New Tank for the Boys....

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
i'd say they are both neat fish, but the Armatus is probably your better choice because it will be able to keep pace, growth wise, with peacock bass.... tigerfish grow much more slowly, and unless the tiger is much larger than the peacocks in the beginning, which could be a problem for the peacocks, they will eventually outgrow him and possibly eat him.... Armatus grow quickly, like the bass .... when keeping tigerfish they have to be the fish you center the whole tank around because of their slow growth, and unique behavior.... they need lots of current and open space cause they are such explosively powerful swimmers, and when spooked they will smash into things very hard and cause major damage to themselves ... i tried peacocks 2 times, first time i came home to a GATF's tail sticking out of a peacocks mouth, so i got rid of the bass, then tried another smaller one, and within 3 months he was too "cichlid" like as far as aggression and chasing, and when feeding would scare everyone away with his aggression and eat all the food, thus growing faster.... i got rid of him before he ate anyone.... I had a Nile Perch, he was much more passive, and had a great personality, and grew a little slower, but non the less he grew too fast, and was becoming a threat to my ATF's as far as being able to eat them.... those perch/bass like fish have such huge mouths they will try and eat anything eventually.... i may do another Nile perch though, now that my tigers are 10-12 inches minimum, i really like them

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Now that you put it that way, I may even back off the idea of the cichla. You bring up a lot of good points there, and I find myself leaning towards a VATF anyways, so maybe I'll just do the single ATF with some falcatus barracudas. I do prefer a centerpiece type of fish, and I fear the armatus may grow too fast for my growout tank, so looking more like an ATF would work better for me.

Sorry for the thread derail, just seems like you have had or do have most of the fish I am contemplating for this growout. Thanks again! ;)
 
no worries man, i dont look at it like a thread derail, i look at it like a fellow hobbyist whose interested in some of the few fish i feel like i know a little bit about.... ask away, plus you give me a chance to babble about fish, and not run the risk becoming single, although if she gives the ring back i can buy an even bigger tank! hmmmm.... lol, only kidding

i had my ATF's for about a year and they were in the 8 inch range when i first went for the Armatus, and unfortunately the 2 Armatus' died for unknown reasons, (i have some theories, but no definitive answers) but it may have been a blessing in disguise since they died at 11 inches and i got them at 4-5 inches, and only had them for about 5-6 months!!! by now they'd be huge, and probably have a belly full of ATF... so when they died i bought another, even smaller at 3 inches, and now he's probably about 10 inches and close to equal to the ATF's in size... they work well together, the timing just has to be right... and who knows, i may still have problems in the next year with the Armatus growing too fast, but trying different combinations always increases knowledge, so its never a total loss

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djaalix said:
no worries man, i dont look at it like a thread derail, i look at it like a fellow hobbyist whose interested in some of the few fish i feel like i know a little bit about.... ask away, plus you give me a chance to babble about fish, and not run the risk becoming single, although if she gives the ring back i can buy an even bigger tank! hmmmm.... lol, only kidding

i had my ATF's for about a year and they were in the 8 inch range when i first went for the Armatus, and unfortunately the 2 Armatus' died for unknown reasons, (i have some theories, but no definitive answers) but it may have been a blessing in disguise since they died at 11 inches and i got them at 4-5 inches, and only had them for about 5-6 months!!! by now they'd be huge, and probably have a belly full of ATF... so when they died i bought another, even smaller at 3 inches, and now he's probably about 10 inches and close to equal to the ATF's in size... they work well together, the timing just has to be right... and who knows, i may still have problems in the next year with the Armatus growing too fast, but trying different combinations always increases knowledge, so its never a total loss

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Click to expand...

Cool, thanks again for all the help. I'm pretty much decided on an ATF, just need to do some more research on whether it'd be best to go with a VATF or a TATF. I love the color of the VATF, but trying to figure out if the TATF or Brevis will stay at a smaller max size or not. Hard to find definitive info on these guys.

How is their behavior in the tank? Do they compare more to a piranha - sometimes skittish, not super interactive with people, not feeding in front of people sometimes, etc? Or would you compare them more to another type of fish? I know they're skittish when smaller, and that's understandable. I just want to make sure they're active, confident and impressive when they get larger, as this would probably be the only fish in the tank as a centerpiece/show fish, possibly some dither type fish but nothing major.
 
well, i'd say they are a skittish type fish, not so much with movement outside the tank, but reaching anything in the tank used to make mine go nuts, recklessly slamming into things like during gravel cleaning or waterchanges... they do get used to it though, and it seems to me as they get larger they become more bold, but never lose that quick spazz if startled... i would also say, in my experience, the VATF i have is less skittish than the GATF's, and much less likely to freak as easily... dithers are helpful, they can calm the ATF's down, and get them used to movement and action, i think a tank with a single ATF would make him very timid and skittish, but i dont know from experience.... i know people that tell horror stories about ATF's killing all kinds of other fish, but this has never happenned to me, in fact my ATF's have never attacked another fish, except the usual nipping and chasing of eachother, and even that has stopped now, however when they were young they would fight eachother and injure eachother during this nipping and chasing, so i'd say get 1, or 4-5, not 2,... large bold fish that are aggressive feeders are probably a bad idea, since the ATF seems more of a "safe" eater, and stays away from the initial melee and rather picks off food, then flees to go swallow it, and if other fish make a move for the same piece they were going for they often turn away rather than fight for it... i dont have any practical experience with Brevis, but i think VATF is probably your best bet..... it is a pretty fish as far as striping, and bright red color, a bit more bold, and can be kept in a 6x2 footprint tank for a few years, maybe for life depending on how often he spazzes and hits the glass as he gets larger... i'd say 8x3 is a better bet and bigger is always better, but 6x2 will go a long way with a VATF.... my ATF's also never hide, they are always out and hanging in the current or swimming around, often together kind of schooling with eachother... another thing i might add is these are my experiences with 5 GATF's and 1 VATF, so my VATF could be bolder, but others may not be... hopefully these observations help you out a bit :D

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thanks for the kind words guys..... cant seem to get the current set up in the tank so i dont get gigantic sand dunes, but getting closer everyday, hopefully soon! still tweaking little things to try and help, and my last 2 GATF's are still being very stubborn and not eating pellets, but hopefully soon as well, they are getting closer and closer, i know they gotta be hungry, hitting the 3 week mark with no food

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ohh yeah i'd say the barracuda's are a good choice as tankmates, i had 2 yellow tail barracuda's and they hung with ky ATF's and schooled with them, although their max size is kinda small, they'll get along fine for a long time.... those 2 my Nile Perch did eat, and they were 7 and 8 inches at the time!

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well, havent been able to figure out a way to align the powerheads so i didnt come downstairs to gigantic sand dunes in the morning, so i decided to go with a more spread out, and less aggressive set up.... i would deal with moving sand everyday, but even the fish were avoiding the strong current on one side, so i took 2 powerheads out and distributed the others throughout the tank a bit better .... fish are now more spread out in the tank, and i'm still pushing over 12k gph, and much less sand dunes, so hopefully this works better ... plus my nitrites have finally leveled out, so the cycling process is coming to a close without any lost fish, so i'm very happy about that... now just need to be strong and get everyone eating pellets.... so far i've only put pellets in there and about 75% of the fish are eating them

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