Question for all you Armatus keepers.

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I'm not sure the scientific name on the cat there's a few pics of them doing a google image search, but I don't think there's too many out there with nasty teeth.

Never cared for rays? That's tom foolery! :) I don't see how people can even have tanks without them!?! They are the only reason I can justify being in this hobby as deep as I am. Only way to ever recoop and money. Everything else is just a money pit. Can't make money on them but at least they can help out with the bills a bit. I was hooked after having them in a pond and being able to hand feed them. Once a pup is born resistance is futile..... It's hard for me to even have a salt tank and not have one in there. It's a pain to get them here, as I'm not sure I've ever even seen a Motoro in a shop in Iowa. But thanks to the interweb it's possible for a hillbilly like me to get my hands on some pretty crazy rays. IF I didn't know what was out there and only knew about what I'd seen in the flesh I probably wouldn't be into them either.

I overlooked the sump thing.... No way I'd ever set up a tank without one unless it was for ray pups, that's the only thing I'd even consider running canisters on. Hate canisters. Can't check them like a sump. Better mechanical filtration with a sump. I fought bacterial outbreaks on my rays all the time starting out using HOBs and canisters. Happened less with monster wet dries in sumps. Even less after adding a moving bed. Now I'm sold on them. May try beads someday when I have money, but for now the ol sump and moving bed (bio reactor) are tried and true.

I'm not sold on the wider being better if your talking fish that stay managable (under 2'). Thinking it over I'd keep the 8' tank. You're giving up room in footprint. 6 inches isn't worth the 2' in my opinion. I have a pair of 6x3s and have had a 8x2.5 and I'd trade a 6x3 for a 8x2.5 in a heartbeat. That extra 2 foot is a lot to a fish that likes to stretch its fins.

That being said, if you haven't seen the video of the guys drilling glass on gl*******s.com then watch it, order up a holesaw and some bulkheads and kiss that fear of knocking a hole in glass tanks goodbye. The thought alone of drilling a hole in a glass tank freaked me out for over a decade. Now I'd feel comfy doing it after a half dozen moonshine shots...... lol

Building the system that is the life support for your monsters is half the fun....... :)

Just my 2 pennies..... lol
 
I think I'm going to go ahead and hang on to my tank now, thankfully mine isn't glass though either. It's an acrylic as well so no need to go about drilling out glass. I'm still iffy on the sump thing, especially from the horror stories I have heard of flooding because of power loss. I hear there are precautions for such events. I would like to do a sump but it is all so intimidating especially considering I don't know where to get one that would be large enough for my 300. Building I think would be out of the question considering how terrible I am working with acrylics. Not to mention the plumbing.... Like I said it's all very intimidating to me whereas my 2 FX5s are simple to keep up on with maintenance.

I think at this point I'm pretty much almost settled on having the small shoal of tats with some other mixed characins (likely odoes), it just seems I am having a hard time finding info on the tats whereas info about Armatus seem to be all over the place. Hell I haven't even seen a tat larger than 12 inches.
 
Probably won't see one over a foot over here... There's a pic of a 14-16" er from across seas, but that's the biggest I've heard of. Nobody keeps them, they all decide Armatus are cooler and ditch the Tats. Not sure I've ever seen someone work with a shoal year after year. I had great luck with Tats and Rhaphs together. If you've ever seen a Rhaph eat, you know their backflips are one of the craziest sights there is to see. Watching mine swing flips in the pond brought a smile to my face every time. Very seldom missed and always first to eat. Problem is put them in a small tank and they can put permenant damage on their snouts in less then a week. Gotta be carefull with those guys but they're so worth it.

Sorry about assuming it was glass, lol. Acrylic's easy! Simple jig saw, thin fine blade (to do a tight circle) and the trick is a bit of water to keep the acrylic for gumming up. I use carbide burr bits on die grinders to clean up rough holes, cut through like butter. Those same bits work great on drills.

Ever looked into Wlim bead filters? Fair compromise between a sump and a canister. They're not cheap (bout $500) but it's a hell of a filter for the money. I lost the dollar for dollar discussion fighting for "build your own it's cheaper" when compared to one of these filters. Maintainance can't get any easier, there's nothing to wash. Flip a few valves, backflush the filter and refill the tank. That's it. I spent more building my own sump as the bio media alone was well over half the price of the Wlim bead. One bead should be overkill for that tank shoehorn stocked.

