Scats

FattyFish

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Many, many years ago, when I was a kid, I used to babysit for a family friend who had a very old 4-foot tank with a hang-on filter, an old aluminium lid, and a strip light from the kitchen. The tank itself was nothing really to look at, but I remember it had two brown Scats in there that were always active and healthy, and I would spend ages just watching these two fish. Now, many years on, I never see these fish for sale, so I just wondered if anyone still keeps these or the tiger versions.
 
I had scats 30 years ago ( in the dark ages before the internet ) back then I think they were all listed as brackish water fish, and I had a brackish tank back then… I’ve seen them for sale lately as a fresh water fish albeit hard water… my local water is hard alkaline water, and I’ve thought about trying a few, but I don’t have a good tank for them right now, and haven’t been in stock lately…


 
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I had scats 30 years ago ( in the dark ages before the internet ) back then I think they were all listed as brackish water fish, and I had a brackish tank back then… I’ve seen them for sale lately as a fresh water fish albeit hard water… my local water is hard alkaline water, and I’ve thought about trying a few, but I don’t have a good tank for them right now, and haven’t been in stock lately…


Looking at the links you added, it was the Red Scats that I remember. I forgot they are brackish fish. It would be great to see someone on here post a pic of theirs if they have them.
 
back then I think they were all listed as brackish water fish, and I had a brackish tank back then…
This is true, when I kept them in the early 2000's, I didn't know they were brakish water and had dificulty researching them. There was a myth that during that time scats were trending against discus fish.
During that time of fish keeping any exotic animal ended up in my tanks.
 
I think people translating Scatophagus (poop eater) may have undermined their desirability a bit... it doesn't speak ill of the fish but people are people.
Our dog was a poop eater but that didn't undermined her popularity in the neighborhood (another story)...
 
tangent, but love to hear the other story?
She was a stable and white collie and unlike our other collie who was a tri-colour with jet black fur - she was very out going and loved to play with kids. The kids in the neighborhood would bring her indoor feed her and call her lassie. She didn't really look like lassie being a female, a bit smaller and lighter brown hair but that didn't keep them from treating her as such. Years later when i was a sophmore in high-school i learned about these adventures with her from a girl who was a senior and would tell me what she would do with her.

Oh well - back in those days lease laws didn't exist and we lived on a dead-end street so all the dogs (good and bad) roamed freely. these days with lease laws abound it would never happen.
 
There's an African Tiger Scat at my lfs, I'd love to buy it (It's only $20-30!!!), but I'm afraid that a 75-gallon tank isn't large enough for its possible size and aggression...

Ever since I got into the hobby, I've loved scats. I first heard of them in a book I received a few years ago.
 
To be truth I always thought scat was something you said to your cat when you thought they were being too needy. Oh well now i know it is something you can feed your cat to.
 

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