ol' Blue Eyes has arrived on the scene....

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 08 May 2003, 18:50

HOLY COW!!

i don't think I've ever had such a huge monster; except for 2 Pterodoras granulosus, years ago.

I fact, he's THAT big, there was no question of putting him in any of my quarantaine tanks. The only tank suitable for his size was the big Tanganyikan tank. Those Tropheus are really baffled by him. He crawled into a rocky cave, and now has to fiurge out, that backwards is the only way out.

Pics will follow; you HAVE to see this beastie!

Vik · Post by **Vik** » 08 May 2003, 21:24

SG! Hurry with pics, they are such a beautiful fish! Where on earth did you get him??

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 08 May 2003, 21:53

I adopted him

He was property of the people at HEST; the Haplochromis Ecological Survey Team.
They're the ones who invent and research the cichlids of Lake Victoria.
HEST was founded after the eco-disaster wich happened because the Nile Perch (Lates niloticus) was introduced in the Lake.

They have a lot of tanks, and there were some non-cichlids too. But because recently they were running out of space; the non-cichlids had to go.
They ran across me, and I already made some sort of reputtation of being sort of a catfish-geek

in the cichlid-club....
and asked me if I wanted to adopt some catfishes they had.
One was a Blue Eyed Panaque, the other supposedly a Peckoltia brevis (wich it isn't, it's some huge, rare, wasp-looking L-number, very pretty too).

Needless to say, I accepted, of course; knowing the rarity of Blue eyes, now.
This particular Panaque was bought in Belgium at the size of about 8 cm in september 1984 (!!, those researchers come in handy, alright. they make a record of EVERYTHING...)
How old would a wildcaught 8 cm big Panaque be? one, two or three years?
This particular fish is thus AT LEAST 20 years old.....

Harley · Post by **Harley** » 09 May 2003, 13:04

WOW!

how awsome isnt this ! I _NEED_ to see some pictures before i go nuts =) hehe
And, yes, i am verry jealous ! (i want one too)

May i ask what his/her name is ?

mokmu · Post by **mokmu** » 09 May 2003, 14:10

Hey where are the pics? Can't wait to see an adult blue eyed panaque! How big is it?

Regards,
Mike D.

Plec0maniac · Post by **Plec0maniac** » 09 May 2003, 14:52

hi mike

Lets wait, cuz Ive ordered some Panaque suttoni, but im still waitn for responce from my supplier.. So lets cross our fingers

cant wait to see one again.. Its been a while

batho · Post by **batho** » 10 May 2003, 10:54

There don't seem to be any pics of blue-eyed panagques in the Cat-elog?

What is their scientific name? L No.?

Does anybody have any pics?

Steve

König Löwe · Post by **König Löwe** » 10 May 2003, 12:00

The scientific name is Panaque suttonorum and Panaque cochliodon (both species are blue eyed and black skinned, as far as I0 know. Scotcat has a factsheet about it and explains a lot about the name of the fish, in addtion to pictures. There is a drawing of the blue eye in the Cat-elog (Ithink).

It has no L-number.

mokmu · Post by **mokmu** » 10 May 2003, 16:10

batho,

Go to cat-elog, then choose common names. Browse down to the the letter "B" set of common cat names. Look for Blue-Eyed Pleco. Click on that and there it will be or....

Just click on the link below:

http://www.planetcatfish.com/ilibrary/l ... e/41_f.htm

SG_Eurystomus,

Hey yo! Can't wait to see your adult blue-eyed panaque pics! Pics, please! Pics, please!

Regards,
Mike D.

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 11 May 2003, 14:36

Working on it....

however, I ran into foul play by the software, and that billygateswindows2000 stuff, you all know what I mean....

So despite me having a fine G2 loaded with pics, I can't upload them!

PATIENCE!

ps NO the digicam is fine; plugged it into an Apple/Mac-laptop and up went the pix......

Post by **Silurus** » 11 May 2003, 14:48

ps NO the digicam is fine; plugged it into an Apple/Mac-laptop and up went the pix......

