About five years ago I setup a new tank after 15 years of being absent from the joys of keeping fish. Once the tank had cycled etc and we were stocking it we saw three of the following catfish in a local fish shop and bought all of them:
About a year after having the tank setup we had a problem of sudden deaths, which the local fish shop thinks was down to heavy metal poisoning due to water mains works that were being performed in the area, the water in the tank appeared fine, no funnies etc (I digress), anyway we lost one of the three amigos. 5 years later we have lost another one due to major problems with the filter and problems with ammonia (which is now back under control), we are not sure if that contributed to it passing, or if it was old age etc. However we want to replace the missing catfish as we enjoyed watching them swim across the front of the tank as they always seemed to swim together. Also from what I have read it appears they prefer to be kept in groups and we always have our fishes best interests at heart.
However we have never seen them in the shops since we bought them and I don't seem to be able to identify them. They didn't grow much after we bought them, they are about 3.5-4 inches in length, we have a 600 litre tank so they have plenty of room to grow, so I assume they are a smaller species. I think it might be a Synodontis euptera based on what I have seen on this site, but cannot be certain.
Once identified the problem will be tracking him/her some tank mates down, but one problem as a time.
Thanks in advance
- Paul
