Young Dat getting too Fat

[islandguy11]

He might be a Thin Bar but he's definitely not thin lol. As a first-time Datnoid owner my impression is they should be shaped kind of like a spiked pancake -- Al Capone is looking more like a Twinkie with chocolate stripes lol...These pix were taken before feeding, when he's most outgoing and photogenic.







Of course I take full responsibility, I've clearly been overfeeding him -- whenever he's hungry, which is often, he comes to the front left of the tank and swims around looking at me, and I've been obliging him (also in a misguided effort to try and get him to grow faster, they're quite slow growers as monster fish go). Also, knowing that his buddy the Flagtail is a swimming vaccuum, it's easy to get nonchalant about how many pellets I'm throwing in.

Also doesn't help that he's a greedy little bugger who loves stealing food from the FT:

But this for sure isn't healthy for him long-term so I'm now cutting down from 3-4 feedings a day to twice and then eventually once. I also need to try and feed more frozen shrimp or fish, 99.5 % of his diet is Hikari Sinking Carnivore which he very clearly prefers more than the frozen foods surprisingly. For long-term health I think he also needs more variety in his diet.

Wake up Al Capone, time for your 5K swim!

 

[BichirKing]

looks like hes doing well!

 

[jaws7777]

Great job man. I cant even get our little guy to take flake food

 

[islandguy11]

Great job man. I cant even get our little guy to take flake food

Thx but not really due to my skill or anything. He'd been raised solely on blood worms but luckily switched over to pellets very quickly. Hope yours comes around, don't give up.

 

[islandguy11]

'Hooyah!' -- calling fat?

 

[eeJamBOYan]

An NTT on pellets already?! Great job with Al Capone!

Mind sharing the water parameters of that tank?

 

[krichardson]

Kudos for getting the little thinbar onto pellets at such a small size.

 

[islandguy11]

Kudos for getting the little thinbar onto pellets at such a small size.

Thanks though I'm thinking it really was kind of luck. I'm half-tempted to get another one to see if it was just him or would results be the same, but I couldn't put it in that tank with Al Capone and at smaller size I couldn't put in either of my Arowana tanks, I'm pretty sure they'd try to eat it.

An NTT on pellets already?! Great job with Al Capone!

Mind sharing the water parameters of that tank?

Not really my skill, I guess I just had the audacity to try feeding him pellets before trying anything else and only had to 'starve' him about a day (during which time I also observed him eating detritus worms in the tank).

He's in a 375 gallon (8'X30"X30"), with only a 7-8" Flagtail (that also acts as his personal dither fish a lot of the time). I'm not sure whether or not the lack of bigger, more intimidating fish has an effect on his acceptance of pellets, but there was a 10.5" Asian Arowana in the tank then and he wasn't scared of it all, in fact he was pretty cheeky with it.

Water parameters are normal, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and because it's just the 2 of them nitrites usually always under 20 even if I go 14-20 days between water changes (other tanks once a week).

The only other factor that could be in play I could think of (and have mentioned in previous posts) is water temperature: it's really hot here and just about all year, all day/night our tanks are running at about 82-84F (now is the hot & dry season so water temp is about 86! Higher water temperature = faster metabolism = hungrier, more active fish (but also might affect longevity).

But these high temps happens in nature to these fish here as well, both at fish farms and in the wild, they just about all have to go through the dry and monsoon seasons like the rest of us.

I have 2 X young Asian Arowana who are also both pellet trained and eat like pigs and act like 'starving' African Cichlids whenever I pass their tanks lol (in fact like the NTT they too are in need of a Weight Watchers plan), again I'm quite sure water temps influence this.

 

[eeJamBOYan]

Understand how hot and humid the water and air temperature is in that region. Interesting take on water temperature.
I have always assumed that knowing NTTs originates from the Northern end of South East Asia, I would think that perhaps the water should be a little cooler on the lower 24s degree Celcius. Where the river flows southwards from higher altitude mountain regions (cooler waters) into the main delta.

I failed miserably with NTTs. Those small ones at around 2" and bigger ones no larger than 10" purchase size.
Having it to eat non live is already a problem from the start. And not forgetting how sensitive one is while adjusting.

What you did there is awesome. Thanks for sharing this.

 

[islandguy11]

Understand how hot and humid the water and air temperature is in that region. Interesting take on water temperature.
I have always assumed that knowing NTTs originates from the Northern end of South East Asia, I would think that perhaps the water should be a little cooler on the lower 24s degree Celcius. Where the river flows southwards from higher altitude mountain regions (cooler waters) into the main delta.

I failed miserably with NTTs. Those small ones at around 2" and bigger ones no larger than 10" purchase size.
Having it to eat non live is already a problem from the start. And not forgetting how sensitive one is while adjusting.

What you did there is awesome. Thanks for sharing this.

Good point about their natural water temps, that's likely true -- though soon after they're caught as tiny little babies and brought to fish shops/farms they're put into tanks with quite a bit warmer water temps. Also I'm not saying these higher temps are ideal for overall long-term health (in fact the opposite is likely true), just that they probably stimulate feeding.

In fact I'd love to cool down the water in all my tanks, but short of buying chillers, which are very expensive here, esp. larger models, this just isn't practical. The rainy season is on it's way next month, so looking forward to some slightly lower temps.

With your Dats and even more so with peeps in USA/Europe, the fish also had to go through more arduous international trips to get to your fish tank, whereas mine is more direct, much less stress on the fish, so not surprising survival rate is lower outside of Thailand/Vietnam unfortunately.

And thanks for the compliment, though imho awesome will be if I can successfully grow him to 10-12"+. I've read about the Sudden Death Syndrome thingy with Dats, esp. NTT, that has me a little worried in the back of my mind, but nothing I can do about that but try my best -- starting with current diet, he really is getting fat, which isn't healthy.