outgrow tanks, they don't stop growing just because a tank is small, but do get deformed.
The new world species of the same family are Centropomus pectinatus, medius, parallelus, and robalito.

 

[krichardson]

I agree with all of that and I do not condone trying to stunt a fish nor did I say anything about keeping them in a small tank.I just mentioned a few different things that effect the growth of a fish.
Beautiful tank,by the way I had my first Nile perch in with my haps when I was into Africans years ago.