Oil Catfish ( Centromochlus perugiae )

[CatWhat]

I am planning on ordering these guys in when I order my Baby Whale catfish, trying to get in as many different fish as possible on one order. In the province I live in we never get anything different what so ever, espcially regarding catfish. So I was hoping on getting the Oil catfish to breed so at least there may be some what of a supply for our area.
I was wondering how many Oil cats would be fine in a 30g? It will just be them in there as I hope to get them breeding, I also have a 20g that I can use to rear the fry or place a pair in. I have kept them before while I was living in another province but going to give breeding them a try now.
Oh and of course they won't be going in with the Baby Whale catfish.
Also I have seen them discribed as Tatia perugiae and Centromochlus perugiae, just wondering is it the same fish? I want to make sure I'm getting the right ones. Although when I search either name I get the same profiles, pics etc..
Thank you for any help.

Matt

[Marc van Arc]

I think your tank could easiliy house 20 odd specimens, as long as you provide enough shelter for each individual. They like company and will end up with several specimens in one hide out.
No need to put a pair in a seperate tank. They have internal fertilization, so putting a gravid female apart should be enough. There's plenty of info on the site on this matter; have a look.
T. perugiae is a synonym of C. perugiae; it's indeed the same fish.
The real perugiae has lots of small spots and - therefore - the only "problem" you could encounter is that you'll end up with the big spot variety aka C. (cf) altae, which are also nice and long lived fish.

[CatWhat]

Ok, that would work, as I was thinking of going with 10 at the most, well pending on their price. Distributor cannot tell me much about size or price until they come in as they will be wild caught. Yeah, I had a look on the article about breeding them, really good info on there. What I was thinking was the female got gravid then fertilization took place, but the deal is if she's gravid fertlization has already taken place?
I have lots of small to medium pieces of drift wood that are not in use, I was planning on using the wood for the cats cover. I think I may just leave the tank bare bottom to make cleaning easier. The tank isn't on display or anything, pretty much just for breeding and conditioning purposes.

[Marc van Arc]

the deal is if she's gravid fertlization has already taken place?

Correct imo (although I just noticed that the word "gravid" has different nuances when used in for instance fishes/reptiles - insects - mammals).

[Industrial]

Just a heads up, I bred a similar woodcat and had terrible luck with the fry. I only fed them microworm 1-2 times a day. I'd imagine a well established aquarium with lots of driftwood full of microorganisms for them to graze on between feedings would have been much more beneficial.

[CatWhat]

Well I guess it is the same as live bearers, if the female is gravid fertilization has taken place. In that case I'll have to keep an eye out for gravid females in the 30g and remove her to the 20g by herself.
Good idea Industrial, I'll have drift wood and live plants (more likely java moss or moss balls) in the 20g for the fry to graze on.

[syno321]

I've raised many of these delightful little guys and never had a problem raising the fry using live bbs as a first food.

[CatWhat]

What were you feeding the adults? Also I was wondering what your " method " was for feeding them? When I say method I mean did you have to what until the lights were off, did they eat food off the surface and/or on the tank bottom etc... Thanks for the help.

[syno321]

The adults were especially fond of frozen bloodworms and glassworms, freeze-dried bloodworms and live whiteworms. They skim the surface for the food but will learn to find the frozen food that does not stay at the surface. Bare bottom tanks is fine to house and will not effect their breeding adversely. The females do l;ike to "hole up" in a cave or hole the size of the old 35 mm. film containers when they want to lay their eggs. At first they did require lights out before they would really eat with gusto.

[CatWhat]

I was planning on putting several pieces of pvc pipe in the tank along with the wood. Maybe around 1.5" wide, so that's pretty much 35mm. I'll try to position the pipe so that I'll be able to see if a female has laid any eggs in one of them.

[Taratron]

Has anyone else had issues with shipping them? Every time I order, say, 10 or so, perhaps 1 or 2 make it out of QT.

[Proteus]

Has anyone else had issues with shipping them? Every time I order, say, 10 or so, perhaps 1 or 2 make it out of QT.

I never lost any of mine when I ordered 25pcs before. But over time, I lost males due to competition with each other but that's a different issue.

[apistomaster]

The newly imported specimens are very vulnerable to Columnaris. I would use a good broad spectrum antibiotic on them as soon as they arrive. Use a bare bottom QT but provide some short sections of PVC pipe for hiding cover.

[CatWhat]

What kinds of antibiotics is there? When I get the chance I'll have to take a look at my LFS and see what is there.Do I have to be cautious when using any antibiotics as the catfish don't have scales? I'm still waiting for the order to come in, but I just got the tank setup for them. Well the tank has been setup now for 2 years, but I put three pieces of driftwood and some PVC pipes in there for them. I also used an old small sponge pond fountine/filter and I capped off the fountine part so it now creates a nice current across the tank. I also have three HOB aqua clears on the tank as well.

[apistomaster]

I wish I knew which of the antibiotics that are available at fish shops are of any use but I use chloramphenicol HCL which is not easy to obtain. There is a chance that a Vet could prescribe some 250 mg capsules since I believe they use it on dogs. The correct dose is 250 mg/5 US gallons.
It is too dangerous for common use for humans and has not been manufactured in the USA since 1991. It is reserved as an antibiotic of last resort for people. It is a very powerful antibiotic with a very wide spectrum of effectiveness. It can cause irreversible and fatal aplastic anemia in anywhere from 1 out of 40,000 to 1 out of 70,000 people treated with it.
Oxylinic Acid has some similar antibiotic properties and it is available from on line fish pharmacies.
Naked skin fishes do not react any differently to antibiotics than scaled fishes. The various medicinal dyes are the medications which must be used with care on naked skinned fishes.

[CatWhat]

What might be an example of these medicinal dyes? I am not to familiar with various meds for fish.

[apistomaster]

The main dyes used to treat some diseases are malachite green, acriflavine, methylene blue and potassium permanganate.