One very good reason for you to leave the dark side by ditching those Wintel boxes and Winbloze, and join us enlightened ones by getting a Mac....

Pectorale · Post by **Pectorale** » 12 May 2003, 08:45

Considering just that,I saw those pics on an Apple notebook no problemo, try and upload it on a Wi*dow machine, all hell breaks loose.

May the farce be with ya, Pectorale

Post by **Rusty** » 12 May 2003, 12:27

Converting Sid to the light side... now that would be an achievement. I've already convinced Ian to get a Mac. Moving on to Jools

Rusty

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 12 May 2003, 14:12

Considering the fact that my current hardware costed me about three months'paychecks in all (I bought it piece by piece and I can assemble a lot myself), and also that my savings are meant for a new pair of eyes OR a nice, big fat trip to the tropics (preferably Tanganyika, SEAsia or Aussie), the Mac has to wait....

I'm not hipdeep in cash yet, and all those nifty electronics are a LOT more expensive in Europe than in the US (usually twice as expensive; this goes for PC's, digicams, CD's, software and cars at least)

So today I'll rip out the USBcard, re-install it and the whole software bit connected with it, and see what happens.

Btw Blue eyes is doing fine, hiding all day and uprooting the tank at night. The rocks in the tank are showing deep scratches, the cucumber disappears at an alarming rate, and even the nastiest tropheus don't come near him.
He's having a great time!

Post by **Dinyar** » 12 May 2003, 14:13

Yeah, goldfish and cichlid newbies -- 97% of the fish keeping population -- use Windoze. Real catfish aficonados -- the remaining 3% -- use Macs.

Dinyar

Caol_ila · Post by **Caol_ila** » 12 May 2003, 14:19

You underestimate the power of the dark side dinyar.

I can only underline what sidg wrote that its impossible to buy a mac with a low budget. Its more of a fancy thing to have. Hmm id say you need 2x â?¬ for a mac to a similar darksider and thats gotta be taken into consideration. And also i worked with a mac at a newspaper for 5 years and they werent much better or worse than winpcs...

mokmu · Post by **mokmu** » 12 May 2003, 16:50

The Mac? Best machine I've ever handled (except for the lemons that came out during the initial slot-load iMacs). I still use an old 604e machine at work myself. I don't want it any other way. Once I got hooked (I came in from the cold Win 3.1 and win 95), I never turned back. Specially now with the itunes Store. My god! Legal music for just US$ 0.99. Lucky you peecee users will be getting one soon. Apple is apparently making an itunes version for the win platform.

I'm still waiting for those blue-eyed pics. Don't worry. I'm being patient. I am just a bit anxious that's all.

Regards,
Mike D.

Caol_ila · Post by **Caol_ila** » 13 May 2003, 14:46

at my lfs i saw a beautiful one today (first one id ever seen in real life) around 17 cm for 100 euro...

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 14 May 2003, 07:50

100 euro in Germany??
that's fairly cheap! I would say, these beasties cost a fortune nowadays (them being almost or already extinct in the wild etc); and fishprices in Germany can be hair-rising IME....

I've seen many pretty fish in Germany over the years, for example in Bonn -forgot the name of the LFS- and in Bochum (Bleccha), but it was always those #@$%#@prices that threw me off....(like 80 DM for an adult corydoras sterbai, knowing you need to get at least 5, or 50DM for Parancistrus auranthiacus etc. And I didn't even start on big Pleco-, Pim- or Stingray prices. I've seen fish well beyond the 3000DM range there. (1 euro = 2 DM, I haven't visited German LFS since a year or two)

Caol_ila · Post by **Caol_ila** » 14 May 2003, 10:44

I can say that the Rhein-Main region around Frankfurt is a good place to buy fishes. My favourite lfs takes fishes from private hands and thus can make "special" prices. Ive noticed though that in all lfs adult fish are extremely expensive.

