TSNxRTC hybrids at Fish Story Aquarium and Rescue

[thebiggerthebetter]

A learning story with one of our first hybrids from 2011-2012: https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33298
In retrospect, I am 100% sure the hybrid died of indigestion as a result of low DO, exactly as it occurred in the case of these RTCs: https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=34778

Our very first hybrid from 2010, 4":




A few months later at 10":



...

Our first two large rescue hybrids, 2.5', Evans and Lobach, from 2010-2011. In a 4000 gal basement pond 40'x6'x3':

Evans at 2.5', nice straight snout:




Camel-face, deformed Lobach, also 2.5':




...


Fast forward. Got three at the moment.

One was rescued from Dayton, Ohio in Mar 2016 at 1.5' and poor shape. It has done well here. This is one of the bigger ones, 2.5'-3', in 4500 gal with a straight snout.

The other bigger one was donated also about 2 years ago from an overcrowded 400 gal tank with six or seven 2' fish in it. It has also done well here. It has the misshaped-snout defect, called "duck bill" or "camel face". Common in these man-made food fish. What we get in the trade are the culls, garbage-gene specimen, from the aquaculture industry in South America.

These two are the greediest and most assertive at the feeding time fish in 4500 gal apart from arapaima. Smart too. They know where and how feed enters the water better than any other fish in the tank!

The third named Hercules was donated about half a year ago at 1'+ and has reached 1.5' in a 240 gal. It took it some time to figure out the diet and get used to it but now it is a hog. Doesn't want pellet though. All about thawed fish. He is starting giving hard time to the false piraiba housed with it, so I am not sure how much longer it will stay in that 240 gal.

The video includes feeding:

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

The one from Dayton come from Gerbers? That’s my LFS and he will take in any fish regardless of the size. Lately, I think he’s been working with bigrich545 and his fish rescue to provide adequate homes for the monsters he takes in. The largest tanks at Gerbers are 265’s, but the larger fish are usually kept in the 4ft by 4ft tubs.

Next time you’re up in Dayton, let me know. I’ll buy you a beer somewhere.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Haha, thanks bro. I appreciate the sentiment.

This was my first time in Dayton, and who knows, could be last too. I did live not too far from Dayton in Bowling Green, Ohio for 5 years when I did my graduate studies at BGSU.

Yes the hybrid came from Jon Gerber's. JasonsPlecosCichlids set up the rescue. Many thanks to him. The target was 6 paroon sharks but I also took 8 RTC, 7 pacu, and this hybrid.

I described a bit how I got them here: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/...ks-rescued-from-dayton-oh-in-mar-2016.699701/

 

[JasonsPlecosCichlids]

I remember that day

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Obligatory yearly update.

Hercules, the smallest and youngest rescue hybrid, had been moved out of the 240 gal and has spent several months in the less aggressive 4500 gal and grew very well in there because he was outcompeting all tank mates for feed. A brazzen fish. This earned him a one-way ticket to the other 4500 gal with the big dogs.

And there he stopped feeding cold turkey. At first I thought it was the stress but later on I started to realize he has probably been ill, perhaps with the same bug that has been sickening some and wiping out others in my tanks for the second half of 2018. Got pretty skinny but lately after another several months started feeding little by little, far from his usual vigor but it's moving in the right direction.

One of the bigger ~3' hybrids, the one with a duck bill deformity, has developed this strange body shape where it's as if it is carrying a huge load of eggs but the distended rear portion of the tummy hasn't changed in a year and the fish feeds and behaves as if nothing's wrong. IDK what to make of it. Perhaps it is related to its poor genealogy reflected in the deformed snout.

The rescue from Dayton with a straight snout, now ~3' too, has been doing well, no changes to report.

Video clip showing all three:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Hercules has gone to live in Boca Raton with Rodrigo at Predatory Fins. Just seen him yesterday at Rod and Lisa's at the Florida Monster Fish Bash 2019 in their 12,000 gal.

The deformed hybrid. It had been feeding less and less in the last half year or a year, I thought it was on the way out but two days ago I treated the tan with Microbe Lift Broad Spectrum Disease Treatment (Malachite Green and formalin based) and all of a sudden he became an aggressive eater. I don't know yet what to make of it.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

The sudden jump in the feeding of the deformed hybrid hadn't lasted. It's stomach bulge became bigger and it stopped feeding and passed away in a couple of weeks after that.

The strange posterior abdominal bulge was merely a collection of reddish fluid.

As I suspect, outward deformities or mutations are always accompanied by inward ones, messed up internal organs, nervous system, immune system, you name it. Plus this fish had a rough time in its prior life in its grow out 500 gal tank where the biomass was 1/5th of the tank by weight it seemed.

Anyhow, this is the end of the road. Final size 36". With us for about 3 years, plus perhaps 2-3 before, so 5-6 years old. (Fins bitten by the ever opportunistic and brazen pacu post mortem.)

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Two hybrids in the "aggressive" 4500 gal have been doing well, the big 3' rescue from Dayton OH and a new rescue currently at shrimpy 2'+ whose arrival from Punta Gorda, FL a year ago or less I failed to film and report. It's got a bit of the camel face going too. Its behaviour matched that of Hercules - it was feeding out of control in the peaceful 4500 gal outcompeting everyone but when transfered to the aggressive 4500 gal it became really sheepish, fasted awhile, stopped taking fish altogether, for which it was ready to kill in the other tank, and has only been taking pellets for half a year.

You can see them here at 5:50 to 9:30 minutes:

Here is another hybrid rescue from Ft. Myers, FL, a bit under 2'. This one has got a straight snout and has been living in the peaceful 4500 gal and just as Hercules and the other smaller hybrid has become exceedingly boisterous and brazzen at feeding times.

The big hybrid from Dayton, underwater, 7:00-7:30 minutes:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

If you are squeamish, don't look, please.

Here is what happened mid or late April. The 4' Suriname piraiba missed out on two feedings of thawed fish over one week because of its annoying timidness and hesitation and as if aiming to be the last to grab feed. All the feed has been eaten up by tank mates. Next thing I know it tried to swallow the smaller camel-face hybrid ~2' in the RTC 4500 gal one night. It couldn't but the hybrid got badly damaged. Here it is separated in a 240 gal the same morning:





In a few days the damaged skin from the posterior half started to come off like a stocking (no surprise as this is something I've seen more than a few times before; it even happened to the same piraiba in the same tank 2-3 years prior). These are shot one or a few days apart each photo:







In a 1-2 weeks, new skin started to come in:







In another week:







In another week (the fish started to actively and greedily feed):








In another 1-2 weeks:









Another week:









Yet another week:

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Couple of weeks ago:






Since this, it has gone into the "peaceful" 4500 gal where it is back to its old greedy and brazzen self.


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