Red tail payara care

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Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 5, 2012
1,820
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Ohio
I know this was discussed before but I couldn't find anything. Could you tell me something about this fish and stuff like max size, how to get it off live food, what sort of stuff I need for the tank(can it live w/o powerhead) and tank mates. I will sell off whatever fish I need to to get one. My LFS has got 6 in stock for $110. They are 6" long. The tank is 75 gallons. With I'm not going to sell is florida gar(13",being moved to bigger tank once it's finished), ornate bichir(7") and blood parrot cichlid(4"). Thanks in advance. I'd also like to hear people's stories.


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Im looking at getting one also with my arowana, knife fish, and alligator gar in a 75 but probably a 150 soon. Post pics if you would please! And have you found out if they could live without a powerhead yet? Thanks!
 
Payara Captive Care Guide.

I read, re-read and read that thread again before I bought my first payara. Good thread and a valuable resource! The info is largely divided up by all five commonly kept species. Post a pic of the tats your store has for sale! It's not too unusual for the fish to be labeled as red tails and sold at red tail price but the fish are in fact scomberoides. At $110, if it is a tatauaia, it's a very good price. They normally command $200-250 for a 6" fish.

I have a tatauaia, and of my big predators, it was the easiest to break from live. After two days in my tank, he watched the GATF snarf a pellet, swam up and ate one himself. That easy! Now he's putting on bulk quick and looking really good. Keep in mind when you're trying to break your tat though, it varies by the individual fish's personality. Some will break super easy like my tat did, some take six months, like my scomb. It just depends how stubborn the fish is. As a rule however, younger fish break easier.
 
supposed max size is 18". I've only heard of people getting them up to 12-15" in captivity (probably has to do with improper diet/water quality and also the fact that you need a lot of patience- they grow super slow). I've run through a few threads (if you search you'll find a bunch). But it seems the best way to get them off live food is to have a teacher fish. The biggest armatus were caught in a lake (no white water) so go figure, you don't need a powerhead.

But the benefits are there though.. keeps the water clean (moves around debris), and your fish gets a workout. My tat was nocturnal so it barely moved during the day.

be careful with tank mates. There is a good chance that
a) the tank mate will harass your payara (they seem all big n tough with their canine teeth but the few I've kept were extremely shy).
b) the tank mate will be food..

and then there's that little margin in between where you actually find a decent tank mate lol
 
Chicxulub said:
Payara Captive Care Guide.

I read, re-read and read that thread again before I bought my first payara. Good thread and a valuable resource! The info is largely divided up by all five commonly kept species. Post a pic of the tats your store has for sale! It's not too unusual for the fish to be labeled as red tails and sold at red tail price but the fish are in fact scomberoides. At $110, if it is a tatauaia, it's a very good price. They normally command $200-250 for a 6" fish.

I have a tatauaia, and of my big predators, it was the easiest to break from live. After two days in my tank, he watched the GATF snarf a pellet, swam up and ate one himself. That easy! Now he's putting on bulk quick and looking really good. Keep in mind when you're trying to break your tat though, it varies by the individual fish's personality. Some will break super easy like my tat did, some take six months, like my scomb. It just depends how stubborn the fish is. As a rule however, younger fish break easier.
Click to expand...

they don't command 200 to 250 bux for a tat! They don't even charge that much for armatus now!
 
lix.ma14 said:
they don't command 200 to 250 bux for a tat! They don't even charge that much for armatus now!
Click to expand...

Most of them on the lists are about $200. There's good deals that pop up, I got mine a month ago for $40, but most of the time they cost just as much as armatus. Most armatus I see are in the $200 range, too. Again, there are deals, but I don't think it's fair to say they're normally cheap. One has to be patient for those deals to pop up.....
 
in the US, I would say $70-130 depending on size and season but yea, competitive to the armatus nowadays. I think it's nuts when people charge 200+ for any payara
 
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