what kind of Dat did i buy?

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spidartankss

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Aug 5, 2007
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London, Ontario
Im new to this species of fish, i actually just kind of bumped into him in a fish store.
i was trying to do some research and apparantely there are different species of Dats? what differences are there and what would make one more desirable than the other?
here is a picture of my little guy...
IMG_0263.jpg


also what is a good environment for him, for tank mates etc..im not sure even if he is a SA/CA cichlid? is he?
also what foods are best? i did notice that he loves to chase feeders around.

i paid $40.00 for him and would like to give a good home.

thanks
 
dude... i dont want to be all preachy and everything, but please research before you buy an animal. Its obvious you dont know anything about it. Impulse buying is not your friend.

For starters, it is not a cichlid. It is a datnoid. They are from different genuses.

Next, these guys grow slow, but get rather big. I would say a minimum for one would be a 125 gallon (6-foot), but im sure that shouldnt be a problem, as some of the fish in the pic with the dat require a 180 or over!

Next, dats are not agressive, and will not be able to stand their own against an angry CA cichlid. I would keep him with other dats or oddball fish.

What size tank do you have, and with what fish?
 
ya they are slow growers and u prolly should have researched it bu teverybody has a few impulse buys. i couldnt tell you what kind but my dat gets along fine with all the fish in my 125
 
interesting...well right now my Dat is in with a bunch of CA cichlids, all babies, as well as a Peacock bass..
they are in a 100 gallon grow up tank and when fish get big enough i will move them into my 225 tank with my RTC..if that isnt an option then i have another 180 with a few oscars and africans in (miss match tank) i can move them into.
i also have a 55 gallon too...

i have lots of tanks to move fish around into, i just want to grow up my fish first then i will split them up and move them around.

how slow is slow for the Datnoid? he is a really neat fish Imo.
thanks for advice
 
Well, I don't know what he is...but I wanted to say I can see why you wanted him he is simply gorgeous!!!
 
Datnioides are perch like fish not even closly related to SA/CA Cichlids, but I can kinda see how you thought they were. Other than that you have yourself a nice little Indo dat! Dats grow really slow. You might want to post in the Datnoids section on here.. It's the sub forum of Other Monster Fish. Nice pick up!

There are different species of dats:

NGT(New Guinea Tiger)
IT(Indo Tiger) what you have
ST(Siamese Tiger aka Widebar) These are the most desireable right now because of the export ban from their native country.
NTT(Northern Thai Tiger aka Thinbar)
AT(American Tiger aka Silver)

Feeders and bloodworms are good for him at this size.
 
indo dat. looks like nobody gives straight answers in this thread.
 
Datnioides Microlepis

Cichlids and Datnioides are in the same group Perciformes (perch-likes) but they aren't of the same 'Family' Cichlidae (Cichlids) vrs Datnioididae (freshwater tripletails), which is what ZooYork was implying.
http://www.fishbase.org/identificat...ins=&ordnum=60&areacode=71&classnum=6&c_code=

I picked up 1 from a local store in May and 12 at the end of June from Rich.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=212

They were 1-1.5 inchers and I've got 9 left, 2 just 1.5-2 and the rest up to 3.5-4 inchers. They like a dimmer tank with plenty of hidding places & they get a mix of brine shrimp, home made shrimp/pea frozen food , but mainly they take after sun dried baby shrimp (walmart -tetra).

I just removed their hiding spots last night (I was getting tire of only seeing the little guys darting up for food or in the dark half of the tank) & will get some sort of floating cover setup & see how that goes.
 
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