Which Auchenipterids are being kept by PC members?

[wrasse]

That's a nice looking fish! Good find Marc

[Marc van Arc]

Thanks Richard, I'm very happy with them.
Will try to make some decent pictures, but I have to learn to work with the android. The old Canon camera keeps on asking for new batteries, even when they are brand new.....

The punctatus were indeed very hungry if anything. After some mosquito larvae they looked like bowling balls with heads and tails. That looks like a good start for newly introduced fishes.

[Shane]

Thoughts on this attractive Venezuelan fish?
-Shane

[Marc van Arc]

Nope, except that it indeed looks like an

Auchenipterus

species. I can't tell you anything about this fish on species level as this genus is too unclear for me. I can ID an A. nigripinnis, based on the fact that I've kept those myself, but that's about it.

Btw: the Tatia (lower picture) is said to be T. aulopygia. I'd have thought T. aulopygia is a fully black species....

[Marc van Arc]

I'm very happy with the Auchenipterichthys punctatus.

I must give credit to Alex/Sidguppy and Kruseman for letting me know these fish were about to arrive in Amersfoort. If they hadn't done so, I would not have been aware. Thanks guys!

[kruseman]

Thanks but no thanks: It was Alex and not me who warned you.

Nice assets to your tank, Marc!
The picture I took is not good enough to post here btw.

[Shane]

Sorry Marc, I meant the bottom fish as it does not match what we have in the cat-elog under the same species name.
-Shane

[bekateen]

Btw: the Tatia (lower picture) is said to be T. aulopygia. I'd have thought T. aulopygia is a fully black species....

Does aulopygia have spots when young then lose them with age? BTW, This bottom photo at least superficially resembles the fish in tjudy's thread http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 55#p280174. Could they be the same fish?

[bekateen]

Btw: the Tatia (lower picture) is said to be T. aulopygia. I'd have thought T. aulopygia is a fully black species....

Here's a website that shows a photo of a spotted fish identified as T. aulopygia: http://www.alberguetacana.com/tacanafish.xhtml.

[Jools]

Btw: the Tatia (lower picture) is said to be T. aulopygia. I'd have thought T. aulopygia is a fully black species....

Here's a website that shows a photo of a spotted fish identified as T. aulopygia: http://www.alberguetacana.com/tacanafish.xhtml.

Beware of what you find on the internet. There are at least two (other) dodgy catfish IDs in that page. The point about the whole black Tatia with a few, some or many light coloured spots is that there is a huge amount of old info out there and the new info is inconclusive. It would take a few hours to sort through the cat-elog and update it to current knowledge but that then would still be an incomplete and, I suspect, in places contrary view of the genus. However, I've added it to the TODO list.

Jools

[Jools]

A few months back, I added some small

Poecilia

to several tanks that had "I don't see them for months" catfishes in them. A few days back I added some

Steatocranus tinanti

to one of these tanks. In that tank I now have one guppy left and she looks nervous.

However, I also note the tank containing

Centromochlus schultzi

has a thriving population of Poecilia with young in the tank. My first thought was, that's interesting, the woodcats eat cherry shrimp but don't touch the fry. My second thought, much later, was I wonder if that's something to do with the woodcats being "programmed" to avoid eating fry.

Jools

[bekateen]

Beware of what you find on the internet.

Yes I agree. I provided the reference not because I trusted it but mainly because I have no personal knowledge of this group, and it represented (like the book pictured above) another source proclaiming a spotted form of the spp.; I was hoping to receive feedback from PC members. I am not surprised to learn that the other web source may be inaccurate since, as you pointed out, they were also ambiguous about a few other spp. on that same page.

[Marc van Arc]

I also note the tank containing

Centromochlus schultzi

has a thriving population of Poecilia with young in the tank. My first thought was, that's interesting, the woodcats eat cherry shrimp but don't touch the fry. My second thought, much later, was I wonder if that's something to do with the woodcats being "programmed" to avoid eating fry.

An interesting second thought, but I wonder if it's true.
Centromochlinae are indeed known not to mess with eggs (I don't know if this goes for Auchenipterinae as well), but ime there's no guarantee woodcats won't eat fry. I guess they are unable to distinguish between fry and other edible things like for instance black, white and red mosquito larvae.
The guppys over here are thriving as well, but imo the reasons are that guppy fry are apparently smarter than woodcat fry and are active during a different part of the day.
My guppys quickly learned to hide in the plants after being chased after for some nights. My woodcats are now unable to find them, whereas they are visible the whole day when there's no woodcat around.
Woodcat fry, however, live the same life as their parents, so they can't evade them during the night unless by sheer luck. I have had several spawns and juvies of several species, but was not able to witness one single survivor.
Mind you, I'm talking about woodcat (Auchenipteridae) communities with several different species here. Always hungry and not very picky -))

[Jools]

These are 6cm - 8cm SL woodcats we're talking about here and 2cm guppies, both fishes feed together in the light during the day. Furthermore they were not fed for two weeks while I was in the US and there is still 3mm fry in there. I just found that surprising.

Jools

[Marc van Arc]

I meant the bottom fish as it does not match what we have in the cat-elog under the same species name.

