Why You Shouldn't Buy This Fish

[cane76]

people bring these to our store all the time and its a fish their gets a really bad deal in the hobby
you say it was a noob mistake but still left it to be stunted in a small tank for 3.5 years?

 

[Luketendo]

They keep a tank full of these at 2" next to the guppies and neons in one of my LFS, talk about tempting fate.

Thankfully I've never seen one of these fish.

That is tempting fate, my Maidenhead regularly has jumpers, especially their super-hyper clown loaches.

 

[cheesy feet]

I had 2 of iredescent sharks in a 50gal about 3 years ago, really cool fish but nearly killed themselves a few times.I measured them to be 14' and 11' long, the larger grerw to that size in a 20gal which one of my cousens had and the smaller I got from a LFS but it developed and abcess and died in around 6 months.I believe they are stunted quite badly though, as mine were.When young they have a bright silver sheen, but when they reach adult hood they develope a mat effect dark grey, like SH.

They seriously are monster fish, they eat anything which will fit in there mouth (which is big) but ignore basically all other tank mates.Should be banned of the market.
If you want to see how big they get, just have a search on google

 

[Luketendo]

A regular, maybe a little small.

Uh...the world record...9ft..

(I suppose this isn't the same species, it's actually Pangasius gigas but still the same family.)

Lets see, a 40ft (L) x 25ft (D) x 20ft (H) tank would be about right, maybe a tad small.

 

[cheesy feet]

hmmm didn't work

 

[Kevstir]

my brother in law has one of those, he had it a rio180 when it was about 12" long, now its in a trigon 350 and it must be pushing 14/15" , its a monster but he thinks its cool, he even thinks its ok for it to eat his fish, he spends a fortune on fish because the shark keeps eating them.

He's had fish for years and thinks he knows best , he wont listen and there is nothing me or my other brother in-law can do so we just keep our mouths shut now.

the tanks disgusting to, he has so many huge fish in it that the water looks like sewer water cause of the amount of poop they produce..

 

[steelhealr]

you say it was a noob mistake but still left it to be stunted in a small tank for 3.5 years?

Stunting..is a myth...there are many topics on this. The fish is healthy and doing well, but, will definitely need a new home soon...not only for IT but for the safety of my fish. Some of them are starting to look 'mouthsize'. As I said, this guy took in 3 full size spirulina tabs the other day. He's probably closer to 9 inches or even 10.

I agree that the fish shouldn't be sold in local lfs'. Also, there are prone to Ich in the beginning. They spook easily and can injure themselves in the tank. SH

 

[jayjay]

Stunting..is a myth...there are many topics on this. The fish is healthy and doing well, but, will definitely need a new home soon...not only for IT but for the safety of my fish. Some of them are starting to look 'mouthsize'. As I said, this guy took in 3 full size spirulina tabs the other day.

Stunting isn't quite a myth, you can stunt a fish can you not? Then stunting is true? Would you class stunting as no growth at all then or just little growth?

Keeping a fish for 3 and a half years and it growing to only 8 inches, could be classed as stunting, it has not grown to the size it should have done. This could be due to smaller space, not enough water changes, poor diet etc.

 

[screamingdonkey]

people bring these to our store all the time and its a fish their gets a really bad deal in the hobby

Yeah and they're always people on Aquarist Classifieds trying to sell them at 14-18".
Some people try it on with descriptions like "a real centrepiece fish, stunning and ready for showing" etc - but the ads stay on there for weeks on end.... i just wonder what happens to half of the "unsold" ones in the end

 

[Tommy Gun]

Stunting isn't quite a myth, you can stunt a fish can you not? Then stunting is true? Would you class stunting as no growth at all then or just little growth?

I just read an article in a magazine that I would say is relatively scientific and not wholistically related to this hobby that stated recent research has given some creedence to the idea that a fish will stop producing growth hormones when it needs to....but this is more related to water chemistry than aquarium size. In fact, the study was performed in equally sized tanks and they were able to 'stunt' one fish versus another. (the apparent good news was that the stunted fish began growing again later).

Keeping a fish for 3 and a half years and it growing to only 8 inches, could be classed as stunting, it has not grown to the size it should have done. This could be due to smaller space, not enough water changes, poor diet etc.

