Hello everyone! Hope this forum still has a lot of life left

[Akronsbiggest]

Just wanted to take the time to introduce myself as a new member and to gauge how populated this website is still. I stumbled across this site accidentally, many months ago, and was blown away by the pure amount of content and community. Up until this point I had never felt the urge to join an online community, but I was so enthralled with Planet Catfish I had no choice but to jump in. A little about myself as a fish keeper: I'm fairly new as a serious enthusiast having a little over a years experience; I'm learning more every day whether it pertains to my species and interests or not; Hoplosternum littorale is the sole reason I began keeping fish, and they have been amazing serving as my beginning fish, and acting as a gateway fish for all the other amazing species I have been privileged with keeping. Throughout this past year I have grown tremendously in the form of knowledge, providing care, and attention to detail; and, I hope that joining this community will give me the opportunity to learn more about the fish that I love, from experienced keepers and hobbyists. Thank you to all that read this, and if I need to correct anything, please message me regarding what needs corrected. I began adding my aquaria and fish but due to time constraints, have not finished filling out all of my information. If anyone has any advice on some beginning steps to take on this site, recommendations, or anything else to say, please feel free to post. Thanks again and hope to hear from everyone!

-Jordan

[Scleropages]

Welcome and thanks for introducing yourself! As I'm sure you will see, Planet Catfish is quite active with a large number of very knowledgeable aquarists. Don't forget to use the search function to check the plethora of information in old posts on the forum. And, the Catfish of the Month (CotM) articles can be very informative. Enjoy!

[Viktor Jarikov]

Welcome, friend! Nice intro. This forum was my first one ever too and still is my first love. Things weren't so smooth for me at the beginning and a thread actually was started to help me personally become a better forum goer - humiliating but very good for me. So, a word of caution: pay attention to what's posted and how, keep on topic (very important), avoid posts lacking useful content, trivial posts, angry posts, texting, etc. - these are some of the recommendations and there is more in forum rules, which is good to familiarize yourself with. Learn who the experts are. Just trying to be helpful in my turn, is all! Good luck.

[Richard B]

Jordan - that's a great intro.

A big hearty welcome to PC

[DKcincy]

Hey! It's great to see another Ohioan on here. I just joined a few weeks ago, and I agree with everything you said about how wonderful this online community is.

[Akronsbiggest]

Welcome and thanks for introducing yourself! As I'm sure you will see, Planet Catfish is quite active with a large number of very knowledgeable aquarists. Don't forget to use the search function to check the plethora of information in old posts on the forum. And, the Catfish of the Month (CotM) articles can be very informative. Enjoy!

Thank you, I'm grateful for your reply. As of now I have read every CotM entry to date, and hands down it is one of the best collective resources I have seen. I wish there was a site that was formatted in the same manner as this, that covered other types of fish, but it seems that nobody is as dedicated as the founders of Planet Catfish, as I have yet to find anything remotely close to the archive style of this site. I'm just now branching out to new fish species outside of catfish because I have obtained the majority of my "dream" catfish while the rest remain unseen. All of my fish to date have come from Nautilus in Florida, Apet in Illinois I believe, and American Aquaculture here in Ohio, and between all three they manage to offer some hard to find catfish. The downside is that some they offer are very large and rare, thus being extremely pricey, and too large for any of my current tanks (my biggest one being 75G). I don't want to ramble out a novel so thanks again for the reply, it's greatly appreciated!!

*EDIT* Also, I have just read the rules and guidelines for the forum and rather than reply to every comment I would like to just thank everyone now for their replies, and say that every post has been/will be read. I will only respond if a post has asked some sort of question, or if I feel obligated to comment on a post. Being a courteous person, I feel the need to thank everyone individually, but to refrain from using too much space or repeating myself, I will just announce that I will always be grateful for involvement in posts.

[unblinded]

As has already been stated thanks for the excellent introduction. I'm curious as to what your dream cat list consists of. Hoplos are a neat one to start with. Welcome to the forum.

[Birger]

I wish there was a site that was formatted in the same manner as this, that covered other types of fish, but it seems that nobody is as dedicated as the founders of Planet Catfish, as I have yet to find anything remotely close to the archive style of this site

This is a recent start of what you are looking for, you will notice many similarities ...http://www.aquaticrepublic.com/

Welcome to PlanetCatfish!!

Birger

[Jools]

Welcome Jordan. I love a fishkeeper who knows how to use a semicolon! So, I started this site in 1997, introduced the forum in 2003 and we're still going. If I am answering the question, "Has this forum got a lot of life left" then I can't say much more than it will be here and be looked after technically as long as people like yourselves and like those who replied want somewhere shady (in the refuge sense) to hang their hats.

Forums generally are thought to be suffering from communities moving to facebook, but more recent views are that it actually has improved the quality of what goes on in forums especially if they are pretty specialised. Which we are! And if the internet forum thing as a concept dies, we will do whatever is next!

Good to met you.

Jools

[Akronsbiggest]

As has already been stated thanks for the excellent introduction. I'm curious as to what your dream cat list consists of. Hoplos are a neat one to start with. Welcome to the forum.

My dream cats are simply the ones that I find myself personally fascinated with, whether it's their personality, appearance, rarity, etc. I am fully aware that some people would see my list and scoff at some of the entrants, but I can't help what fish I end up liking

"Dream" Cats I have already acquired are all closely related and are: Hoplosternum littorale, Hoplosternum thoracatum, Dianema urostriatum, and Dianema longibarbis

Ones that I don't have and would like are: C. callichthys, M. pectorale, Pelteobagrus ornatus, Tandanus bostocki, Neosilurus glencoensis, Clarias gariepinus, Gymnallabes typus, Aspidoras sp., Plectrochilus erythrurus, and many others. There are a lot of larger species, but I will not consider them obtainable, nor will I look for them, until I have proper space to accommodate them. Also, the Honeycomb catfish is one of my all time favorites, and I acquired a couple many months ago, but I unfortunately lost them due to inexperience. I know that they were once a Tatia sp. but to my understanding, they are now under a different name.

[Richard B]

Centromochlus perugiae

?

There are some nice cats in your list & even some of the more available ones are great fish. I've always had a soft spot for D.longibarbis.

[Akronsbiggest]

Centromochlus perugiae

?

There are some nice cats in your list & even some of the more available ones are great fish. I've always had a soft spot for D.longibarbis.

I must say though if I could choose one, and only one, fish to own, it would be an albino Hoplo. I've only seen pictures and it actually surprises me they are not yet available in the trade considering how relatively easy it is to breed them, how many fry they produce, the fact that they are farm raised as a food source in some areas, and how they are now considered an established invasive species in areas such as Florida. And to comment on your soft spot for D.longibabris; they have proven to be one of the more enjoyable fish I have had the privilage of owning. I have a small group of five, and four more of the flagtails. It took longer for them to settle than most, but now they've finally been roaming around, exploring, and showing much more group activity.

*Edit* As fate would have it I checked my new fish lists today and Honeycomb cats were on there. Not only that, they were only six dollars a piece which is the cheapest that I have seen them for. And yes, the picture of Centromochlus perugiae is identical to what I had. I just now noticed the picture, thank you for taking the time to find and post it!!

[mg7454]

Welcome to planet catfish and Congratulations on your first year of fish-keeping!
It is a terrific hobby that gets ever better with experience, devotion, and great forums with good people, just like planet catfish!