Weighing Fish Versus Estimating Fish

[Lucky2]

I should say Thai Visa Forum seems to have gone mental keeps reposting parts of the same thread in error.....anyway those fish pictured above (1 courtesy of Fish Thailand, the others Siam Fishing Tours) those two Arapaima are the largest I have seen ever, and even those now with experience and hindsight I would question that they weigh in excess of 160kg (its possible but not likely)Im thinking more 140kg to 160kg. The carp maybe 45kg as i have photos of weighed fish over 50kg that look only marginally larger....where this leaves fish that are clearly much smaller yet claimed at ridiculous wieghts im not really sure!

Hi Rafunuf,

I believe there is a pet 25 year old arapaima around the 300kg mark that was weighed when it was purchased by Benny sitting in the Palm Tree Lagoon stock pond that you can hand feed.

Have you not seen this one?

Benny bought it in April from a Thai family that had it in their garden pond and sold it because it was getting to expensive to feed.

She aquired it because she wanted to own the biggest Arapaima in Thailand. It currently consumes over 10kg of chicken and batu a week.

It may have put on a few kg since then as last week she drained the water down in the stock pond to get the 15 x 3-5kg carp out and put them in the main lake and found the arapaima had porked its way through 12 of them lol...

Also Gilhams had one die a couple of years ago that they weighed at 190kg, and he still maintains he has arapiama over 200kg in the lake....

I believe you have fished Gilhams in the past did you not see any big arapaima caught down there?

Now I know your pulling my plonker Tim, but sounds like a 180kg fish? Id like to see that of course. The point Im trying to make is that if everybody estimates fish sizes, and with time and experience they realise they estimate way over the top, its not long before everybody has a completely distorted view of fish sizes. I personally had to downgrade my estimates on most of the Arapaima we have captured with guest including the 2 you pictured above over the last few years. One of which Benny asked me what I thought and suggested a 109kg. I accepted that estimate at the time, but believe it looks like the same fish that has recently been estimated at 180kg by another customer at Palm Tree.

Having this year handled some really big Arapaima (as you have at Lake Monsters in the past)...Im now reasonably confident that 180kg is the abolsute ceiling for these fish, and I beleive out of hundreds of fish we have capured I have only seen maybe 3 in the 150kg plus bracket, based on a broader experience than most people.

As peoples experience grows their estimates of wieghts start to decline.

All I can say is 'Hong' maintains its the biggest 'Arapaima' he has ever seen, its still in the stock pond, so Jules you are welcome to come and hand feed it and take a closer look. It took 10 people transport it.

When the stock pond was drained down the other week a lifting team of seven failed to lift it in a planned photography session.....

By the way on your website you say the biggest arapaima you ever saw weighed went 224kg? I know I am not an accountant with an IQ of 135 (by the way was this measured on a certified scale or questimated?) but is this not bigger that the180kg ceiling lol.....

All I can say on fish estimates is that it is often very difficult to convince excited customers that their catches are a lot smaller than they would like to believe.

Often even when you offer to weigh the fish the customer declines as they are more than happy with their own estimates.... Go figure...

[robblok]

Lucky,

So your saying the fish was not weighed. It figures, would be hard to even find scales. So its still an estimate and of course a high weight mentioned to outdo all the other estimates other lakes have.

Just proves my point, but i do understand the fact that these fish are delicate and weighing might damage them. I would not do it if i was the owner of a lake. But then again i would not make wild guesstimates either.

What could have been done would be measuring its girth and length at least you have some figures to compare then.

I am pretty sure your indeed not an accountant with a iq that high. Because accountants deal in figures that are substantiated by proof. (sure there are bad ones too but usually then get punished). I for one would not give out figures unless im sure they are right and i can prove it. Granted its usually easier to work out figures then weigh a living fish without damaging it.

This is where fisherman's tales come from.

[rufanuf]

There where two fished introduced into Greenfield that was sold "weighed" at 150kg a piece. It took 8 or 9 guys to handle them down into the water stitched up in a wet blanket. Those fish had formally been pets for 9 years living in a tank 8meters by 5mtrs and had eaten on average 5kgs of Pla Too each a day. I was there for the delivery of those fish, and the sizes where impressive. Due to fishing pressure though and less food those fish have lost a fair bit of weight and now when they captured Id say they in the 200lb region, still very respectable specimens, like those in Palm Tree, but a third or more of their weight gone.

The interesting thing about Arapaima is that they seem a lot like people, in that they can be force fed heavily and become obese. Once they are subjected to a slightly more normal feeding regime (in a lake with other fish, having to compete a little for food and be mobile) there body shape changes over the course of a year or two, they slim down and the pounds fall of them, the only place this doesnt seem to happen is Bungsamran but the fish are still noticably not as fat (a hundred pound weight loss for a big fish seems about typical in a year). Only by sustained feeding can a really big Arapaima stay really big.

Like others I used to believe everything I was told, and some comments on my website are years old. It might be possible to force feed an Arapaima to wiegh over 200kg, but in a bigger lake they wont hold that weight for long. Hong told us he weighed the 224kg fish in bits on standard farmers scales...I didnt witness the weighing and based on my knowledge today would doubt a fish out of the lake came in at that weight. I look forward to having a close look at the big one you have up there it will be interesting to see for sure, it might help put other fish in perspective. My guess right now is it is in the 160kg to 180kg range if its any bigger well contact Zeb Hogan and a few TV news channels, as seriously it would be newsworthy for sure.