My Public Aquarium: exhibit blues - how to make them?

[lobsterclaw]

It looks like the eye is bulged out. it could be bacterial or gas bubble disease or? Also I would look at the water quality pH, do, nitrates. Florida water runs a high pH. also jay hemdel in advanced marine aquarium techniques says eye problems can occur with vitamin deficiencies eg riboflavin for eye problems. Good luck
Very little on sexual dimorphism of arowanas but on African cichlids the spots are on one sex and not the other. Perhaps falso eggs on a female to attract the male?

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thanks for the input. I think it is the same drop eye malady that affects silver arowanas and the cause behind it appears to be unknown or at least not agreed on even by vets / ichthyologists, from my limited reading through the years. It only occurs in captivity to silver aros and arapaimas, mostly. Much rarer to Asian and Australian aros. IDK if it occurs to African aros at all.

[Viktor Jarikov]

I got 5 gars in Aug-Sept 2015, 4 tropical (three common and one mexican variety, I was told by the vendor) from Primo Aquatics in Orlando, and 1 spotted gar from Shark Aquarium's George Fear that I believe turned out to be, unfortunately, the very common florida gar. $200 for 3 tropicals (picked up; the mexican one was a freebie) and $40 before shipping for the FL gar.

I've never had a real spotted gar and I am still looking. On top of being largely unavailable, they appear to be immensely hard to tell from FL gar, especially at smaller sizes. The gill to eye distance described in a science article is said to have been proven unreliable in the ID, or so some experienced MFK-ers are saying. Location of capture is said to be the most reliable indicator because their ranges do not overlap that much (?). IIRC, there is also an issue of (man-made or natural or both?) hybridization that complicates this further.

The tropicals were about 9"-10", the mexican smaller, ~7" and the florida was small, ~4". This was my first experience with the tropical gars. Never saw them for sale before or after. The tropicals that I got are kind of ill-suited for captive life. They are clumsy, slow, both slow-moving and slow-witted. IDK if they are all/most like that. The FL gar is the opposite.

The 3 common tropical gars have been feeding ok but growing very slowly. They are only ~14"-15" today after 1.5 years. The biggest problem was the mexican. On my oversight, its head spent some time in a tummy of an apurensis catfish tank mate, the gar was found impossible to swallow and was spit out and the catfish promptly removed, but the gar lost its skin pouch on the lower jaw altogether. The skin was burned by stomach acid and fell off little by little and the jaw was just a pair of bones with nothing in between them. I thought it'd not make it but it did and the pouch grew back but doesn't look right, as you will see from the video below if you look carefully - the mexican gar is in the first frames of the video. The mexican gar struggles to swallow whole bait fish because of it, so it's still the smallest at ~12" today.

The mexican has also been the sickly one from the beginning and has gone through several bouts of eye-affecting illnesses even before the incident with the apurensis catfish. The latest bout started a few months back and its left eye looks ill and perhaps blind now. I am not so sure it sees out of its right eye or how well it sees. The poor guys can't catch a break

Until a month ago, they all have been in a 240 gal; now in 4500 gal, much more relaxed, less skittish. They don't care for strong current, furniture, and too small a tank width for comfortable turnarounds.

The 4 tropicals have been fed only pellets before I got them, I surmise, because to this day they seek out pellets far better and are slow in feeding on bait fish, something I have never been met with before having kept long term alligator, FL, and long-nose gars in prior life.

The tropicals are often hungry and hence they are beggars, that's for sure. Ill-suited beggars. I struggle to train them to eat to my satisfaction.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Kevin aka Beetlebug515 on MFK and his wife Paige donated this giraffe catfish at ~10" back in Jul-Aug 2016, whom Paige named Happy. Now having kept it for a while on the east coast I must agree - it's the most outgoing and "happy" out of my 7 Auchenoglanis cats, or perhaps simply the smartest because he is the only master beggar in the group and knows how to use its cuteness factor to its advantage

After settling in and reaching ~12", it was becoming apparent to me it looks the closest to another one of my g-cats from Congo river, which supposedly houses only Auchenoglanis wittei. So that's the tentative ID at the moment.