Sump arguement is a properly designed sump will never overflow. Power outtage, pump failure, whatever. I'd be more then happy to help! I enjoy the filtation aspect of the hobby so much I don't think I've ever left any filter here on any tank run longer then 6 months without changing it. Always improving and learning a lot. IF I didn't build my own stuff I probably would have got bored of the hobby long ago and moved on to something else, but I find myself stuck fighting the battle to maintain a champaign stock list on a beer budget. :)
 
Never really looked into the pond filters as I thought they were a no go for aquariums. Gotta say though for as much as I dumped into my two FX5s one of those bad boys (looking at the WLim Carefree 16 sand filter) makes my FX5s look like a 10 gallon HOB filter. How does one even go about using a system like that on an aquarium?

I am VERY interested in the Tats now, I think I am coming to my senses that an Armatus in my current situation is just not going to happen. It would be cruel to think I could keep one in a 72x36 or 96x30 long term. The tats would be much better suited for such a tank and would give them PLENTY of room for growth.

I'm kinda worried though still with the Odoes, I would love to have 4 or 5 but I'm reading a lot about them snapping and going psycho on other tank mates which is making me feel somewhat iffy on them. I'm thinking the 5-7 tats, 1 or 2 Sorubim Lima Shovelnose cats, a florida gar, and possibly a few odoes might be what I settle on for my new stocklist. Pretty much all those fish get about the same size, 12-18 inches, except for the gar but they seem to be docile and wouldn't be able to eat anything that large anyways. I was thinking about a Endli as well but I'm thinking with them getting to about 2-3 feet one might be too big and could possibly start picking off odoes.
 
Those filters are designed for packed monster tanks. "Kendragon" is the guy you want to contact about them. He can answer stuff way better then I can. It's a sand filter, but different media is used. ;) They require a decent sized pump (3-4K GPH) but that's it for filtration. I think you gotta plum them to a drain as the backwash flushes water out. I've seen vids of what comes out and it's pretty crazy what that thing will pull out of your tank in a couple days.

I'm confident of Odoes being passive fish. Raised 3 different groups with numerous tankmates. Look for any of these "horror" stories involving a group of Odoe. I really think they're best kept in groups. Single specimens may just lash out in fear as they are alone and try to defend themselves against threat. Maybe in numbers they don't feel threatened. Maybe I just haven't kept threatening enough fish with them to experience these outcomes?

Growrate on Odoe are pretty crazy. Shouldn't have to worry too long about them being eaten, usually theyre close to the typical max size the first year. Most here belive they rarely break a foot.
 
Well that idea on a monster sand filter is out, unfortunately I have no conveniently placed drains. I think I am pretty much settled now on my stocklist thanks very much to you DB.

As of right now it's looking like it's going to be 4 Hepsetus Odoe Pikes, 5-7 Tats, 2 Lima Shovelnose cats, possibly a few silver dollars or small assorted tetras to get some movement, and 1 L25 Scarlet Pleco. Now just to hunt down a distributor who has Odoes and Tats. :grinyes:
 
John has Odoe right now. He's the only one I've seen with the yellow tailed Tats, but I think Tats are seasonal. Has had ATF recently too.

I'd have the same problem with those filters..... Planned on just using a tote/rubbermaid/or tank then pumping it out. I'm not sure how much water's required for thier backflushes, so not sure if this will work but I don't see why it wouldn't......

Always happy to help! Sometimes we can learn from others mistakes, makes things easier in the long run. :)
 
DB junkie said:
Those filters are designed for packed monster tanks. "Kendragon" is the guy you want to contact about them. He can answer stuff way better then I can. It's a sand filter, but different media is used. ;) They require a decent sized pump (3-4K GPH) but that's it for filtration. I think you gotta plum them to a drain as the backwash flushes water out. I've seen vids of what comes out and it's pretty crazy what that thing will pull out of your tank in a couple days.
Click to expand...

I just did some research on that filter and I am VERY impressed. I PM'd Ken to try to get some more info lol.
 
whatever you do, don't swap your tank. your tank is perfect for many different types of setups-dovi, umbie,cichlid community, arowana, discus etc the possibilities are endless for now and the future. long tanks always look better and you have the best. getting alarge tank home is the difficult part. if you want filteration you could always add more filters.
 
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