Pimelodus blochii - Four-lined Pimelodus ADULT

[MotorCityAquatics]

Adult pimelodus blochii for sale on AquaBid:
http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/ ... 1388971147

[MotorCityAquatics]

This fellow is no longer available

[Viktor Jarikov]

Excellent! Hope you've found a great home for him, mate.

Just to note, accurate species ID can be very hard in the humongous genus of Pimelodus. If it is indeed a blochii, IME (if my ID is right which is far from given) they can get to 14" TL and very thick, ~5 lbs, even in captivity. Not fat thick but muscular/built thick.

[yellowcat]

It seems that p. blochii may be a group or perhaps several sub-species may exist based on origin but the commonly imported ones rarely grow much larger than 9" as the Cat-eLog suggests. I would like to see/have a 14" specimen!
I have one adult that is 10" TL and I've kept it for almost 17 years now, my oldest fish! It grew to maximum size a decade ago...

P. blochii

[Viktor Jarikov]

Yours looks strikingly close to mine in the built and coloration. Sorry, cannot offer a photo evidence. It lived in a pond and now is gone. I rescued it as an adult in Lockport, NY.

[MotorCityAquatics]

This fella came with an aquarium I bought from a person that wasn't much of an enthusist. She had no idea what it was. I used the Cat-eLog to identify him. It is nearly identical to one of the photos in the cat-eLog but judging by the numerous photos of Pimelodus blochii I looked at it appears to me like their patterns change a lot as they get to adult size. One thing that was fairly distinctive was that spot on the body right at the fore-end of the dorsal. It was a great looking cat, and an interesting specimen but it's pretty active. By that I mean it sits in one spot for a while and then tears around like mad which is pretty disruptive.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thanks for more info!

It is well known to do that when stressed. It was not happy in that tank. More than often it would injure itself too on the furniture, etc; mostly skin abrasions. It's the "flee" response to a stress factor.

[MotorCityAquatics]

That's likely. It was in a 55 gallon tank with 5 adult bristlenose, a large pleco, black tetras, a dozen large angels, a 6" golden algae eater, and two large comets.

[catfishchris13]

Wish I had a picture of mine, a guy in Oregon imported it for me, was about 13 inches