It was bothered a touch by someone in the 4500 gal at the beginning judging from a bit tattered fins now and then but lately it has been intact and has grown to 14"+. Eats very well, needless to say. Behaves very relaxed, borderline brazen

Dec 19 2016, ~14":




Aug 2016, ~10"-11":

[Viktor Jarikov]

Having lost our 2.5'-er earlier this year to a freak occurrence (killed by synodontis - mid second page viewtopic.php?f=9&t=41670&hilit=eupterus&start=20 ), we have been left with four iridescent shark catfish, all of which are ~2' now.

All of them have always been and continue to be in the same 4500 gal tank with the same synos, FWIW...

Two of the IDS I got last Sept 2016 at ~3"-4" from Aquarium and Reef Center in Cape Coral, FL. They have grown fast having put on ~20" in 15 months. So they would belong to the fast-and-relatively-large-growing fraction of IDS we get in the trade, see these informative threads for more

-- https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/foru ... es.505668/

-- https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/foru ... lp.592861/ -- see a collection of links in my post #9

-- https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/foru ... ng.574589/

Another two had been rescued by a prior owner and are much older, I guesstimate about 10 years. They have not grown much in my care, having been with me for 4-5 years now, maybe a bit. One is missing both eyes. I was told it was housed with a banded leporinus by the original owner (so I am at least a third owner in line) for a long time just fine until one day the lepi has gone mad and attacked the IDS, stripping it of fins, taking both eyes out, and latching onto its stomach (can still see the spot). The IDS miraculously survived that horrific attack.

Here they are today in 4500 gal:

[Viktor Jarikov]

Here is a video update on my lone surviving black ear shark catfish (1 for 5) that's about a foot long now and pretty thick. Its story begins in this thread that's largely about its nemesis vulture catfish (IME anyway) https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/foru ... 034/page-2

It's skittishness / nervousness visually has disappeared by now, probably due to its growth and the tank size but I'm sure if I were to try catching it, it would spaz out in a terrible fashion.

It looks like the tank mates don't bother it anymore because it's has been a while since I saw any damage on it which helps it calm down a lot. It feeds on a variety of pellets with enviable vigor. I've not noted yet if it takes fish but I've not paid enough attention.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Some of you know the story of this catfish that began here viewtopic.php?f=13&t=36790&hilit=mystus

When I got it in 2009-2010, I was ignorant and didn't even know I was getting a Hemibagrus. I thought it was a Mystus.

It's been very easy to feed. A good tank mate, nothing of the wyckii or wyckioides kind. Grew from 2" to 1' in about 1.5-2 years and stopped completely there. It's been 4 years or so since it remained the same size. They are farmed in Asia and it looks like my farm boy (or girl) is a cull, failing to reach its supposed max size of 2'+.

It's very relaxed and likes swimming around day or night and checking everything out. Quite active, again in complete opposition to wyckii and wyckioides.

In the 7 years I've had it, I saw it eat a 3" koi once when they were in a 1500 gal pond. Never before nor after has it done it, although it could. In the same pond I saw it chase other fish from its spot (that was ~3 years ago) but the spot was small and the chasing was not vicious and everyone complied anyway. Funny enough, it has not done the chasing ever before or after, again. It ate the koi exactly the same time. I think it had an episode. Maybe a teenage meltdown that came and went.

It has been in a 4500 gal for a year or more now, a model, upstanding citizen, not a scratch on it but never fighting anyone else. The activity you will see here is typical. It also takes rests in the center on the bottom in between these rather energetic swimming laps.

[Viktor Jarikov]

I got two cigar sharks, aka cigar barbs, mad barbs, from Ivan aka Aw3s0m3 on MFK about half a year ago at ~14", having never had them before. Very easy fish and greedy to no end. They have reached about 20" now. I've never seen them resting, always on the go.

Their max size (if they are Leptobarbus rubripinna) is rather impressive 80-100 cm.

