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I figured that I would start a thread periodically talking about large fish in the hobby . This first post will be about the South American Payara (Hydrolycus scomberoides). It's also known as the vampire or sabre-toothed characin. At about 4 feet long and sporting a set of fangs that are proportionally larger than any fish on this planet, coupled with the fact that it's natural prey in the wild is piranhas, the payara is every oddball aquarist's dream!

Although far from common, payaras are not too hard to aquire. Many online sites as well as some LFSs carry them. Pricewise, they fetch about $50 at about 5-6" and $20 for smaller individuals. Large payara are almost never seen (but I'll get to that later) but when they are, the prices are....impressive.

The reason why payaras haven't taken off like other tankbusters such as silver aros, tiger shovelnoses, motoro rays, gars, or other similarly sized fish is because of the extreeme difficulty in keeping one. The young aren't too difficult to care for, but at 12", 99% of captive paraya mysteriously die. Although this can be caused by the usual suspects: small tanks, territorial tankmates, poor diet, the main cause is current. At 12" payara migrate and live under waterfalls. The adults use the rough waters to ambush prey and need these currents and high oxygen. In an aquarium, you would litterally have to line your walls with hundres of powerheads to achieve the nessicary current. However, some rich folk have gone the distance and 12", 15", and even 24" payara are becoming more common than in the past.

If you are an aquarist with a massive system (500 gallons+) and the money to create a waterfall in your living room, the payara is the fish for you. Cheap, origional, and unthreatened in the wild, payaras make a great replacement for the mainstream arowanas and reef sharks. For the rest of us, we can only dream.

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Last edited by djtj at 15-Jan-2006 13:07

I've seen some 18"+ Payara kept in large aquariums with rediculously large powerheads successfully. Granted, these were specimen only tanks, as most tank mates gobble up unsuspecting prey before the mythodical Payara has time to track down potential food sources. A very cool fish, but definetly NOT for everyone. Getting them off of live foods proves a challenge in an of itself, even moreso than Gars.