A lot of questions

[TRIMAC]

I am what you consider a Cichlid guy-but at times have had catfish. As of late I have fallen in love with many catfish. Anyways, I have a 240 gallon tank with a male umbee a female dovii a marbled achara cat and a sun cat. My observations have been that the cichlid ignore the cats. At times allow the catfish to stay in their caves. Before I also had a Trimac and Red Terror but I had to remove them because they were getting throttled by the umbee. Anyways am I overstocked or should I just keep a good eye on the tank. Plus can I add other cats-I really want a Vulture Catfish-but can't seem to find anyone who even knows what the species is. Anyways any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[medaka]

I really want a Vulture Catfish-but can't seem to find anyone who even knows what the species is.

It a Pimelodidae species of catfish

Try the Planet catfish cat-elog listing for: -

Calophysus macropterus

Try reading this thread as well: -
vulture cat

[Richard B]

Medaka is correct as that is what Calophysus is called in the UK - in my experience - where abouts are you located - it may help us advise you? (i presume US as the name achara isn'y used in the UK?)

We can't tell if your tank is overstocked as you don't say how big each of your fish is & the dimensions of your tank would be preferable to the overall capacity - usually tanks are longer than their height but not always

Adding another large predatory cat depends on many variables - stock levels, filter capacity, territory available, mix of fish etc A little more information would assist us greatly. I've kept both the cats, but not together & not with the c****ids you mention so my opinions may be somewhat inferior to many contributors here

[TRIMAC]

Tank is 240 gallons-8 feet long 2 feet high and 2 feet wide. I have had the umbee for 10 months he is around 10 inches the female dovii is 8 inches. As for the cats the sun cat is a good 6 inches and the achara a good 7 inches I have had the cats for around 4-5 months-I have twon magnum 350 filters and two emperor 400 filters-I also have 2 heaters one is 350 watts and the other is 500 watts-I have a lot of big caves and drift wood-I use natural gravel. Hope that Helps-the only aggression I see is between the dovii and umbee-no aggression towards the cats-are there any other cats I could add?

[TRIMAC]

I live in Texas!

[Richard B]

the achara gets big & with it's long barbels 2 foot wide is a bit small - i have seen them over 3 foot long in captivity - a general rule would be the width of the tank should be at least twice the length of the adult fish - particularly active ones like this

You could try the vulture cat if you can find one but this also gets big - you do have space available & there are plenty to choose from.

i would suggest oxydoras niger, megladoras uranoscopus, lithodoras dorsalis or pteradoras granulosus - these all get big but are peaceful giants & not as active as some others.

I would avoid the big pims in general, also avoid hemibagrus, rita, auchenoglanis as there are size & aggression issues.

I've just wriiten a similar post elsewhere but look at what you like in cat-e-log, see what you like & ask us about the specifics of that species - we can then advise on possible rough costs, availability & husbandry

[Dave Rinaldo]

I live in Texas!

Howdy!

Your location will be more helpful if it is included in your Profile,
which is in your User Control Panel

If your (ever) in Austin "come on by"

[TRIMAC]

Thanks a lot guys-I do have a 1000 gallon pond on standby-so if they do get too big I could set that up again-I like the fish you suggested and I really want a vulture cat-so how do I find one?

[andregurov]

Vulture cats - I like bagre de machete personally - are very hard to find. An East Coast (US) importer had small ones about 3 years ago, and those were the last I've seen of them at that size, and I've looked high and low. I finally found a big one from said importer, but it is already about 17". Extremely spirited and fun, but not the most active cat I've owned.

[TRIMAC]

Testing

[TRIMAC]

There now you know my location.