Having read this http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/le ... ubripinna/ I tend to think mine are hoevenii based on the description of the differences: L. rubripinna can be distinguished from L. hoevenii by: presence (vs. absence) of a broad, dark midlateral stripe on the body; interorbital area rounded (vs. almost flat) in specimens measuring at least to 160 mm SL; dorsal head profile slightly rounded and symmetric with ventral profile (vs. straight to slightly concave); eye located at mid-depth of head (vs. located closer to dorsal surface); posterior maxillary barbel reaching middle of eye (vs. extending beyond eye); pelvic and anal fins orange to red (vs. dark grey); anal-fin and caudal-fin lobes rounded (vs. pointed).

Also one's jaws are more or less lined up, while the other displays a severe underbite. It's lower jaw looks like 1/4" longer than the upper.

Here is an update video of them:

[Viktor Jarikov]

November 2015 I saw Raymond Chan's stock and price list and was blown away. Among other interesting never-before-seen fish, I saw Catla catla for the first time ever, so I got one at 7"-8" at $90 (along with two Catlacarpio siamensis, same size and price).

I've never seen or heard of anyone keeping them before.

So it's been with me for 13 months. Grew slowly, my eyeball estimate today is 1', which makes for ~4"-5" in roughly a year. It appears to have a strong preference for being a filter feeder. Takes only pellets and any particulate matter in the water column. It has a huge mouth for a fish its size, twice bigger than the usual mouthiest predators, which again is typical for filter feeders having to channel a lot of water in their mouth.

Quirky fish, stands its own far better than say Catlacarpio against fin nippers and other opportunists and a better swimmer with a slimmer more hydrodynamic profile than the Catlacarpio. Catlacarpio are probably as laid back and timid as barbs go, not so with this guy - I've never seen it bother any fish but it is most usually intact.

Here is a video of the fish, who has been residing in 4500 gal from the start:

[Viktor Jarikov]

Wesley Wong graciously transferred his Tor khudree to me in Aug 2015. It was probably 20"-22". It's done well in one of my 4500 gal tanks. Pretty peaceful fish, at least I've not witnessed any aggression from it toward its very motley crew of tank mates. Neither have I seen any predatory behavior although its tank mates appear too big for it to even fathom an attack.

It's my biggest mahseer and a smart eating machine as all mahseers appear to be and an excruciatingly slow grower, again, as all mahseers appear to be. It looks like ~24" right now, both numbers being eyeball, in-tank estimates. It likes baitfish, cut and whole, too in addition of its staple pellets.

[Viktor Jarikov]

I got three mahseers from Ivan aka Aw3s0m3 on MFK the summer of 2016. Two of them Ivan labeled (apparently bought) as Thai golden mahseer but I am not finding any info on them on the net. Golden mahseer is Tor putitora. Thai mahseer is Tor tambroides, according to this nice site anyway: http://www.fly-fishing-in-thailand.com/the-fish.html

I don't know which species mine is. More on my ID woes in here https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/foru ... st-7646332

This one is about 14", could have added about 1"-2" in my care. The other specimen is ~12" and has grown similarly too. Eat a ton, grow little. Typical. Love their pellets and baitfish.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Here is a video of a couple of rescued banded leporinus, which I have had for 1 year and for 1.5 years. I gathered they were a few years old, one was kept in a glistening 30 gal tank on a kitchen counter top and the other in a murky outside 200 gal pond. I got them at about 7"-8" and placed them in 4500 gal and they grew some, perhaps reaching ~10" currently.

They fought at first a little (for a day or two) to figure out who is who but the damage was pretty mild, some scales went flying, and never since have I seen this. They have been the most intact and completely damage-free fish in my very populated 4500 gal, which says a lot - no one touches them or those that want to can't catch them... and in all likelihood they do touch others as evidenced by nipped fins but being sneaky they appear to do so by night when we are not around...

