King Of Monsters

[RadaR]

Do they come from the Nile?
Im sure I saw somewhere say they are in Lake Tanganyika, but you said a river, not a lake..

 

[CFC]

They are found in the Nile its tributaries and Lake Tanganykia, and other places where they have been artificially stocked for sport fishing and food.

 

[RadaR]

So what tank is it in then? How is it's temperament?

 

[severum boy]

Wow, nice Lates, shame it took so long for people to realise lol.
What is it eating, and just how much will you be feeding it when its an adult?

 

[andywg]

So what tank is it in then?

its in a 80 gallon because its only a tiddler.

 

[CFC]

So what tank is it in then? How is it's temperament?

Like with most truely predatory fish there shouldnt be aggression problems, other fish are either small enough to be prey or ignored. Being aggressive serves no purpose to a fish that relies on being able to get close enough to its prey to catch it if all it does is scare the non prey fish away which the smaller prey fish will be alerted by.

Wow, nice Lates, shame it took so long for people to realise lol.
What is it eating, and just how much will you be feeding it when its an adult?

So far all its eaten is one prawn, but i only picked it up yesterday so for a fish to eat the same day within a few hours of being intorduced that is a good sign, at the shop it was feeding on all the usual frozen foods apperently.

As an adult it will probably be fed one large fish once or twice a week, something like a small trout or sardine from the fish mongers. Large piscavores shouldnt be fed too much as it takes them a long time to digest food.

 

[loveyourfish]

It's a juvenile isn't it?

Looks like Lates calcarifer (baramundi) to me.

 

[cane76]

thats gonna be a monster ive seen pics of them before
great fish

 

[CFC]

It's a juvenile isn't it?

Looks like Lates calcarifer (baramundi) to me.

Yeah a 4" Lates of any species is going to be a juvenile, even the smallest Lates species reaches over two feet.

All the Lates species look fairly similar when small, its only as they mature they show adult characteristics.

 

[cane76]

i was just reading about the effect they have on the waters where they are introduced for sport fishing
wiping out species by eating everything

 

[CFC]

Yeah, they put most of the Cichlids in Lake Victoria on the endangered list within a few years of being introduced.

But thats an effect you are going to get whenever you add a large apex predator into an enviroment which previously didnt have them, fish and prey animals evolve to co exist with their predators over thousands of years and have adapted in ways that allow the majority to not be eaten so there are always enough left to breed and continue the species, when a new predator is introduced they cant adapt quick enough and get wiped out. The same thing happened in America with the snakeheads in Maryland and even here in England with Zander in the fens of Cambridge and Norfolk.

 

[spAcE mOnkEy]

My watercow would eat him.