My little guys is growing up!

[thebiggerthebetter]

Wow, nice growth spurt! I am imagining it mostly will be rosy and cozy until he gets up to a foot or so. They may show their true colors within one overnight. All'll be fine one day and then the hell can break loose.

I know I remember your telling about a 2' wyckii being housed in like 600 gal at some LFS with other fish. And I said, mine 1' and 1.5' have been nothing by model citizen in my 4000 gal. But reports of horror beginning suddenly also abound. Depends on the tank size, tank mates, and probably a bunch of other factors. The fish tend to wanna establish and enforce their territory when they start reaching sexual maturity, non-surprisingly. When fish are stunted, they mature at smaller sizes too, to be aware.

Justarn, funny typo... a small family can have a dinner on that "dude's" prominent tummy right now

 

[justarn]

lol, my dude'ette at home is 5 months gone!-)

 

[MonsterMinis]

lol... You bet TBTB ! we downsized a lot in the 800 so it holds the TSN the hybrid..and the 2 big tropical gar now... rays and smaller gar are gone... I'm thinking the wyckii, and Planicepts ( when I can find one) and maybe a RTC for the future... and possibly an alligator gar ( still debateing if the potential predation is worth the risk or not..) w/ the rays and small gar gone now i'm more comforatable getting some more cats. And staying away from rays. Still gonna put something more permanent in ect for the future and I have a good 10'x20' + area of basement to work with... And Hubby is in love w/ the TSN now more then ever.. and I <3 my tropical gar... and the two species groups seem to work well.... you get the idea... I'm going to stick to the "big" gar and add a few more "big" cats and call it a day. we're looking at doing a large main system that's going to have removable dividers. as eventually I would like to house everyone under one massive filtration set-up... and the aba knife will either need a 300 gallon tank.. or something in that region pond wise. working on the details of making it look like a zoo exhibit w/ viewing panels ect.. a few years out yet... but we know exactly how we want to finish the basement. and cutting the rays out ( at least until our final project is finished and if we have room.. then maybe...) made trying to comm something like a wyckii much more "safe".. If I thought the Trops would leave some ATF's or arrowana alone.. i'de give a group of them a shot.. but i'm pretty sure they would be toast.

I just can't resist fish that bond with you and act like a domesticated animal.

And yes we're just shy of 30 weeks now... so a few more weeks and i'll be MIA for awhile undoubtably =) and congrats to you Justin... our 21 month old absolutely loves her fish tank! shes had some of the fish since before she was born in a 37T in her bedroom.. now they are in a 40B in the living room w/ the baby wyckii now... she has to help me feed them every night!

 

[MonsterMinis]

Lil' bugger musta heard me talking about him... today our fire eel came down during lights on ( the first time hes willingly done this, he usually resides in the filter) And as you can see from this picture has a good amount of size on the ARTC... which in no way dissuaded him from actually attacking the eel as it tried to join him under the wood..



Now here is the dilemma... do I keep the ARTC knowing how aggro he is even now... or get rid of him and replace him with something that might be more comm friendly in the future? I don't usually raise fish just to sell them.. but hes already showing that notoriouse streak I've heard about... imo at this point comming him isn't going to be an option. or could this be a phase? I remeebr my tsn and hybrid going threw a very aggro stage when young but this was only w/ other cats... hes obviously doing this with anything that comes near his wood.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Just didn't want Michael Bryce's (aka Arapaimag) input in an unrelated thread to be lost there, so I thought I'd cite it here (nothing implied; please don't read between the lines) http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?520054-Sperata-sp-grow-out-thread/page7 : "A larger Hemibagrus wyckii never bothered it (TBTB edit: Sperata aor) or any of the other cats or other fish. The wyckii claimed a 3m x 3m area of the L shaped tank and a small wall blocked its view of the 8 plus metre long side of the tank. All of the other catfish choose to stay on the long side and thus seldom encountered the wyckii. I have owned 4 wyckii (Still have three 2 of which are in the 196 kl.) and all except one have been very docile when kept in either the 56kl or the larger 196kl. However all of them are killers in small tanks of mine under 3,000 litres that I have observed."