They occur in large shoals in the wild, so it is not surprising that when one keeps a few of them, they enforce an hierarchy more rigorously and don't shoal as much (mine do swim in a relative proximity often though) and most regrettably they become fin nippers in a fashion that appears similar (to my ignorant and learning mind) to the behavior of many tetras and Co - fish lacking the comfort of a school of their kin turn into fin-nipping jerks.

It's my working hypothesis anyway. Feel free to argue pro or con.

Lone leporinus appear to indeed behave as smart jerks with some people, for example, reporting that they nip even the most threatening and aggressive fish like Hemibagrus wyckii and wyckioides in a 100-200 gal tank because the latter can't catch them to retaliate or to eat them. They are lighting fast and their vision is superb and apparently they do not sleep because otherwise they'd not survive. They'd not survive in my tank either if they slept, I reckon, because being so slim they'd fit in a mouth of many of their carnivorous tank mates. Plus I always leave a night light on.

As for their feeding habits, they are very nondiscriminatory, as described in literature. They are also smart and inquisitive albeit they do not care for who their owner and feeder is, IME anyway.

They are the smallest fish (as judged by their "swallowability") in the 4500 gal but the most relaxed and always intact, not a tiniest split in their finnage, that, counter-intuitively, it appears as if they are the bosses of the tank...

[Viktor Jarikov]

Here is a video featuring two of our five giant gouramies. The white one is ~22" and is called Tatushka and the grey one is named Oos, it's ~16". These and three red-tail gouramies ~12" each co-exist peacefully with each other in their 4500 gal. Occasionally their fins get tattered or split but it's likely from other tank mates.

Tatushka had a tough life. First it was tattooed against its will to improve the bottom line of its greedy and inhumane sellers. Then Tatushka got sold to a new owner who raised it in a tiny tank. It couldn't swim much in it and couldn't turn around well or hide when it needed to. So it sat in the corner by a side wall but because it was longer than the side wall, it had to adopt a letter "L" posture. Eventually over time this posture caused a 90 degree rigid turn in its backbone and a strong disfigurement to its snout and skull from the left side of its "face" being constantly pressed against the side wall. So its "face" has adopted a permanent curvature too.

Then Tatushka lucked out and got rescued by a guy who knew how to take care of it and was rehomed into a 240 gal tank. After years of free swimming its backbone straightened out but the "face" has not. The rescuer felt that even 240 gal was not big enough for it, so Tatushka became a second-time rescue and found its way into our tanks, where it's been around 3-4 years now.

Oos has not had it easy either and suffered some at our hands. I bought it at ~2" about 3 years ago. The first two years I've had problems with water in its enclosures, mostly with the hardness being too low (KH and GH 1-3 degrees) and unstable pH. As a result, Oos has developed skin sores several times in that time period and even at one point had to spend half a year outdoors in a natural pond. Finally, the last year it had a chance to reside in adequate water and to grow well.

Both ignore baitfish, cut or whole, entirely and focus on the offered dry feeds picking and choosing what their heart desires at that particular moment. It's almost funny to observe them intelligently checking out various pellets and freeze-dried cuisine like krill and plankton and as if hesitating and thinking "Do I really want this or should I hold out or search for something else? Maybe if I test-taste it… hmm… no, that tastes like refuse! You eat it yourself. I better check out that other stuff…" They like insects, that's for sure.

[Viktor Jarikov]

I bought two giraffe cats Auchenoglanis cf. Bouche last Spring of 2016 from a colleague of ours. They came in at ~6" and thus have added about 10" in 8 months. Their coloration is similar but one is usually much lighter colored than the other. I don't readily detect any other differences. The growth rate and temperament and behavior are about the same.

Needless to say they love their food and are never hungry, although one cannot tell this from their zealous feeding habits.

