# Twitch the West African Tiger



## Fastmover13 (Jan 24, 2006)

I got this guy at The Aquatic Critter here in nashville almost four years ago, he was three inches then and cost $75, I had to drive across town twice a week for baby guppies for six months, then he moved up to rosie reds, then small comets, now he eats two inch gold fish. I will get video of our next feeding.


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

He's a beauty. How big is he and what size tank is he in?


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## Fastmover13 (Jan 24, 2006)

He has the run of a fifty five, and he is right at ten inches, I will post some better pics in a few minutes


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## Fastmover13 (Jan 24, 2006)

Here is a better shot


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## rchan11 (May 6, 2004)

Some ATF can grow to 36"


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## pyrokingbrand (Nov 30, 2004)

Very cool fish, post a full tank shot!


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## jan (Apr 24, 2004)

rchan11 said:


> Some ATF can grow to 36"


Those are the Goliath species, these are the Vittatus









Your ATF is looking great







(except for the chin bump). Do you keep him single?


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## Fastmover13 (Jan 24, 2006)

Yes that chin bump has been a concern for a little over a year, he has a 55 gal. to himself. Here is the full tank shot.

sorry for the poor quality image. These shots are coming from my phone. I need the digital camera.


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## bmpower007 (Feb 11, 2005)

cool tigerfish, lets see a feeding video


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## SLANTED (Dec 7, 2003)

That is a ridiculous price for a 10" vit. Congrats on an amazing pick up!


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## rbp 4 135 (Mar 2, 2004)

he was 3 inches when he was first purchased. Verry nice fish, have always wanted one but never got around to getting one. ill bet the feedings are interesting. Based off of tail structure i would imagine that they are capable of some speed.


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## pamonster (Jun 26, 2003)

Cool Cool Cool Cool, what a great looking fish!


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## Fastmover13 (Jan 24, 2006)

Thanks everyone for the kind words, yea he can get some speed up in a big hurry, I tried to get a little clip of him feeding today and he spooked on the camera, that clip is kind of interesting b/c he is bombing in on the goldfish then stops short and stares right at the camera. after ten or so minutes he still had not hit the gold fish so I went out of the room, half hour later there was half a golfish stuck in the filter uptake, I cleared that and pitched in another, he hit it on the spot scales everywhere and no camera. I am now on a mission to get the vid.


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## Fastmover13 (Jan 24, 2006)

So after some input from other members I have begun a concerted effort to get Twitch eating other foods. [I.E dead] Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.


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## Fastmover13 (Jan 24, 2006)

http://www.piranha-fury.com/pfury/index.php?showtopic=112494


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## piranha_guy_dan (Oct 4, 2004)

i seen about a 6-8 incher for sale i think it was $100

nice fish


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## JorgeRemigio (Mar 31, 2005)

what a MONSTER!!!!!!!!!


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## oscared15 (Feb 3, 2006)

cool fish :nod:


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## Gumby (Aug 13, 2004)

I think that chin bump will always be an issue. I used to have one that got to about 6 inches. He was in a 125 gal tank... regardless of tank size, every time the bastard saw me he'd swim straight into the walls of the tank. The little spaz.

Here's pics of mine, back when I had it:


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## Fastmover13 (Jan 24, 2006)

Awsome ATF Gumby,


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

Your tigers are awesome. I just picked up 3 3'ers a few days back nd have already learned what pigs they can be. 60ish feeder guppies in less then 2 days. Well I paid for 60dunno if it was exact but still. 
I also am wanting to move them off strictly live and get them onto if anything cichilid pellets or at least beef heart. I can't afford to be buying guppies every other day.

Heres a pic of my trio in my 75T









What I'm hoping to find is some way to sex them. Sadly there just isn't alot of info out there about these guys aside from where to go fishing for them.

