this is gonna be sort of a long read, explaining a bit about how i came from just keeping an oscar to keeping a payara.. if u haven't got the patience, just scroll down to the pics lol
some of you guys might've remembered last year when I lost a school of 3 tatauaias.. almost felt like quitting the hobby at that point. had a horrible, horrible case of ich and one of the red tails suffered from injury from shipment. luckily had a few people help me keep my chin up.. although it was a huge set back for me, i felt like this time around, i was more determined to successfully grow out one of these.. it's a pain in the ass and by no means easy to keep these delicate fish HEALTHY, but that's what keeps me going is a good challenge
this all started way back when i was simply looking for a replacement fish for my oscar.. happen to come across a "scomberoide" on craiglist. I figured at the time, this was the smallest sub species under the hydrolycus family and went with it. took it home, did a little research and found mine was actually a tatauaia. that's kind of where my obsession with these fish started lol not knowing much at the time of what i got myself into, i spent countless hours reading everything i can to get an idea of what this fish needs.
the reason was that at the time, my bigger tank, certainly wasn't adequate to house an armatus. in my luck, i happened to get a tatauaia, which seemed not only harder to come by (at that time, more so than an armatus or scomberoide), and not that many people have got them to reach past 12". This is where the challenge comes in.. trying to meet their needs of extremely clean water, healthy diet, decent current and tankmates (if possible lol).
My big tank is currently sitting in the garage, waiting to have a leak fixed. In the mean time, I figured I might actually sell that one and get a larger one in the summer. Thank god these fish are notoriously for their slow growth rate of about 1/2 inch a month.. if that. This one is about 8" right now.
This current payara, I got from Mike, another fellow MFKer in NJ. It was with some peacock bass and some other larger fish that I can't recall at the moment. When I got there, it so happens that Mike had him eating Krill, fish fillets and shrimp. To this day, he only took krill. But as of recently, I got him onto massivore pellets I believe he learned to eat non-live food from his old tankmates. I tried to take a video of his feeding, but he's not fond of the camera I guess. He hides under his driftwood ALL day and comes out at night time.. he gets his food around midnight before I sleep. The yellow tail varients I had before, wasn't as skittish as this particular fish and was semi active during the day, a bit more during the night. Here's a picture of the difference between a red and yellow tail.
my current tatauaia.
interestingly, i just noticed just today, the back of his caudal fin is whitening, similar what you'd see on an armatus. it wasn't always like this. it used to be black toward the tip instead of white.
a picture of his temporary home.
set up: aquaclear 70, koralia powerhead, manzanita driftwood, black moon sand. will be adding an extra aquaclear 70 soon to help keep the water clean and a more powerful powerhead. btw.. if you plan on buying manzanita driftwood, make sure you get a solid piece! this one has lots of breaks in the structure of the wood and seems to be aging... won't let me keep my damn water from browning!
also, i believe a good flow of current is absolutely necessary to keep a fish healthy and would help extend the length of their life. if you just feed a fish til they're "nice and fat" that's essentially like you or me just sitting on the couch all day and that food isn't going anywhere.. if your fish stays active, fine but i figured that once payara gets to a decent size, they may need to be "forced" to swim against current to stay active.
another shot, another angle
quick note.. the yellow tail varient I had before, had a much, much solid personality then the current one I have. He'd stay active during the day whereas this one is skittish of spontaneous movement. the yellow tail wouldn't even budge if I had my hand in the water moving decorations around. when I get my bigger tank, I plan to look for the yellow tail variant.. I want to confirm any differences if any between the yellow and red tail. certainly keeping two or three of each type might not be enough to prove anything, but certainly it'd be fun
some of you guys might've remembered last year when I lost a school of 3 tatauaias.. almost felt like quitting the hobby at that point. had a horrible, horrible case of ich and one of the red tails suffered from injury from shipment. luckily had a few people help me keep my chin up.. although it was a huge set back for me, i felt like this time around, i was more determined to successfully grow out one of these.. it's a pain in the ass and by no means easy to keep these delicate fish HEALTHY, but that's what keeps me going is a good challenge
this all started way back when i was simply looking for a replacement fish for my oscar.. happen to come across a "scomberoide" on craiglist. I figured at the time, this was the smallest sub species under the hydrolycus family and went with it. took it home, did a little research and found mine was actually a tatauaia. that's kind of where my obsession with these fish started lol not knowing much at the time of what i got myself into, i spent countless hours reading everything i can to get an idea of what this fish needs.
the reason was that at the time, my bigger tank, certainly wasn't adequate to house an armatus. in my luck, i happened to get a tatauaia, which seemed not only harder to come by (at that time, more so than an armatus or scomberoide), and not that many people have got them to reach past 12". This is where the challenge comes in.. trying to meet their needs of extremely clean water, healthy diet, decent current and tankmates (if possible lol).
My big tank is currently sitting in the garage, waiting to have a leak fixed. In the mean time, I figured I might actually sell that one and get a larger one in the summer. Thank god these fish are notoriously for their slow growth rate of about 1/2 inch a month.. if that. This one is about 8" right now.
This current payara, I got from Mike, another fellow MFKer in NJ. It was with some peacock bass and some other larger fish that I can't recall at the moment. When I got there, it so happens that Mike had him eating Krill, fish fillets and shrimp. To this day, he only took krill. But as of recently, I got him onto massivore pellets
I believe he learned to eat non-live food from his old tankmates. I tried to take a video of his feeding, but he's not fond of the camera I guess. He hides under his driftwood ALL day and comes out at night time.. he gets his food around midnight before I sleep. The yellow tail varients I had before, wasn't as skittish as this particular fish and was semi active during the day, a bit more during the night. Here's a picture of the difference between a red and yellow tail.
my current tatauaia.
interestingly, i just noticed just today, the back of his caudal fin is whitening, similar what you'd see on an armatus. it wasn't always like this. it used to be black toward the tip instead of white.
a picture of his temporary home.
set up: aquaclear 70, koralia powerhead, manzanita driftwood, black moon sand. will be adding an extra aquaclear 70 soon to help keep the water clean and a more powerful powerhead. btw.. if you plan on buying manzanita driftwood, make sure you get a solid piece! this one has lots of breaks in the structure of the wood and seems to be aging... won't let me keep my damn water from browning!
also, i believe a good flow of current is absolutely necessary to keep a fish healthy and would help extend the length of their life. if you just feed a fish til they're "nice and fat" that's essentially like you or me just sitting on the couch all day and that food isn't going anywhere.. if your fish stays active, fine but i figured that once payara gets to a decent size, they may need to be "forced" to swim against current to stay active.
another shot, another angle
quick note.. the yellow tail varient I had before, had a much, much solid personality then the current one I have. He'd stay active during the day whereas this one is skittish of spontaneous movement. the yellow tail wouldn't even budge if I had my hand in the water moving decorations around. when I get my bigger tank, I plan to look for the yellow tail variant.. I want to confirm any differences if any between the yellow and red tail. certainly keeping two or three of each type might not be enough to prove anything, but certainly it'd be fun