I am currently growing out 7 Auchenoglanis to try and ID them more firmly when they are larger:

- 2 Bouche
- 1 from Congo (should be wittei); WetSpot
- 1 from beetlebug515 that looks much like the Congo; named Happy
- 1 from Niger (WetSpot)
- 1 from Volta (WetSpot)
- 1 unknown, also from WetSpot, sold as occidentalis but it is not; it looks closest to Volta but we'll see

Anyhow, here are two videos on the Bouche's:

This is the lighter-colored one. Of course, it decided to embarrass me by flicking a couple of times, showing I need to care for them better



This is the darker one:

[Viktor Jarikov]

I got four Rio Meta pbass from Wes in Aug 2015 and a bit later two Xingu pbass. They were about 2"-3" and have grown today to ~16" for the Xingu pair and 10"-16" for the Meta. I am a Cichla newbie and these were pretty much my first Cichla.

I was given another pbass by Joe of Joefish Aquatics, Ft. Myers, FL about half a year ago at ~3". Joe thought it could have been caught in FL but we can't be sure at all. A customer brought it and one 6" temensis to Joe's LFS one day. His name is Nabaldashnik. It has grown very well and reached ~1' currently.

They all learned to take baitfish and pellets after having been fasted several days to a week from the get go.

Here are two videos of them in 4500 gal (the second video is focused only on the unknown pbass):

[Viktor Jarikov]

Here is another video that shows the azuls (that were bought as Xingu, IIRC) better, much closer but not quite a close-up yet. Will keep at it.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Currently we have one male and four female 2.5'-3' Oxydoras niger swimming in one of the 4500 gal, three rescues and two that I raised myself. The two of mine I bought around 3 years ago at ~3". They are 2.5' today.

The first rescue is named Gee and has been with us for 2 years. It had spent 25 years prior to that in a 6'x2'x2' where it reached 34" and could barely turn around. When you see Gee in the video, you will note that its tail and caudal peduncle are disproportionately undersized w.r.t. its body. That's likely from not being able to swim for 25 years. The water test logs of the previous owner also showed that 0.25 ppm ammonia was typical and 0.5 ppm was not rare over the 25 years. This speaks to an amazing resilience of this fish. I was afraid it wouldn't be able to adjust to new water after all this time in rather poor water but, surprisingly again, it's done well in our tank. It was heartbreaking to see how it had to learn to swim again. Nowadays, it hogs food and has grown a huge beer belly as a result as you will see as well

Another rescue is called Spike and came from a 400 gal tank from our colleague Sean in Ft. Myers, FL, who donated all of his fish to us. This was in Spring 2016. Spike was about 2' and quite round / stubby and it has quickly added 6"+ in our 4500 gal tank.

And a third rescue (from about 1.5 years ago) appears to be the only male in this quintet because it has the thinnest build, smallest circumference. I wonder if you can spot it in the video. His name is, unsurprisingly, Maniger. Close to manager... hehe... of course he is not... Gee is... He was about 16" at the time of transfer from his hometown of Orlando FL and today is 2.5'.

Also, I bought three ~3" Pterodoras granulosus from snookn21 back in Aug 2015. Their varied growth surprised me. They are 18", 13", and 10" (eyeball) today. The 18"-er's sides are very wide and it resembles an (american) football.

Needless to say they all are huge vacuum cleaners. They'd rather clean up only pellets but when they realize that pellets are no more and baitfish is being served now they, perhaps begrudgingly, suck in the fish too. They are very gentle giants, never hurt any tank mate or their kin.

[Viktor Jarikov]

I bought 6 vultures from snookn21 in Jun-Jul 2015 at very skinny 4". They are a lot of fun, quirky, inquisitive, active, non-hiding, and apart from a few exceptions have not proven so far their fearsome reputation IME. (See this thread for more on our 6-pack: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/foru ... st-7584959 )


One was exceptionally thin, borderline emaciated and snookn gave it to me for free but they all proved very easy to feed and care for. They have grown to about 14"-20" today, a couple 20", a couple 17", and a couple 14", and have been in one of our 4500 gal for about a year now with a hundred of other tank mates. They like keeping together most of the time, sitting on the bottom and facing the strongest current, then once in a while they'd do their laps and settle down in their spot again. It is not uncommon for one or a few to sit separately and in a different spot with weak current, mostly the biggest ones do that.


