giraffe catfish

fishlover88 · Post by **fishlover88** » 05 Jun 2007, 06:14

How big do they get in the home aquaria? I've seen sizes from 3 feet, two feet, and just over a foot. Does anyone have one and know how big they get? Cause i am truely interested in this fish, and i would like to pin down a size.

Thanks for the help....

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 05 Jun 2007, 11:35

It got easily and rather quickly too big for my tank, which measures 200x60x60 cms.....
I removed it at the size of approx 40 cms.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 05 Jun 2007, 12:06

Note that there are two different species of "Giraffe cat". On that is the "large" variety, and one that is a "dwarf" variety. The dwarf variety is much more suitable for home aquaria than the large variety, which will grow to about 3 feet or so.

The dwarf variety is

The larger variety is

It seems like the Cat-eLog display pages aren't working at the moment, but hopefully that's only temporary.

--
Mats

Richard B · Post by **Richard B** » 05 Jun 2007, 12:44

Auchenoglanis.They are one of the biggies & have a quick growth rate. Personally i wouldn't recommend them to anyone but the most dedicated hobbyist who can provide a massive tank with adequate filtration. I remember one in, er Bristol Zoo i think it was (SE England) about 10years ago that was probably close on 4 feet long - kept in a tank with Pacu, RTC, Niger which you could walk through via a short tunnel. It looked crowded in there!

Anaspidoglanis makes a much better addition to a tank

Bas Pels · Post by **Bas Pels** » 05 Jun 2007, 12:57

I know someone with a 2.90meter (almoost 10 feet) tank, who got 2 Auchenoglanis catfishes 5 months back

By now the've outgrown the tank - in his eyes at least. They are 40 cm or so, but he is not going to spend the tank for the 2 fishes.

This is an example of how fastthese fish grow

Chrysichthys · Post by **Chrysichthys** » 05 Jun 2007, 15:00

The digging activity of a large specimen will wreak total havoc on the tank decor. You can't have plants or any lightweight bogwood, which will be uprooted and displaced, respectively, or a sand substrate, because the displaced sand will block the filter.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 05 Jun 2007, 15:56

I too kept Auchenoglanis

a truly great fish, but as others beforew me, I removed mine when it passed the 1-foot mark.

all the plants turn into floating varieties

also: they can and do eat small tankmates!

mine went to a friend with a large tank, but even there it just kept on growing. it's now well beyond 40 cm in length and had another move; to a guy with an indoor pond that's well over 10 feet wide. in my friend's tank it snacked on male Cyprichromis sp jumbo Kitumba (!!), wich gives you an indication of what fits in that vacuumsucke-mouth......talk about expensive feeders.....

in time it'll outgrow that pond I'm afraid. luckily the fish in there are big (Leporinus, Oscars, Central American cichlids, Plecs etc)

Auchenoglanis is a great fish to keep. although they're quite territorial, hard to combine with speciesmembers. I know of only 1 occasion where 2 1-footers just kept meing nice to each other.
that too was a very large tank (100? liters?) with big boisterous tankmates.

shame it always outgrows the tank you keep it in. I've seen pix of fully grown fishes in the hands of native fishermen; it gets just as big as Oxydoras niger.

the biggest I've seen in captivity was in a showtank at Zoo Zajac; there's one that's approaching 2 feet in length. there are no plants in thaty tank and only really big pieces of bogwood and little sand. you would need a truly big filter and make sure that such a filter doesn't get clogged with the entire sandy substrate being waved in......this catfish invented the idea of "catfish = bulldozer" or gave it an entire league by itself