Harley · Post by **Harley** » 19 May 2003, 19:25

Hey were did the pictures go ! I red in "speak easy" that youve had your computer fixed. Now pleeeeeeaaaseeee, may we se the pictures

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 19 May 2003, 21:02

You want it...
you get it!
Now let's separate the men (fig speaking: the ones with cable and DSL) from the mice (the 56kb's....)

first off: next to Amphilius; this particular cat is IMPOSSIBLE for getting decent pics!! it HATES flash, those wee blue eyes see REAL GOOD, and after the transfer he (or she) was really p####d off anyway.

Arrrival on the scene:

My cousin (or nephew; what the heck is the difference? they both translate as "neef" in Dutch!) needs to do a windowcleaning, ehh

The Goldnugget is 9 cm or so, it's a 720 liter tank....

He's not the biggest cat in the tank....(check out the African section!)

Those Blue eyes reflect green (??)

Almost all the lights switched off, aim -can't see anything myself- pray & shoot:

At least he moves! the weeks he was at my place he crawled into a cave and didn't show at all. I don't have a big riverine tank, and although I really loved to keep him, such a beast doesn't belong in a Tanganyikan tank with wrong water, no wood and the wrong companions. Now he lives in a tank 1 1/2 times bigger than mine with South American & African riverine fishes, soft water, tons of wood and I can see him as often as I please (if he shows up

)

Cheers!
Sid

Plec0maniac · Post by **Plec0maniac** » 20 May 2003, 12:34

there so beautiful!!!!!!!!

wish i could have a couple, been ordering for quite a year now and still hasnt got any stock

Harley · Post by **Harley** » 21 May 2003, 11:53

Thanx ! Now i can sleep again =D

He sure is amazing.... its verry good that you think of OlÂ´blue eyes wellbeing. That tank looks nice fore him =)

Zack · Post by **Zack** » 22 May 2003, 03:29

Awesome fish, Sounds like hes in the perfect tank to. By the way, seeing how these fish are so uncommon now adays and that they are being killed of unintentionaly(? )in their wild habitat, Do you have any hopes of finding another and breading them??? Is anyone aware of any aquarist who is breeding them?? Is it possible??

Plec0maniac · Post by **Plec0maniac** » 22 May 2003, 06:41

I think breeding them is possible, u just have to have the knowledge and the patience.. Creating the perfect habitat for them and the right envirnment is needed in order to breed fishes. Try to condition them very well and feed them nutritious food to make the female ready

I hope that this fish would be bred by experts out there, and be out in the market once again...

My uncle used to have a pair, last 7years ago. But his friend instisted of buying them and breeding them. and sadly the suttonis died just after a week on transfering tanks.. Oww

Caol_ila · Post by **Caol_ila** » 22 May 2003, 11:06

Hi!

Rusty told me that Larry Vires has a breeding report in his book. If im nto wrong they ate a breeding cave into wood after being conditioned with dog food. Dunno if this true.

The guy who runs http://www.welskeller.de told me on the phone that he tried to set up a pair a while back and the male killed the female while the tank was unattended.

Post by **Rusty** » 22 May 2003, 11:37

Yes, Vires claims in his book that he bred them, conditioning them on dog food. I think this information should be taken with a grain of salt though, since he is extremely short on details.

A low-life who browses these forums has a few in a thousand gallon tank (or so he says). You might ask coelacanth (the said low-life) about their behavior in a group.

Rusty

Plec0maniac · Post by **Plec0maniac** » 22 May 2003, 13:30

its hard to feed fishes dog food. cuz first of all it makes the water too oily.. second it has too much fat and protien that is bad for fishes..

Caol_ila · Post by **Caol_ila** » 22 May 2003, 13:37

using a protein skimmer prevents the water from being oily. I cant imagine it being more "oily" than feeding fresh/frozen fish. If read some articles about cat/dog food being unsuitable for turtles cauz most products contain a serious amount of food wastes such as urine, blood, charcoal etc. Conditioning a woodeater with high protein food from nonfishes seems to be a strange stategy to me. (to say the least) Has any Panaque spp. ever been bred?