When they were young and in a 240 gal, they would go into a wildest, highly entertaining feeding frenzy when the food hit the water, twisting and turning their bodies in an unbelievable Olympic gymnastics fashion, and flying around like Brownian motion rockets and stopping on a dime, trying hard to get each piece and last crumbs as quickly as possible and swallow as quickly as possible, pellets or cut up baitfish. Nowadays, they feed with dignity. Somewhere between 8" and 12" the frenzies stopped, perhaps right around their rehoming into the 4500 gal. So I don't really know unfortunately if they grew out of it or if it was the larger and different tank.


They don't beg and don't seem to care where their food comes from. No keeper interaction have I noted in 4500 gal.


Here is their updated video and some photos / videos from when they were younger:





Here they are early on, ~1 month after arrival, in Aug 2015, ~5", bad video but short





A photo from July 2015, got mass, not much length yet:

[Viktor Jarikov]

In Jun-Jul 2015, I bought a small ~2"-3" false piraiba aka Brachyplatystoma capapretum from Aquarium and Reef Center, Cape Coral, FL, for $90. Overall, my experience with this fish has been poor and difficult. As opposed to true piraiba, this fish is very skittish and prone to darting and swimming around wildly hitting anything and everything in its path, no matter the tank size. It's done it in 240 gal regularly and I even saw it once in 4500 gal.

From reading around and online pictures, it seems this phenomenon is almost invariably characteristic to false piraibas raised in captivity. Even Enrico Richter's specimen had a badly curved snout. I did come across 1-2 possible exceptions - @SirCatfish and @Jonathan_G - both of MFK.

My approaching the tank as well as tank mates seem to trigger this phenomenon, sometimes merely placing food in the tank does the same thing. It often or usually ends with the fish running high speed head-on into a wall and stopping then. It has never broken its snout or jaws badly all at once but rather its snout suffered enough blows that gradually it curved down and reached a pretty significant degree now as you will see from the video.

Despite the craziness, the fish fed ok for me, preferring baitfish, cut and whole, just not growing nearly as much as other keepers report. Mine added on ~7" in 1.5 years, while others say theirs reached 1.5'-2' in about the same time frame.

It has now been in 4500 gal for a couple of months and had done well until maybe a week ago. Somebody has been biting its tail too much and it stopped eating. I plan to give it 1-2 weeks and if things don't improve, will have to pull it out back into one of the 240 gal. Gambling, I know. But it's rather miserable in a 240 gal I have seen from experience and I have no other tanks between 240 and 4500 gal.



My guy at ~4"-5", still intact.

Mike @SirCatfish fish, seems rather intact:

Enrico's fish with a bent snout:

[Viktor Jarikov]

Sun catfish have been a staple of the catfish stock of almost every LFS for a long time, a decade for sure. Their reported wild max size is 18" SL or I guess ~21" TL. The biggest I've come across in captivity however is ~15" TL, which is still pretty remarkable. Of my octet, some are 8 years old, could be even a decade, but none broke even 1' yet TL. Rather, they have been the same size for the last 3-4 years. Most of them are FL rescues except a couple that survived their trip from NY to FL back in 2011.

(EDIT: Having looked at them closer and longer, I think several biggest ones are more like 12"-13" now.)

I have kept them in a 1500 gal pond, 240 gal tank, and then they went into a 4500 gal about 1.5 years ago. They were rather miserable in the tank. Very skittish despite having plenty of calm tank mates. Fed poorly. Maybe they got spoiled having lived the prior 3 years in a 1500 gal pond. It had taken them a long time, perhaps 6 months in the 240 gal to lose most of their beer bellies they acquired in the pond. Then they became very relaxed and very fat again in the 4500 gal. I can't control their food uptake in the 4500 gal and they take full advantage of it.

Once in a while they may have a dispute or a few to establish or enforce their hierarchy. It can get vicious and fins would be missing chunks and the body slamming with pectoral fin stubbing and scraping may get intense but this is usually followed by relative calm for many months or even years.

