Should I get a Hydrolycus tatauaia, Red Tail Payara

[Characin Man]

I am buying a 120gallon aquarium 48x24x24 and will aquascape it with driftwood and rocks and will have current. I am planning on stocking it with 3 Red Tailed Barracudas or spotted cachoro, a pair of Green Terrors, a horsehead catfish, and maybe a Red Tale Payara Hydrolycus tatauaia. Should I get the Payara or should I wait for a larger aquarium to come along? If I shouldn’t any suggestions for a big toothy Predator from the Amazon for a centerpiece fish? By big I mean 10 to 15 inches long. not MFK Big

 

[Gourami Swami]

My vote would be NO at the moment because the other stock you have will already be quite a lot (too much) for a 120 in my opinion. I would wait until you can get something much larger for the payara. Your 3 barracuda should fit the bill for a toothy fish. I think you should rethink your other stock for this tank size as well, tank won't be large enough for all that in the long run. Might be fine for a little bit if you buy the fish small.

 

[koltsixx]

Hey that my Armatus you got as a profile pic.

I agree with Gourami Swami I've only kept Arms but in general Hydro's can be darty fish. The same goes for the Barracudas so I'd personally wouldn't keep them in anything under 6'. Also the Terrors could spook them. I successfully comm'd mine with a Arm but I got lucky and from my understanding Arms are the more aggressive of the Hydro's. IME Arms aren't really aggressive unless it's toward silver fish or other characin or conspecifics and I imagine the same would be true for a Tat. So aTerrors aggression might cause them to run into a tank wall especially in a smaller tank.

For a toothy center piece you could try one of the smaller wolf species.

 

[Characin Man]

Ok thank you

 

[duanes]

They eventually get almost 2 ft long, so that tank should only be thought of a a temporary grow out tank.
They are known to eat fish, almost the same size they are
Since you mention wanting an Amazonia toothy fish, just an FYI, you do realize Andinoacara (G.T.s) are not found in the Amazon, they are from the opposite side and north of the Andes mountains, and never would mix with Amazonians. The G.T.s would also eventually become prey of and be eaten by the Hydrolycus.