Whale Catfish.....

Courtney · Post by **Courtney** » 07 Mar 2005, 20:36

I read on here that they get up to 10" long, ok I bought one and was told it got 5" long, well it lives in my moms 55 gallon at the moment, i never see it but its new so, also i was wondering, what do they eat? i only paid $9.98 for it and thought it was adorable, Is it normal for it to hide all the time?
Any information would be appriciated thanks..

EDIT: Its a Cetopsis Coecutiens if that helps

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 08 Mar 2005, 14:06

It does hide during the day and at night it comes out and will eat and /or bite anything that comes on its path.
Beware of the other fish in the tank; its simply no community fish. I'm afraid you didn't get the proper information in your LFS, otherwise you would have certainly not bought it.....

Courtney · Post by **Courtney** » 08 Mar 2005, 19:59

So in other words, what ever it can catch it will eat, what about the bigger fish, will it hurt them? and snails?

pictus_man_77 · Post by **pictus_man_77** » 08 Mar 2005, 20:44

once it gets older, it will be hard to find a fish big enough for it not to eat them

pturley · Post by **pturley** » 08 Mar 2005, 20:50

pictus wrote:

once it gets older, it will be hard to find a fish big enough for it not to eat them

No, actually these fish are quite capable of chewing holes in the sides of fish that are bigger than they are.

I once read a post (perhaps here? does anyone remember this one?) about a 3" Cetopsid that bit a chunk out of the side of a Oscar much larger than itself.

eclipsecatfish · Post by **eclipsecatfish** » 09 Mar 2005, 03:34

It will come out at night and hide during the day because catfish are nocturnal (dont like light) they hunt at night. what do you feed it? how big ? I dont think it will try to eat bigger fish because it will probably think it will get beat up.

Courtney · Post by **Courtney** » 09 Mar 2005, 03:35

Oh crap.... thats not a good thing...

eclipsecatfish · Post by **eclipsecatfish** » 09 Mar 2005, 03:39

never mined that it will get beat up they can reach a length of 1 foot 6 inches so dont put no small fish in with it. ok

Courtney · Post by **Courtney** » 09 Mar 2005, 03:40

On here i read it can only get up to 10", and it lives with a Rope fish, 2 jelly bean parrots, a dojo, snails, a rapheal cat, and some guppies... all in a 55 Gallon tank...

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 09 Mar 2005, 17:31

Hi Courtney,
I firmly disagree with what Eclipsecatfish is saying.Apparently he is unaware of significant facts.
Again, Cetopsis will eat smaller and bite larger fish. This one is a parasite. In the wild he lives of large pimelodids, which he bites himself into. There are pics in the Burgess Catfish atlas of this behaviour. In a tank he'll take whatever he can lay his mouth on. Do yourself a favour and return it to the shop.

pturley · Post by **pturley** » 09 Mar 2005, 19:20

Marc, you have a P/M.

Courtney · Post by **Courtney** » 09 Mar 2005, 19:32

I would take him back, but i cant find it, since i got it, its been hideing and even when i pick up Ralph's cave ( rapheal cat) i cant fine the whale catfish...i hope he hasnt hurt ralph....

In the pictures on the site here, i dont see any teeth in his mouth so how would he eat through them?

pturley · Post by **pturley** » 09 Mar 2005, 22:54

They have an array of sharp spoon shaped teeth specifically for tearing holes in flesh.

These animals are amazing in their level of specialization to prey on larger fishes and carrion.
Extra developed olfactory senses (detects prey by smell)
The small vestigial eyes are less likely to get damaged as it burrows into a carcass.
The slimy skin helps it enter.

They are the freshwater equivalent of the marine Hagfish.

Very cool! But not for the community aquarium. They need more specialized care than that.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 09 Mar 2005, 23:25

Courtney wrote:I would take him back, but i cant find it

Turn everything upside down and get the fish out. It's better that you make a mess of your tank yourself, before Cetopsis starts doing so. Try catching it with little light and/or lure it with food to discover where it hangs out.
Good luck.