Shane, I'm sorry but I'm not going to burn my hands again on this matter. The whole Tatia/Centromochlus determination thing is becoming very murky, not in the least because scientific papers (and thus views) are highly contradictive. I'm aware of the fact that Mees' determination is outdated, yet it was very clear and understandable for amateurs like myself. I could also follow Ferraris, but Soares has made something I consider not very difficult into a kind of rocket science.... it's the old lumpers and splitters thing once more.
Imo a fish should be determinable from the outside - but I'm no scientist.
From now on I'll determine a fish in a way I feel comfortable with (read: old school) and this will not be harmful to the site as I do not intend to reply to any ID-questions again.
I take things much easier now. If I have a fish I don't know, I'd be more than happy to be able to place it in a genus. ID-ing to species level doesn't matter that much anymore to me. It's much more important that any fish I keep should be happy and long-lived in my tank - no matter what the exact species name is.

[Marc van Arc]

These are 6cm - 8cm SL woodcats we're talking about here and 2cm guppies, both fishes feed together in the light during the day. Furthermore they were not fed for two weeks while I was in the US and there is still 3mm fry in there. I just found that surprising.

I agree with that being surprising. Is this a woodcat species tank or a woodcat "mix" tank?

[Jools]

Is this a woodcat species tank or a woodcat "mix" tank?

They are the only two species in the tank which is among my smallest at 24"x15"x12".

Jools

[Marc van Arc]

Is this a woodcat species tank or a woodcat "mix" tank?

They are the only two species in the tank which is among my smallest at 24"x15"x12".

In that case you may have proven that a species is able to "recognize" its offspring and therefore not eat it. I for one would not have expected this.
But the absence of other species may be the key part here. As said, in my - sometimes horribly crowded - woodcat mix tanks I was never able to see any juvie grow up.

[Marc van Arc]

Here's a link to a short video made by the owner of the aquatic shop I bought them from:
http://youtu.be/bRC4ork77tg

These four have settled in without any problems. Bellies full, tears in the caudal fins healed and very visible atm. Must be because they are still young, so I won't get used to it. In time they are going to behave like true auchenipterids: slightly less visible

[Atmichaels]

Btw: the Tatia (lower picture) is said to be T. aulopygia. I'd have thought T. aulopygia is a fully black species....

Does aulopygia have spots when young then lose them with age? BTW, This bottom photo at least superficially resembles the fish in tjudy's thread http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 55#p280174. Could they be the same fish?

I received 6 of the cf. galaxias from Ted. Below is a pic of them followed by a short video taken shortly after their arrival.



http://vid1367.photobucket.com/albums/r ... ulnltl.mp4

[Marc van Arc]

I received 6 of the cf. galaxias from Ted. Below is a pic of them followed by a short video taken shortly after their arrival.

Whatever their correct scientific species name, these are absolutely great Tatias. Marvelous spots - mind the difference in size! -, remarkable tail pattern. Congrats!

[Atmichaels]

Whatever their correct scientific species name, these are absolutely great Tatias.

I absolutely agree! I'm very excited!

[KungFish]

What country do Spinipterus sp. otorongo come from?

[Marc van Arc]

What country do Spinipterus sp. otorongo come from?

Mine were supposedly imported from Peru.

[Marc van Arc]

Based on colouration of the anal fin (these fish are still too small to show any gender ID), I'd say that the A. punctatus are 1 male and 3 females. One has a completely black anal fin; the others only have a black stripe at the bottom of the fin with a more or less hyaline part near the body. Still very visible (despite medication; see Knifefish thread.....), rather voracious eaters and with a puppy-like, playful behaviour.

[Jools]

What country do Spinipterus sp. otorongo come from?

Mine were supposedly imported from Peru.

I agree, I first saw them in an exporters in Iquitos, Peru.

Jools

[Marc van Arc]

After having been with me for nearly 13 years, I found my poor

Ageneiosus sp(3)

dead this afternoon. Since the death of the other two specimens in 2011, this fish has litterally struggled to survive and more than once I thought it would die. It didn't. The last few weeks it was barely able to swim and thin as a ribbon. I'm afraid the medication against gill worms was too much for it.
This was the last of my large to medium Auchenipteridae predators, so its death marks the end of an era.

[KungFish]

I'm sorry, it's always hard to lose a fish that you've had for a long time. At least it isn't struggling anymore.

[Marc van Arc]

Thank you.

Last Thursday I also removed the coal (which removed the leftovers of the medicine against gill worms) and added bacteria, peat and catappa leaves. Things are slowly getting back to normal. That means tanned water and fishes that are showing behaviour that I expect from them. Especially smaller ageneiosids (like

Ageneiosus atronasus

) do not like medication. They become extremely skittish and liable to white spot. Also they hide in places where they normally would not be found, like inside(!) a piece of wood.

[Marc van Arc]

Things are slowly getting back to normal.

Who wrote this? A clown?? No, it was me - and I could not have been more wrong.
A lot of my fishes are currently unable to keep their balance, they spin round, they hardly eat and - worst of all - they are visible.......
In this thread I have informed you when things went well and now I am also going to keep you posted about what looks like the end of my auchenipterid hobby.
Will be continued.