Wallago Attu- the experience

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I

Icthisapian

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Feb 18, 2012
173
24
33
Wareham, MA
Hey guys,

So i recently purchased a wallago attu. Before you go jumping on my back about size and such, he's 8" in a 350+ gal grow out tank for the next year. I wanted to write a post about my experience and challenges as there just aren't that many aquarists brave ..or maybe stupid, enough to keep one :). Right now the hulking behemoth of a tank in my living room is bare save for water and a 1000w heater that has been cooking since 10 pm last night. as we speak this large cat is slowly making its way closer, only a few hours till arrival. At which point he will join my two TSNxRTC hybrids in thier holding pond, about 300 gallons. This same pond has also been running both my fx5 and my ati #5 sponge to help keep the water qualities similar after transport. Once he's here i will throw some pictures up so the world can see what he looks like. Then over the next few weeks i will post abotu how he is doing and acclimating, and more importantly, getting along with my equal sized hybrids. Hopefully this will help some people and just be a really cool read. Hope you enjoy it!
 
He arrived shortly before 330 this afternoon. when i was handed the box from the Fedex driver i could already feel this aggresive little guy in the box. In the excitement i will admit i forgot to take some pictures. However, he was every bit wallago. Very slender tail section which reminded me more of a dragon goby than a knife fish. his head is were the game really changes. His maxille, nose, barbels are very long slender and highly active. His mandibule, chin, barbels are short, white and if your not careful would miss them. As for color and pattern, his primary colors are light brown/tan across his dorsal while his belly is a grey/silver. He does have motled dark brown/black from mid body to tail tip. All and all an excellent specimen.

Acclimation
Acclimation when well. slowly switching about 4oz bag water for tank water every 15 minutes or so. I will say he is a very active fish, and current of any sort, esp. when i woudl add the small amount of tank water would spur him to swim into it. Definatly a sign of his river hunting. Even at such a young age, his teeth are very prominent and shows no fear of using them...he took a run at my finger not even five minutes into the acclimation. I will say he is a VERY smoothed skin fish, as this would be the only time i would be willing to put my fingers that close to him for the rest of his life. With that said, his substrate must be as soft as possible, i'm using washed pool filter sand for now. The rest of acclimation went fairly normal.

release
I have never seen a happier fish than he was when i finally allowed him to enter my tank. His first move was to find all the currents in the tank using those massive barbels i described earlier. hsi second move was to find his spot, which was already inhabitated by my two tsn rtc hybrids. This however did not deter him from wanting the spot and made an aggressive charge into the cave where the hybrids lay. His charge was futile as the hybrids out weigh and out size him by several inches, along with them being fairly docile the wallago was forced to retire to just out side the cave in a shady spot.

In closing i will say this is by far one of the coolest cats i have ever seen, highly curious and fearless. I will take some pictures during the move next week, as i forgot to in the excitment today. Please feel free to ask me any question or post your own stories. i dont think there's enough hands on experience with these fish yet so i'd relaly liek to put together some first hand experience for people who may ever think abtou acquiring one of these beasts!
 
Although I've never had one (and probably never will due to space constraints), I'm very interested in following this thread and hopfully learning through your experiences. Keep updating and I'm eagerly awaiting pics! Good luck with him.

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He made it through the night, regaining his deep colors as he is in a dark bottomed tank. I attempted to take a few pictures but due to tank set up, positioning and the likes, they are glared and blurry at best. This species is definatly an open water species. My research prior to purchase stated that but, he found the large open area towards the rear of the tub as his home, i have several large pvc fittings already submerged for my hybrids. i'll let you know how feeding goes in a few hours as i am heading to my lfs for feeders. By all accounts feeding should prove to be a fun experience to watch!
 
First feeding time! I bought 70 feeders today. Put 8 in his tank with one ringer, i snipped a tail clean off. Before the goldies had a chance to explore the tank he was off the bottom and engaging his prey. I understand why they are also called helicopter catfish, the way they take off the bottom is amazing, just liek watchign blackhawks lift off. Althought the first half horu of chase and give up was uneventful, with some close calls though. I eventually noticed his hunting method. These cats use the current to help coral thier food. So armed with this knowledge, a slight adjustment to the output nozzles, and some carefully placed rocks/pvc piping, he managed to find a good slow stop against hard current to chase prey into a pinch point (spot where current ran between to large objects). this worked almost immediatly, with goldies being pushed by current into his awaiting barbels. the first few attempts where near misses. Fully assured he woudl eat i went to leave only to have friends want to see the new beast. Sure enough in the few moments not observing him, he managed to snag atleast one goldie, started with 8 was down to 6 with one hiding possibly. Watchign him feed is amazing, those jaws open up to grin as he approaches his prey barbels held like lances. I'll let you knwo how night time feeding goes for him. sidenote, he is significantly more active than my hybrids as my tank water is in the low 70's at this time. so i'm goign to assuem he will do all the predating overnight.
 
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