They swim a lot in the large tank, actually like 75% of the time. Perhaps it helps that the 4500 gal is bare but they are very relaxed and often swim at varying depths in the 4.5' water column. In the morning, it is not usual to find them swimming not far from the top or mid water, usually it is a very laxed swim, with slight tail motion.

They take pellets and fish and anything in between, even when I think they can't possibly eat anything more. The interaction with the tankmates is rather peaceful. At least I can't recall them being aggressive to any other fish except rarely between themselves. Fin-nipping tank mates, yet, have been tasting their fins, usually soon after introduction, which largely or almost completely subsided soon thereafter.



in 240 gal tank

[bekateen]

These are Bigggggg fish! Wow! and their growth has been amazing.

Cheers, Eric

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thank you, Eric.

Wes sent me his one-eyed Tor malabaricus or Tor khudree malabaricus in Aug 2015 at about 15". It is not as aggressive a feeder as other mahseer I got, especially when it comes to fish, cut or whole. It grew some, perhaps currently to ~18", 1.5 years later. No one appears to bother it, nether does it bother its tank mates:

[Viktor Jarikov]

Five years ago I got 4 Sailfin Marbled Pims, aka Leiarius pictus, at ~8" from snookn21. They did well in a 120 gal and then went into a 1500 in-ground concrete pond for 2-3 years. One was lost early on, I only presume to a predatory attack because I've never found it. Quite possibly it was one of my jau catfish.

Two years ago the trio went into one of the 4500 gal, where I could finally observe them conveniently and consistently.

They hit about 2' in about one year and then screeched to an almost complete stop, perhaps gaining 1"-2" every following year.

Just like their cousins Marbled Pims, they are utterly non-predatory. They have been housed with fish they could swallow and barely notice, like 3" koi, for 4-5 years and have never done it. They prefer pellets strongly to frozen-thawed marine baitfish I feed the tank. They appear to take the baitfish only after a fast and when given no other option.

Their interaction is confined to themselves, they don't seem to interact much with other tank mates, of which there is a hundred of very diverse fish. During the first half a year, the biggest one (by maybe an inch or two) was dominating. Then in the summer time, unexpectedly the smallest one took over its spot and held on to it for a long time. Nowadays, I don't know anymore. They are getting hard to tell apart too, which is not helping.

When the dominance is challenged, their fighting can get a bit rigorous with body slamming and pushing, poking, and scratching each other with their pectoral spines, which leaves deep white (no red) grooves. This I have seen 2-3 times in 2 years. Their dorsal fins often get tattered too but the tails and other fins are usually intact. The enforcement is manifested in the chasing around the tank and an occasional getting a hold of a dorsal fin.

Meanwhile, here is a video featuring two of my pictus (the third one decided to keep its mugshot off the world wide web):



Here are some photos of the current trio:

[Viktor Jarikov]

Current ones when young:

Here is a smaller one, 1.5', from my prior life in Rochester, NY. Got this one from George Fear personally (Shark Aquarium) back in 2010.

Here is my first ever one, the bigger one from Rochester, NY, 2'+ in 4000 gal pond, 40'x6'x2.5'. Got it from Pets Plus in Lockport, NY in 2009. Lost both of these on my move to FL.

[Viktor Jarikov]

More of the first-ever one:

[Viktor Jarikov]

We currently have three remaining aluminum catfish, aka African big-eyed or Chrysichthys catfish. Two C. ornatus and one supposed C. nigrodigitatus (these are drab and hard to ID to the species level). They are about 8-10 years old and are about a foot long, despite the nigrodigitatus attaining 2'-2.5' in the wild, according to the literature https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/sp ... ies_id=519 . Ornatus do not exceed 1' https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/sp ... ies_id=520 .

I bought three ornatus from George Fear of Shark Aquarium in 2010 already at about 6". They grew to ~10"-11" in a couple of years and stayed at that size. One passed about 3-4 years ago. Stopped eating and wasted away. Two others have done better but one started wasting away too about a year ago. It developed some upward curvature in its spine. I am unsure of what this means. It still feeds but less and keeps losing weight, got pretty thin. The third one is blind in one eye (got poked in the eye when it was 6") but retains a robust body. For some reason or other, I've always had problems with their maxillary barbel tips perpetually rotting no matter what viewtopic.php?f=4&t=31955&hilit=ornatus+barbel .

