Tigerfanatics

Introduction to Datnoides:
Tigers are considered to be an auspicious fish and comprise 1 of the 4 elements of feng shui fish.  The others being the arowana (dragon), the flagtail prochilodus (phoenix), and any of the distichodus species (majestic shelter).  In recent years the Siamese tiger, aka wide-bar tiger, has seen the most popularity and as a result has been excluded from Thailands’ export CITES list.  It is somewhat comforting to know that The Department of Fisheries in Thailand ( DOF ) has already embarked in a Datnoides Pulcher captive breeding program. Since availability of juvenile d. pulchers has become nil there have been many attempts to release false specimens to the public.  Also, rumors and theories of a “new” or 6th type of tiger have risen.  This 6th type of tiger, dubbed C.T., will remain “controversial tiger” in my book and as far as I’m concerned there are still only 5 species of Datnoides.  However I am awaiting the day these become available again !!!

Disease:
It's always an agony to see your beloved fish suffering from diseases & passes away. I know how it feels as I've suffered losses during my early days in tiger keeping. Juvenile or young Tiger Fish are most prone to sudden death syndrome. Many a times, the cause of the death might not be clear. Parasitic infection, stress/starvation and poor water conditions are just some contributing factors. It usually started off as an unnoticeable light pink/red sore on the fish body (e.g. fins, gill plates, gills… et.c). The swollen portion of the fish's body tissue will develops into an accumulative pus and the affected fish will be weaken and become infirm. If left untreated, the disease will spread swiftly to the rest of the inhabitants within the same community. Little is known about “datnoid disease” (http://aquaticpredators.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=25259) as it is uncommon.  Other than that, tigers are very resilient and hardy fish.

Feeding and Behavior :
Datnoids are carnivores. A healthy tiger will eat any prey that will fit in it’s mouth. But this may not be so with juveniles. They are docile & usually non-aggressive towards other fishes. Hence any excess bullying by existing inhabitants can easily result in stress and in sever cases death.  Most tiger fish will turn unstable & will display blackish patches over it's body when stressed. "Season Parking" (hiding in a corner) is another distinguished characteristic displayed by a stressed up tiger fish.

Datnoids are known to go without food for weeks or some even months. This usually results in sunken belly or death in some cases. They are also among the most stubborn of fishes in terms of being picky eaters.  Most piscivorous fish are trainable to non-live and non-fish diets though.  During the starvation period, avoid altering the tank's setup as it will cause more stress to it. If need be, isolate it by having a partition in the tank. Do not remove the fish itself and indulge it by feeding it's favorite food ( e.g. feeder fish, ghost shrimp... ) to stimulate it's hunting instinct.
One method of training a stubborn tiger is feeding then starving.  The trick is to get the tiger hungry and then mix introduce the food you wish the tiger to eat and hope he is hungry enough.  It is important to not wait too long between intervals, however.  Another method which most hobbyist  prefer and achieve relatively good results with is the “Monkey-See-Monkey-Do”  effect.  This relies on the assumption that a tiger will mimic the behavior of other trained tigers. The last common method used is the food association method.  In this method you  should mix live food with non-live food so that the fish will associate both as desirable food sources.

As datnoids are territorial fishes, fights among conspecifics are unavoidable. From my experience, it is better not to keep only 1 pair of the same species in a tank. Either keep 1 or groups of 3 or more to avoid or defocus the aggression of the dominating alpha piece. Territories can be achieved by placing some drift-wood  or other objects to create hiding grounds for the tigers.  Some prefer for tigers not to have territories so that there will be less aggression, however, for a tiger to be “kim kim” or stable, he will need some sort of physical environment. In general though, tigers are not overly aggressive and can be kept with any fish they can’t eat.

Take note, "Patience is the Key to a Heathy Tiger" & "A Heathy Tiger is A Hungry Tiger".

Datnoid I.D :

Credits:

http://www.arowanafishtalk.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-129.html

http://arofanatics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=371593

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?54277-Datnoid-ID-chart