Well, my 27-year-old headstander died last night, so my one remaining fish, an 8-year-old male Megalechis thoracata, is all alone. It's not right to keep a schooling fish solo, so if any of you would like to provide him with a new home with other catfish, please contact me.

OK, super weird -- it appears that he was just really sleepy yesterday. Today he is behaving normally.

My Megalechis is scaring me. He is lying on the bottom with all his fins down and does not look like he's breathing. He is not reacting to me waving a hand in front of his face or opening the tank lid. (Normally he goes crazy looking for food when I open the lid). But when I reached in to touch him ...

Quokka wrote: ↑18 Apr 2019, 04:44 OMG that is one old headstander! You must take outstanding care of your fish!

Heh. He eats better than most people do! Lots of vegetables and fruit, some nuts, some shrimp pellets, some Hikari sinking wafers, and some composting worms (my hoplo also eats the fish food and worms).

Bas Pels wrote: ↑16 Apr 2019, 18:40 I never knew Abramites can get that old. I got 9 . And a pair of H littorale

Oh, so nice to hear of someone else keeping A. hypselonotus! They have a lot of personality. Mine is now "officially" 27, and still going strong.

Hey there -- I have had one M. thoracata for almost 9 years. (I initially bought two juvies, but the other one failed to thrive). Mine is a male and his only other tankmate is a 26-year-old Abramites hypselonotus who is now partially blind. My M. thoracata is peaceful but goes crazy for food and ...

Update: I tried a week-long course of Melafix (basically tea tree oil). It did seem to treat the fin rot. The fish perked up but was not interested in eating -- live worms were neglected. After about two weeks of no further improvement, I got annoyed and put the fish back in the main tank with the ...

Hmm, thanks. Worth a try.

Well, if this fish is having issues despite husbandry that is fine for the other fish, its problems are likely genetic in origin. The proposed foods at least won't hurt it and could help.

I'm not an expert in this species at all but the degradation of the teeth in particular looks like it may be due to inadequate calcium. People with more experience should chime in on this, but if that were my fish, I would try introducing dietary calcium via foods such as tofu (which is high in ...

Update: So far the fish has not improved. In fact, it is starting to look a little skinnier. I started adding Melafix (= tea tree oil solution, a mild antiseptic) to the water two days ago. A standard treatment lasts 7 days. I hope this little guy will pull through -- but, given the large number of ...

Hi there, I have two Megalechis thoracata . They've been with me almost a year. About 3 months ago, I separated out the smaller of the two from the main tank and put it into quarantine because it was not growing. I suspected that the larger of the two (who matured into a male) was hogging the food ...

I'm a scientific editor and postdoctoral fellow in engineering education.

Just a caution about zucchini format: don't feed them in rounds unless you slice through the rind in some places. Years ago in Tropical Fish Hobbyist (I think) I read an article about someone's pleco that ate the softer centre out of a zucchini round and then got stuck in the rind, which jammed the ...

Have you tried looking for the journal using WorldCat and then requesting the paper through interlibrary loan?

--> Pretty sure that U of T (Toronto) has this journal.

Works now. Thanks.

Error 404 - /catelog/my_fish_species_detail.php?species_id=124 - Page can't be found This error is generated when I click on the link above from the page http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=124 -- location of faulty link on the page shown below in red: Click on a username ...

Whoa! It's just an idea. You guys do a great job with the site.

Bas Pels wrote:I think you would better take 1 more Megalichthys instead of 3 - only three, they like to be among themselves - Dianema.

Sorry, could you say that again in different words? I'm a little confused.
(I have only 2 Megalechis).

Thanks!

Whoa, mushroom season here (Toronto) is generally late September-mid-October (except for morels).

For the record, my fish showed zero interest in button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus).

I don't know who was doing that, but I feed nuts to my headstanders ( Abramites hypselonotus ) all the time. So long as the shells are off, the headstanders destroy nuts. They can also bite through pumpkin seeds even with the seed coats on. I take it that a lot of other Amazonian fish also eat ...

Not quite the same, but I saw a "Hermit the Crab" for sale recently.

Grazie!

Ooh, it does look like a slime mold, but it could also be any number of other weird microscopic beasts.

There is a slime mold group on Flickr. If you have a Flickr account, try posting it there -- best to post this kind of question where slime mold experts congregate.

Thanks for your comments, Andreas and Mats.

I suppose a controlled vocabulary could be built off fishbase if its terms of use allow for that kind of thing. (I'm not sure why they would not be).

If I want to show that my catfish are in with another species that's not a catfish, is there a way to add the other species to my aquarium? I haven't figured out how to do it.

(This might be useful for showing others which fish are compatible with other fish).

Thanks!

Just wondering if anyone is keeping track of catfish in film! For instance, there is a human/catfish love scene (I'm not making this up) in Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Boonmee_Who_Can_Recall_His_Past_Lives ). Hmm. . . (That film won a lot of ...

Hi there! I have two Megalechis thoracata and am thinking of getting some Dianema urostriatum . 1. Will the males fight each other? (One of my M. thoracata is definitely male). 2. Is 3 a good number of D. urostriatum , or do they do better in larger groups? My tank is 48 gallons and I don't think I ...

Hi there, I'm the proud owner of 2 Megalechis thoracata and 2 Abramites hypselonotus ( http://fishbase.org/summary/Abramites-hypselonotus.html ). The A. hypselonotus are almost 21 years old. b-) I'm new to catfish. I bought them in the summer as juveniles. One is about 3 cm long -- barely longer ...