I am posting this to help people who have trouble with identifying their scat!
First of all how to care for scats, All scats grow to about 12-15 inches all accept for the Selenotoca Papuensis which grows to 5 inches. Scats prefer to live in groups, juveniles like groups of 6-7 while adults like groups of 4-5. Considering what i just told you, the size of an adult scat and the fact it likes to live in groups, most people do not have a good tank for them. If you were to properly house these fish you would need at least a 240 gallon tank. These are brackish water fish so they like a 8.2 pH tank. These fish are omnivores and eat nearly everything people reported them eating from sewage, however obviously feeding your scat sewage is UNACCPETABLE!!! you should feed it vegtable matter and meat-like substances. Frozen bloodworms and highly nutritious vegtable pellets are recommended by me.
ok, there are 2 families of scats, Selenotoca and Scatophagus.
The most common species and most sold in stores is the Spotted Scat (Scatophagus Argus). The spotted scat has 2 varieties of colors, green and red. If your scat has lightish red or crimson blotches anywhere on it's body with jet black spots covering it's body it is the ruby variety of a spotted scat. If your scat is straight-up spotted with yellowish color on the upper part of the body it is a green variety of a spotted scat. Also spotted scats have venomous spines on their dorsals. If you have ever fished up a bluegill you'll know what i am talking about, just this time the bluegill has vemous spines, so be carefull (also i do not THINK scats other than the spotted scats are poisonous).
Next the African Scat or the Scatophagus Tetracanthus. IMO these fish has the most elegant markings out of all the scats. This is my favorite type of scat. This is the most easy-to-identify scat, just look for a scat with jet-black stripes over a silver body.
Finally the two hardest-to-identify scats are the Selenotoca Multifasciata and the Selenotoca Papuensis (Selenotoca Papuensis has no common name) or in other words the Silver scat and the scat-with-no-common-name. The silver scat has multiple thin stripes on the upper part of its body and multiple small spots on the lower part of the body. The silver scat has a regular-type fish body. Now lets talk about the scat-with-no-common-name, it has a less amount of stripes on the upper part of the body, but the stripes are more black and more thicker. This scat also has bigger, blacker spots. This scat also has a slightly more elongated body. The scat-with-no-common-name also grows to 3.5 inches which is an extremely good size. while the silver scat grows to 13 inches, there is a big difference between size. Because of the extremely identical patterns people usually sell scat-with-no-common-name as a silver scat. If you ever get your hands on a scat-with-no-common-name you come tell me!
Now to conclude my scat "article" i want to give the Selenotoca Papuensis a common name, i will call it the "False Silver Scat"
.
Please do not put comments saying that i know nothing about scats i dont wanna feel bad about myself
Bibliography:
http
/www.fishbase.org/Summary/FamilySummary.php?Family=Scatophagidae
http/www.tfhmagazine.com/details/articles/scats-and-monos-old-favorites-and-new-species-for-the-brackishwater-aquarium-full-article.htm
http/animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/perches/SpottedScat.php
http/brackishfaq.webspace.virginmedia.com/Projects/FAQ/3b.html
First of all how to care for scats, All scats grow to about 12-15 inches all accept for the Selenotoca Papuensis which grows to 5 inches. Scats prefer to live in groups, juveniles like groups of 6-7 while adults like groups of 4-5. Considering what i just told you, the size of an adult scat and the fact it likes to live in groups, most people do not have a good tank for them. If you were to properly house these fish you would need at least a 240 gallon tank. These are brackish water fish so they like a 8.2 pH tank. These fish are omnivores and eat nearly everything people reported them eating from sewage, however obviously feeding your scat sewage is UNACCPETABLE!!! you should feed it vegtable matter and meat-like substances. Frozen bloodworms and highly nutritious vegtable pellets are recommended by me.
ok, there are 2 families of scats, Selenotoca and Scatophagus.
The most common species and most sold in stores is the Spotted Scat (Scatophagus Argus). The spotted scat has 2 varieties of colors, green and red. If your scat has lightish red or crimson blotches anywhere on it's body with jet black spots covering it's body it is the ruby variety of a spotted scat. If your scat is straight-up spotted with yellowish color on the upper part of the body it is a green variety of a spotted scat. Also spotted scats have venomous spines on their dorsals. If you have ever fished up a bluegill you'll know what i am talking about, just this time the bluegill has vemous spines, so be carefull (also i do not THINK scats other than the spotted scats are poisonous).
Next the African Scat or the Scatophagus Tetracanthus. IMO these fish has the most elegant markings out of all the scats. This is my favorite type of scat. This is the most easy-to-identify scat, just look for a scat with jet-black stripes over a silver body.
Finally the two hardest-to-identify scats are the Selenotoca Multifasciata and the Selenotoca Papuensis (Selenotoca Papuensis has no common name) or in other words the Silver scat and the scat-with-no-common-name. The silver scat has multiple thin stripes on the upper part of its body and multiple small spots on the lower part of the body. The silver scat has a regular-type fish body. Now lets talk about the scat-with-no-common-name, it has a less amount of stripes on the upper part of the body, but the stripes are more black and more thicker. This scat also has bigger, blacker spots. This scat also has a slightly more elongated body. The scat-with-no-common-name also grows to 3.5 inches which is an extremely good size. while the silver scat grows to 13 inches, there is a big difference between size. Because of the extremely identical patterns people usually sell scat-with-no-common-name as a silver scat. If you ever get your hands on a scat-with-no-common-name you come tell me!
Now to conclude my scat "article" i want to give the Selenotoca Papuensis a common name, i will call it the "False Silver Scat"
Please do not put comments saying that i know nothing about scats i dont wanna feel bad about myself
Bibliography:
http
/www.fishbase.org/Summary/FamilySummary.php?Family=Scatophagidaehttp
/www.tfhmagazine.com/details/articles/scats-and-monos-old-favorites-and-new-species-for-the-brackishwater-aquarium-full-article.htmhttp
/animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/perches/SpottedScat.phphttp
/brackishfaq.webspace.virginmedia.com/Projects/FAQ/3b.html
