KEEPING THE SIAMESE TIGER FISH
(DATNIOIDES MICROLEPIS)
BY MTIGERFISH 10-20-01
Datnioides microlepis, commonly known as the Siamese tiger fish is a brackish / freshwater fish from Southeast Asia (Thailand). They are a carnivorous fish preferring live food, but can be adapted to frozen foods (raw shrimp, plankton, crickets and earthworms) in the aquarium. This fish likes a pH of 7.2 to 7.9 with water that is slightly acidic to neutral with a temp of 76 to 80 degrees fahrenheit.
Mine started out as a 2 in juvenile in a community tank with 4 Gouramies, several corydoras, a hypostums plecostums, and some danios. The tiger fish is an aggressive fish that gets along fairly well with other fish it's own size, but tends to eat any fish small enough to be swallowed. Tank mates for this fish must be able to hide or hold their own. My tiger now shares a 55 gal tank with a heros severous and a spotted raphael cat. (He ate or killed all the others as time passed.)
This fish gets to be 15" long in the wild but cannot be expected to reach 1/2 that size in the aquarium. I was using information available 3 1/2 years ago when I bought mine. I would have had a larger tank to start with had I known he would reach his 10 1/2" present size. A 75-90 gal. tank would be better for the fish because of its size and activity. So not all the standards for this fish are by any means known.
It is not suggested that the beginning hobbyist start with this fish due to its feeding needs and aggressiveness. Acclimating from live to frozen and raw food is not easy. The tank can be a well planted one using stem types such as bamboo (Val grass also works well). My tiger started uprooting the plants like most of the cichlids do. So when I move him to a larger tank (100 gal.) I plan to plant it well at one end and see if he will leave them in the gravel. He likes to have a cave to go to which can be difficult to construct due to his size and bulk. He does on occasion like to rub on the rocks, which leads me to think that he likes a good scratch sometime (don't we all). The tiger fish have a distinct personality somewhat like large fish of other species, for example the oscar. They get to know and to some extent recognize the person who feeds them. I know that when I walk into the room he will come right to the front of the tank and look right at me as if to say "all right where's the food". He can see me from at least 25-30 feet away as I get his food ready in the kitchen, he will watch me and start to wag his tail end as I walk toward the tank. When feeding, I try to throw the chunks just enough to get under the surface so he doesn't swallow air and it keeps the floor a lot drier.
When the fish is not pleased with his surroundings or water, he turns a dark shade of brown almost black where he is normally a beautiful golden and black vertical striped pattern. The lighter stripes can be from yellow to a really nice dark peach color, not all of the tiger fish will display this differing color change. When the tiger was ready for comets I picked out the size needed. As a baby all he would eat was live feeders (feeder guppies as small as I could find). The tiger would eat the baby guppies that swam out of the net used for transferring them from the holding tank, then go into the net and pick off the ones in it one at a time. This is just one of the antics the young fish did that made raising him a very interesting past time. At one time two comets were too large for the tiger to swallow, one grew to be almost 8" total length. He was returned after awhile , the other was finally eaten. It took the tiger fish two bites, that's when I found out just how strong his jaws are. The comet was cut in half with a curved shape to the bite, just as if a shark had bitten it in half.
I ordered this fish with very little knowledge of all its needs, but was very lucky to meet and talk with people who helped me rethink some of my aquarium keeping practices. I was not doing large enough water changes or as often to keep the fish healthy. I do more research of fishes or inverts so that I don't become one of the many who purchase a fish or a whole setup and wonder why they all died or the water gets cloudy or turns green. As any successful Aquarius will tell you water quality is the most important thing to keep in mind to having healthy fish.
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