bekateen wrote: 30 Dec 2021, 14:54
Narelle, speaking of confusion, there is also this reference in one of the articles here on Planetcatfish, a COTM article on this species:
Despite the fact it is hard to find a catfish book that doesn't feature this species, surprisingly little hard fact beyond basic husbandry exists. Experiments in spawning are perhaps hampered by the fishes territorial or carnivorous nature, but it is often the case that hardy species are easy to spawn once the secrets are unlocked. The recent spate of imports of this fish allow another generation of catfish keepers to try their hand at this, surely rewarding, accomplishment.
I suspect it is based either on the Baensch text, or is it farmed somwhere? Maybe with fish hormones? No matter.
As for my plans, yes they always include an eye for spawning, but that won't happen with just one, and I'm not going to spend too much of my lifetime searching for more of I don't find them in the next few weeks (about the time I'll keep this one in QT). If Petco got this as a one-off, I'll move it on to someone else.
Besides, I still "have bigger fish to fry" (not literally, on any level
): I'm working on reorganizing my Microglanis tanks to make breeding them succeed. A hobbyist on the east coast has been having a lot of luck with her Microglanis aff. iheringi. Her fry are the cutest little buggers!
Additionally, I'm growing out a half-dozen Peruvian
(maybe cf. raninus), with hopes of spawning them one day.
Cheers, Eric
I've read in the past that they are farmed in ponds. I don't recall if it involves hormones - it's been awhile since I read about it. I do know there weren't many details, and that it sounded like it was a situation where they just dumped some fish in the ponds and let them be, and then came back and there were more. Not very intentional?
They aren't as common in the trade as they used to be from what I can tell, but I still see
P. siamensis in shops pretty frequently. When I had sourced more for my attempt in that thread, they were ordered by my LFS through Segrest. (Looks like they're in the Segrest catalog as "
Leiocassis siamensis." If suppliers are still using the old name, you might have better luck if you ask for them that way.) I think there's just not as much demand for them with
Microglanis as a smaller, friendlier option. Shouldn't be too hard to get more though.
Biggest issue I've noticed is that some shops will just order "bumblebee catfish" and it's hit or miss from shipment to shipment if the suppliers send
Microglanis or
Pseudomystus, even if they've consistently sent one genus in the past.
Maybe less so now though, I haven't been in the market for
P. siamensis for a few years. Spawning plans were put on hold when I decided to pursue school.
The South American bee exploits are still fun to watch, I've been reading along with some of your
Microglanis posts. I'm always partial to Bagrids, but Pseudopimelodids are good fishes too. I've always thought I'd get some
Microglanis and
Batrochoglanis one day, once I'm content with the number of Bagrids in my collection.
bekateen wrote: 30 Dec 2021, 15:02
P.s., Narelle, I hope that grad school is progressing well for you. Or has the pandemic interrupted your plans?
Cheers, Eric
It's going well! I'm working on two little publications to get my feet wet, both on Asian catfishes.