Sure, you might be able to keep a goldfish alive in a bowl for 3 years, but we can't forget that the same goldfish has the potential of living for 20+ years....so where is the success in that? Shouldn't the "goal" here be to give our fish the best life possible while we still enjoy the ability to watch it in our homes? It is a true symbiotic relationship...or should be IMVHO.

If stunting was possible and successful, why aren't we doing that with other pets? I haven't seen anyone worrying about their weiner dog crushing their stunted great dane lately

This is a great topic though and I think it not only shows a lot about steelhealr's passion for the hobby but also the character of someone who can admit a mistake and want to help others learn from it. This problem occurs in probably 99% of all LFS across the globe and the ID shark is just the beginning.....just take a trip to a public aquarium where they have fully grown, completely healthy versions of some of these fish - I found it to be shocking even though I already knew how big some of the fish could get!!!

 

[Darkstar]

It is simply not an aquarium fish! If it is, you might as well keep a Wales Catfish while you're at it.

I assume you mean a Wells catfish?

I agree that the fish shouldn't be sold in local lfs'. Also, there are prone to Ich in the beginning. They spook easily and can injure themselves in the tank. SH

True enough, but I doubt most lfs's will stop selling them, not until some authority says otherwise. Judging by how many of these I've seen in squeezed into lfs display tanks they're obviously a good seller so they're unlikely to stop now if they haven't already.
What really annoys me though is there is a very similar looking fish, Pseudeutropius Brachypopterus, which only grows to 10cm and looks fantastic...why can't they sell more of those than pangasius. Picture here:

http/www.plecofanatics.com/gallery/showi...amp;userid=5159

 

[jayjay]

I just read an article in a magazine that I would say is relatively scientific and not wholistically related to this hobby that stated recent research has given some creedence to the idea that a fish will stop producing growth hormones when it needs to....but this is more related to water chemistry than aquarium size. In fact, the study was performed in equally sized tanks and they were able to 'stunt' one fish versus another. (the apparent good news was that the stunted fish began growing again later).

There was an interesting thread on this forum, months ago now, which went into details of how fish release hormones into the water which build up and stop the other fish growing. Well it was along those lines at least.

Sure, you might be able to keep a goldfish alive in a bowl for 3 years, but we can't forget that the same goldfish has the potential of living for 20+ years....so where is the success in that? Shouldn't the "goal" here be to give our fish the best life possible while we still enjoy the ability to watch it in our homes?

I never said it was a good idea, I think it is wrong personally. We should be aiming to give our fish good lives, letting them grow as big as they can etc.

 

[Tommy Gun]

I never said it was a good idea, I think it is wrong personally. We should be aiming to give our fish good lives, letting them grow as big as they can etc.

I figured as much...I was just trying to make the point that yea, "technically" one might be able to argue that stunting is possible, but it's the big picture most of us worry about. Didn't mean to direct that completely at you. Like I said, I think more threads like this should be visible so others can avoid these mistakes I am sure we all have made. My first tank was a 55 gallon tank that I stocked with 6 bala sharks, 3 tinfoil barbs, a big sailfin pleco, and a bunch of mollies and platies. I turned to this forum when I couldn't figure out why all of the fish were dying. I actually have quite a few pictures of commonly found fish that get much bigger than most LFS might let on and try to show them as much as I can when I bump into those "how many fish can I fit into my XX-gallon/litre tank?" type threads.

 

[WILDER]

I agree they should ban them, poor things never make it out of the baby stage.
Seen loads of these sharks in the emergency section..

 

[andywg]

I never said it was a good idea, I think it is wrong personally. We should be aiming to give our fish good lives, letting them grow as big as they can etc.

I figured as much...I was just trying to make the point that yea, "technically" one might be able to argue that stunting is possible, but it's the big picture most of us worry about.

The problem is the use of the word "stunting".

To some it means a fish having its organs explode out of the side of its body (completely unfounded). To others it just means that the fish grows slower than it would in ideal conditions. I too have read of hormonal issues, as well as feeding ones, affecting growth but no necessarily impacting on health. Indeed, bignose noted from a journal that the organs of a stunted specimen were at least as healthy, if not more so, than those of a regular individual.

There can be little doubt that some fish do not grow as large in captivity than the wild (the cigar shark is one, it usually hits 20" in the aquarium, but up to 4 feet in the wild).