New peacock bass

[Niall.fraser]

Hey everybody
I have just bought a new peacock bass about 5-6cm. I have read online and have had mixed advise. I'm really like the fish and I want to know how to best keep it such as what to feed it, water temp ect. Any advise is much appreciated
Thanks

 

[Marchaze]

What size tank do you have?
Any tank mates?

I keep mine at 76 degrees. Like you I bought it very small. It has a metabolism like nothing ive seen, it can easily eat every hour. I don't feed that often though. Its been in as small as a 30 gallon. As it grows I've re homed it though. Honestly I've only been able to get mine to eat live food. For instance lizards, crayfish, and yes the dreaded goldfish. There are methods online to introduce the fish to pellets none have been successful for me. While small mine hid a great deal, now its probably right at 6 inches so it never hides, it would rather demand food lol. My peacock is no where near the size it will be though. Please let me know if you fine other foods for it.

 

[rocksor]

What type of peacock bass do you have? You'll need a tank that is 24-36" from to back for the full life of the fish.

It's also best for it to be in a group, which means a 240g+ tank at the minimum.

 

[Niall.fraser]

Well I have a 170g at the moment that it is living in with just golden sucker fish. I live in australia so peacock bass is new to me so I'm not sure what sort I have but here is the picture of the one I have. Have tried to get it to eat pellets all I have been able to feed it is mosquito fish so far, which will be fine as they are easy to breed. The temp is at 80 hopefully that's alright but is there anyway for him to grow faster as I have had other large growing fish and they have needed a Certain temp for them to grow faster.
Thanks

 

[Marchaze]

Yea mine wont even think about pellets. I havent personally expirienced any significant growth based on tempature. The quickest growth rate for me has always been in my least populated tanks which directly relates to the cleanest water. Im not saying tempature doesnt play a role. Im just saying that with my peacock bass I feel he has grown significantly due to the best water quality possible. Its certainly not the diet he gets. The size you have looks similar to what I started with and well lets say ive had mine about 10 months so almost 1/2 inch per month...in theory yours may display faster growth because your tank is bigger than what mine started in.

 

[Niall.fraser]

That's a surprise as I heard peacock bass was an extremely fast growing fish. As I have raised fish that grow to 100 kg so I love to keep fish that grow large fast so that's disappointing. But mine loves to hide at the moment I have a lot of rock and rock coverage so it hardly comes out unless I put in mosquito fish. Will this change as it gets older? Because what I've seen on YouTube and things they seem really active.

 

[Marchaze]

Wow! What kind of fish did you raise to that size? That's huge.


My peacock bass measurements may not relate to yours .....im sure plenty of others have seen faster growth. My bass never hides but he was shy at first. He greets me as soon as I come into sight almost like a dog. Extremly active

 

[rocksor]

It all depends on the type of peacock bass. Obviously species that get over 36" will grow faster than the smallest version that only gets up to 20".

http://www.acuteangling.com/Reference/CLOFFSCA.html

 

[Niall.fraser]

The the fish I raised the murray cod get to 100kg's but mine got to about 50kg's before it died in a big pond. But yeh thanks a lot for you help I should be alright with it.