We had two rescue nigrodigitatus at 1' (got them too at around 6"), of which one fell victim to my jau's displeasure about 3-4 years ago while the other is still alive and relatively well today. The surviving rescue was mangled pretty bad when I got him. Having been housed with bad cichlids, it came missing all fins (just knobs) and with a mangled up snout / mouth.

These catfish are easy to feed and are very peaceful IME. I've always wondered why ornatus have such an enormous mouth fit to wrap around say a 1' koi but never use it, not even on 3" koi and other easy snacks. They prefer pellets to marine baitfish.

They are the most modest fish in behavior, always keeping to themselves, rarely swimming around and even then just a tiny bit from spot to spot, usually just laying here and there. They just lay like logs day and night. They have zero interaction with tank mates and with a keeper / feeder. In fact, if I was not much into catfish, I'd say these fish (especially the ornatus) are the most boring catfish I've ever owned (out of non-hiders, which they are). Does your experience agree or not?

Here is the trio in 4500 gal:




And some assorted photos through the years:

[Viktor Jarikov]

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[Viktor Jarikov]

Wesley Wong graciously transferred 4 of his mahseer to me in Aug 2015 - khudree, malabaricus (which may be another khudree), soro, and progenious. Tor progenious was probably ~18"-20" back then. It's done well in one of my 4500 gal tanks and reached roughly 22"-24". Pretty peaceful fish, at least I've not witnessed any aggression from it toward its very motley crew of tank mates.

To my eye, it is the prettiest mahseer in my humble collection (I too have a stracheyi and two unknown ones labeled enigmatically as Golden Thai mahseer). Not for the color, which looks platinum, but for the body structure.

Surprisingly, it prefers to keep away from the front window in sharp contrast to the other mahseer. So for now all I have is this "What's in the video?" kind of a vid (in a vague analogy to the popular "What's in the bag?" game). When / if I get a better video, I'll certainly post it here.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Here is a video featuring six 4-line Pim catfish that we currently house in 4500 gal. They are 8"-10" (eyeball estimates). These are all Pimelodus blochii or of the blochii type, which, AFAIK, is characterized by a large black spot at the base of their dorsal fin.

Four of them look more or less like the usual blochii and are rescues. Another I bought for $30 about 4 years ago from Aquabid that claimed it was P. maculatus, which of course it wasn't as it still had that black spot of the blochii group that maculatus doesn't have. Still, it's body spotting pattern is different, crisp (it was different when I was buying it too at 3" with large black spots) and you will see in the video that it differs from the rest of the blochii, albeit other than the coloration, it looks identical. With years its spots became smaller w.r.t. to the body size, crisper, and 100x more numerous.

The last one is a survivor of a group of 3 that I got 6 years ago that I thought were Pimelodus tetramerus because of their more pronounced 4 lines on each side (true today and back then too at 2"). Consistent with this tentative ID is the fish's size too as it is clearly the smallest of the group at about 8" and has not grown any in a couple of years. The other two fell victim I suppose to one of my jau catfish a long time ago in a 500 gal pond.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Out of my large syno collection (which can be seen here viewtopic.php?f=2&t=30939&hilit=120+gal ) I only got four left and there is only one of them from Rochester NY collection still, the large hybrid named Krol now nearly devoid of the spots because of age.

So the synos are - large hybrid Krol at ~12", smaller hybrid ~8", larger eupterus - a rescue from 2011, ~10", and smaller eupterus - a rescue from 2014, ~8". They have been in 4500 gal for a couple of years now.

I believe the larger hybrid and the smaller hybrid are the same kind of hybrid and their looks differ only due to age - this is the question I posed in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=42768&hilit=syno+hybrid

Anyhow, here is a video of them in 4500 gal: