From BigFishKH to me:
Mekong Giant Catfish. Please find attached videos (TBTB: I am working to upload the videos on YT and will post here soon, hopefully) of me feeding the pond, roughly 100lbs of feed is used per day for the MGC, the fry pictures please note the yellow coloration near the edges, the presence of a pronounced shoulder and head size relative to its body. Some mgc won't lose their barbels until they are roughly 1meter or 3ft but every true gigas above 4ft will lose their barbels without exception. I am currently trying to figure out if they simply just fall off with the ones in my backyard pond.
I have since removed the arapaima because they grew too big and are now living their best life in a tilapia pond.
The mother of the catfish being held by two of my staff, the fry from that specific fish is what I'm raising in my backyard recreation pond. The largest fry to 'adult' sized mgc I know of in all of Southeast Asia is 60kg. The largest known mgc in a conservation is 284kg in Thailand, the largest that I keep personally was 143kg when I weighed it a year ago. Most aquarists and indeed farmers do not have the means or can afford to feed the fish the amount they require to grow to their natural 150kg to 267kg (330lb to 588lbs) with 267kg being the biggest ive personally seen measuring at roughly 6ft long caught from the wild, tagged then released.
Based on rough fish food estimates from the ones in my backyard they are very content eating 10% of their body weight per day without showing signs of obesity. In the conservation pond, we fortunately have lots of plankton and algae coming in from an artificial dam connected to the mekong river we use to allow both constant water changes and maintain a steady food supply for our fish. Without being connected to the river I do not feasibly see another way of maintaining proper nutrition for these fish unless kept individually and powerfed in a giant aquarium setting.
Giant Siamese Barb. The Giant barb on the other hand is exponentially easier to keep. If someone is able to raise a koi, the giant barb is simply a bigger version that is shy if kept in groups less than 5. They require far less food than the mekong giant catfish and from what ive seen, giving them feed as opposed to letting them filter feed algae and plankton will only serve to make them grow faster. 1kg a month naturally versus 1.5-2kg a month if fed 45% protein diet. I've attached a video of me feeding the siamensis pond.
The white one I have (TBTB: see the YT video in the OP), I got zero clue how that came to be, I caught it in the pond one day and knew I just had to isolate it and keep it as a pet. I then proceeded to catch 3 more of its friends and put them with my arowana. In a years time I will move them to another bigger pond because its a dream of mine to see that fish reach 100kg in about five years' time. I caught the fish at 2kg (4.4lbs i think) and now its 13kg (29lbs?) since November 2022.
I have never seen siamensis grow slowly over hundreds of fish which is what really surprised me when I came across your Youtube originally. The largest one I know of is 232kg in Thailand and the largest I keep ive never weighed it but I would be completely unsurprised if it were 100kg+ or 220lbs+.
Always cool to meet fish people, very few in person. Hope you find this information entertaining at least. Let me know if you have any other questions im always down to talk fish
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I had zero clue what MFK is but what a forum, lots of information there. I never bothered uploading anything because these fish are just ordinary to me and I have never thought of uploading to social media because the general public does not care about fish other than as food in my experience.
The mekong giant catfish and the barb are endangered fish, yes but they can still be found in the wild here in Cambodia. I've never bothered with forums but I will make an account because this could be fun. I wonder where this will go in the future. That said I'm always down to talk fish and am very interested, when I have more money I plan on raising the Giant freshwater stingray, my peers here already track and keep up with Borami the world's largest freshwater stingray measuring at 312kg or 350kg depending on season and food availability but nobody has ever kept one in an aquarium type setting to observe and monitor closely. That said the things take too long to grow and I fear my grandchildren will be continuing the studies for me as I won't live to see the stingray mature.
I've always wanted to keep golden dorados and goliath tigerfish but I cannot afford to do this, arowanas are the only carnivores I keep because they look pretty, bring good luck and their aggression is limited to insects, feeder sized fish and each other. Channa Micropeltes and Wyckii/Wyckioides are common here and their aggression is something to behold though the last two I mentioned seem to be a lot calmer in large pond settings with lots of other fish. Micropeltes on the other hand will rip fish the same size as it and under in half or eat them completely, they are a fearsome fish to me but I admittedly had a few as pets before they died of old age. I find your Youtube channel extraordinary as I go through it while writing this email and cannot imagine being able to keep all those fish in America.
I look forward to talking more, feel free to ask me anything about Southeast Asian fish. Im close friends with the guys in the Mekong River Commission so anything I dont know I will simply ask them.
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I saw you post another video that caught my eye immediately which was the update on your siamensis being rehomed. Also, ive gotten around to making an MFK account under the name "BigfishKH".
Since we last spoke, I have moved my siamensis and gigas into another significantly bigger 130,000gallon greenwater pond so that they can continue growing with the hopes of reaching 50lbs by mid 2025.
