Scomb advice needed

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JCA

JCA

Candiru
MFK Member
May 12, 2006
837
4
48
Washington, US
Hey Guys,

Ordered a 2-3" scomb that'll be here sometime this week. I have two options for him...

A) toss him in the 180 gallon in my signature. All the fish are juveniles and has a lot of flow from a 55 gallon sump.

B) toss him into the sump and use it as a growout. I could keep it a little more shallow and have the baffle act as a waterfall to provide a ton of flow.

Which of the two would you suggest?
 
You won't ever be able to put it in the main tank. Scombs grow extremely slow and the rate silver aros grow, it'll look at the scomb as food extremely soon. Mine only grew 1/4"/month max. In a year, they grew 4" to only 6"-7". For now, it would be best to put it in the sump but you would need a different tank. From the tank mates in your sig, every one of them will easily harass your scomb and eventually try and eat it.


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Scombs stress and die easily - if it were me I'd QT it in low flow and get it eating before introducing it to other fish. Scombs are ich magnets when stressed, he'll be stressed when you open the box - cleated cooper works well for ridding ich.
 
Aw3s0m3 said:
You won't ever be able to put it in the main tank. Scombs grow extremely slow and the rate silver aros grow, it'll look at the scomb as food extremely soon. Mine only grew 1/4"/month max. In a year, they grew 4" to only 6"-7". For now, it would be best to put it in the sump but you would need a different tank. From the tank mates in your sig, every one of them will easily harass your scomb and eventually try and eat it.


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Click to expand...
Unfortunately, this is more than likely the correct answer. Your other fish are going to outgrow him and end up either eating him outright or harassing him to death. You may want to consider canceling the order and finding a larger scomb if you're set on them, or possibly considering a more robust fish to go with the likes of aro/rays/dats.
 
Interesting, thanks for the info guys! I had read on another thread that people were experiencing growth rates from 3"-8" in a 6-7 month period. After that the growth rate slows down a ton, but by that time he would be big enough to avoid being eaten by the aro. I've had a 2 footer with much smaller fish than that and didn't run into any issues.

I am, however, set on getting this payara. But I will QT him in a low flow tank as advised above. At what size would you advise I begin increasing the flow? I understand that is necessary as the fish grows.

Again, I appreciate all the info. I am certainly a beginner when it comes to payara. I've kept most other types and have been successful with rays and would love to give one of these a shot.
 
It sounds like a lot of the info you may have previously gathered was on the scombs larger relative: the Armatus. The Armies grow faster and seem to enjoy fast moving current.

My scomb, who's not exactly little anymore, doesn't hang out by the power head I put in his tank. He's a much more relaxed fish, and in the 6-ish months I've had him, he has maybe grown an inch. I know nothing about rays, but my scomb has a dat for a tankmate and they get along fine. The silver may be an issue, but my silvers never ate any tankmates, because I usually keep them really well fed. It's a gamble, but a fast growing fish like that always is.

Best of luck whichever route you go, and please post pics of the little bugger. I imagine he's going to be pretty damned cute for an ugly fish!

- John
 
My 3 were in a 40 with extremely high flow from the start. They would always swim right in front of the powerheads but ya. It sounds like you read on the armatus, not scomberoides. They are 1 if the smaller species and rarely reach more than a foot in length and that size is extremely rare. They also have the reputation of dying after a year but I either got lucky or was doing something right cuz I had them for 1-1/2 years before I sold them


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JCA said:
The thread I'm referring to was discussing Scombs. http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?376518-Hydrolycus-Scrombrodies-Scombs-questions&highlight=Scomb+growth
Click to expand...

Yup still stand by it - the one I was referring to lived 2 years and was 12" in length when he lost all sense of equilibrium - next day dead.

It's not the "Flow" per say that is required for Scombs it's the increased oxygen saturation. Mine was in a 150XH (30" tall) - I had a xp3 loaded with bio media (no 02 increase here) but also had 2 marineland 350's with custom air injection from bubble wands with large custom holes powered by a 100gph air pump as well as 2 surface mounted 850gph air inducted powerheads.

I've grown some really large fish in that tank with outstanding 1 year growth rates. Some of the Scombs tankmates are still with me - 12" Brycon Dentex, 14" African pike, 12" Silver Dat, 18" 3 bar Indo dat, 9" Red Tall chalceus, and a 6" male Firemouth.(not in that tank anymore there's a male dovii growing now). A couple other Red tails got shanked as well as few different species of cudas - all died from their wounds.
 
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