My Two Dats

[DaveB]

Right after Christmas I had a hard time deciding which of two Datnoids at the LFS to buy - at the time I knew nothing about them and just thought they looked cool. I ended up choosing the smaller of the two. He quickly became one of my favorite fish and I grew to like him even more after discovering this forum and doing more research.

So today I went back and they still had the other one, three months later! I gave them 35 bucks for him and brought him home. It was great, as soon as I put him in the tank the smaller guy latched right on and started following him around the tank.

I've been assuming all along that my first guy is an IT, but I'm not sure on the ID of the new one. So far he seems to like the tank but is getting chased a bit by the convict cichlid. The tank also has two distichodus, a green terror, a ctenapoma, and a Ghost Knife.

I'm very excited to have two now and am eager to see how they get along - all signs are good so far. I didn't realize how much bigger he was though till I got him home. I wonder if I might have to start worrying about the smallest of the three giant danios in the tank!

I am not a great fish photographer even on my best day, and these were taken in a hurry, so they're not the best. But here are my dats:

 

[hamato_yoshii]

Cool, nice dats

 

[BushFishRox]

The bigger one is an AT and the smaller one is an IT oooo the IT has 2 different patterns just noticed that cool...

 

[Nic]

nice AT and IT...

 

[JD7.62]

Can you get some better profile shots of the larger one? ATs have two dots on their caudal peduncle that Im just not seeing in those pics.

 

[Razman]

yeah when you get a chance take your time and get a nice shot of the bigger one, i really think its an NGT to tell you the truth.

 

[blacktip]

The big one is definitely an AT. The two spots are there on the caudal peduncle but they are not very clear and seem to blend into each other a bit. Now all you need is an NGT, NTT, and ST and you'll be set.

 

[TCZeli]

Agree with blacktip, no doubt its an AT. Nice Dats!

 

[BushFishRox]

The big one is definitely an AT. The two spots are there on the caudal peduncle but they are not very clear and seem to blend into each other a bit. Now all you need is an NGT, NTT, and ST and you'll be set.

and the fact that it is silver and not yellow/gold

 

[DaveB]

Snapped a few more pics. Man the flash has a way of highlighting all the gunk and algae in the tank that you don't notice otherwise.

(How are these guys with sand substrates? Do they care? I'm thinking of getting a bigger tank and using sand instead of pea gravel.)

This guy has been getting harassed a bit by the big distichodus but
the convict no longer bothers him. He hasn't seemed all that interested in food yet, though. He snapped up half a piece of krill tonight when the other half was in another fish's mouth but otherwise he just swims in circles watching the food fall around him. Hopefully this is just because he's adjusting.