Anyone hear of or had any exp breeding them? Or at least sexing them?

one thing I like is how they remind me of my old Red tailed barracuda. in look and action. the whole twitching and stareing thing.

right now I have them in the tank with a 5" pleco and 3 sm convict cicilids. 
One thing I am a tad dissapointed of is they are no where near as aggressive as I was expecting. I assume this will change as they mature.

oh yeah 100 is a AWESOME deal for a 6" ATF. These 3"ers go for about 175-200 at LFS around WA. 
I lucked out and got my trio for less then that tho


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## Fastmover13 (Jan 24, 2006)

WOW 3 ATF's 3" each take down 60 or so feeders! scales everywhere. I can't help you with any info on sexing or breeding, sorry about that. I can tell you that I got My ATF to eat silver sides but only when they first hit the water, if he got the drift that they were not swimming, no go. Good luck, these are some rare fish.


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## dodge (Nov 23, 2005)

I have 5 small ATFs, they're all happy to eat chopped fish, bloodworm and the occasional pellet.. getting them off live food was not a problem at all

View attachment 101309


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

Fastmover13 said:


> WOW 3 ATF's 3" each take down 60 or so feeders! scales everywhere. I can't help you with any info on sexing or breeding, sorry about that. I can tell you that I got My ATF to eat silver sides but only when they first hit the water, if he got the drift that they were not swimming, no go. Good luck, these are some rare fish.


Actually no. they swallow them whole so its a fairly clean affair. I'm not sure how they went thru so many feeders. Altho I was feeding them a lot for guests as I bragged about them. but they put them all down so *shrug* 
And yeah these three as super picky. If the fish they are about to eat is not fresh and perfect they wont touch it. I threw one guppie in there that had its eye bitten off by one of the convicts. and even tho it swam/twitched right by its face the tigers wanted nothing to do with it. 
going to have to curb their eating habbits (semi starve) to force them onto pellets.

I know this can be done cause I had my Redtailed Barracuda trained to eat broken up cat food. 
And they are very similar fish.

Dodge- thats a nice set up you have and some nice tigers. I think I will try and introduce shrimp to them and see if they like that. I'd really like to get them to take beefheart since its a great source of protein for them. 
I also noticed you used sand for your substrate with small rocks mixed in. is this for asthetic reasons or do the fish appreciate the softer substrate? or do you have other bottom fish that take advantage of the sand?

and also. What kinda plant is that to the far left? It looks strangley familar.....


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## Omnius (Mar 20, 2006)

Awesome fish people


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## verypointyteeth (Feb 15, 2005)

its just a matter of moderatley starving them and introducing prepared foods,,unless they turn on each other when starved


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

heres a couple more pics of my ATF's I took tonight.
forgive me my camera really sucks. I need to get one better for these kinda pics.


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## dodge (Nov 23, 2005)

Thanks, the sand is sloped from the middle to either end and the strong filtration means nothing gets chance to settle on the bottom and is really just to help keep the tank clean. I used to have fish that buried themselves, but not anymore..
I think it helps to have other fish in with the tigers when trying to get them off live food. I have some scissor-tails, silver sharks, red-eye tetras and a large black-ghost in with mine, so the tigers feel like they're missing something when everything else starts eating.. now they wait under my hand for frozen food and go mad for granular food, the biggest tiger has started liking floating arrowana sticks..
All the plants in my tank are plastic, I got annoyed with the maintenance of real plants. I know what you mean about that one on the left though..

View attachment 101420


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

nice set up!

Well I have horrible news today. I woke up and on my way out of the house I looked into the tank only to find the largest of my three tigers belly up on the bottom of the tank. No damage to scales or bite marks of any kind. I'm stumped. Last night 6hr ago they were all fine. And he seemed to be in the best health of all three. I don't know what happened. I'm depressed today. 
This sucks. I only got them 4 days ago. 
I'm going to call the fish store and see what they can do. theres no reason it should have died like that. 
Everyone elese seems just fine. dosen't look like they are suffocating and they are not. Underactive for a tiger. 
So this messed up my shoal. now I only have two and now they are going to fight and I will be left with one. 100 bucks out the window. damnit I should have just went with cichlids. Dosen't hurt so bad when a little 7 dollar fish dies.

Just got of the phone with the wife and when she left for work a couple hours before I woke up he was fine too. So I really just don't get it what could have killed a perfectly fine fish within two hours. 
I just don't get it.


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