Courtney · Post by **Courtney** » 10 Mar 2005, 06:42

I did turn the cave upside down today and the only thing in there was Ralph our Rapheal cat...and i looked in the weeds and still didnt find him, disturbed the rope fish a bit...and the betta's but no Whale Catfish...

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 10 Mar 2005, 10:48

I'm afraid turning the cave upside down is not enough. These fish know how to hide themselves. You should actually turn the tank upside down (not literally) to find this one.
You'll have to disturb your other fish, yes, but it's better you do it once than the Cetopsis does it time after time. That will stress the others much more and will eventually cause victims, and I believe you are willing to avoid that.

Courtney · Post by **Courtney** » 10 Mar 2005, 23:38

I emailed someone last night that owns one or a couple and he said that they get 1.5 to 2' long...so that other person you said wasnt right, Was correct...

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 11 Mar 2005, 10:49

Most of the information in the cat-elog is submitted by hobbyists like ourselves, and therefore not always 100% accurate. while most of the information is very accurate, it is only as good as it's source. if it's from a peer reviewed journal, then it's likely to be more accurate. the max size of C.coecutiens looks like it came from fishbase, which is a large database of fish used by scientists. this means that it probably has a good basis in science.

if you can verify this 60cm fish is definately C.coecutiens, and can prove it with photos, then please post them. many people who use this site are very interested in this kind of information, and the discovery of a fish double the size of what was previously regarded at maximum, will go a long way into understanding this species.

however, if it is just this persons opinion that they reach this size, then it is just that, opinion. the understanding of these fish relies on science, and without proof, the only information we can rely on, is that which we possess.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 11 Mar 2005, 11:09

Further to what racoll said, I'd like to point out that it doesn't really make a whole lot of difference to your situation if the fish grows to one or two feet, it's still going to be well over the size that comfortably fits in your tank, because the max size fish you should keep in any tank is about half the length of the shortest side, which makes the max size for a 55g tank about 6-7".

Add to that the fac that the fish's eating habits is hardly a "community" friendly eating habit (it eats the flesh of other (living) fish, or swallows small fish live).

So you have two choices: Get rid of the fish whilst you still have some others, or get a bigger tank to keep it in as a species tank. Of course, you could get rid of the other fishes, and wait a while until it's getting to 6" before you get a bigger tank, but eventually you'll have to get a sufficiently big tank, which will be about 150g in size, or more if you get it to grow beyond 1 foot.

--
Mats

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 11 Mar 2005, 13:13

Courtney wrote::shock: I emailed someone last night that owns one or a couple and he said that they get 1.5 to 2' long...so that other person you said wasnt right, Was correct...

I don't understand what you are getting at. I don't recall giving measures of this species, did I? But to enlarge your shock: they can grow up to 5 feet (source Mergus 4).
Luckily I didn't have them that large. Yet, believe it or not, I've had them for a while and even with only catfishes as companions they are NOT suitable community fish because of their behaviour.
This is my last post on this topic. I really don't understand what you are up to.

Courtney · Post by **Courtney** » 11 Mar 2005, 22:12

All i am trying to do is completely understand what i have in the tank, which we cant find it at all....

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 12 Mar 2005, 08:54

Marc, I really wouldn't trust the Mergus on this one; 5 feet.....

since pt 3 or so, they're getting increasingly sloppy with pics, data, speciesnames and all; the introduction of literally dozens of Hybrid Syno's from Moscow and Tzech labelled as new species (!!) doesn't give me any thrust in them at all....

YouTube · Post by **Jools** » 12 Mar 2005, 09:01

On the adult size of this fish, 5 foot is simply wrong? If the fish is a parasite, then what on earth does a 5 foot parasite feed on?!? OK, it may change to an out and out predator, but with that mouth shape - I don't think so. It's a common fish in the wild, we'd have pics of bigger ones from fish markets no?

I spent a night watching guys fish this species out of the amazon main channel, never caught one bigger than the size of my foot. So, 12" is about max. and I'm comfortable with that.

Jools

Whiskers:) · Post by **Whiskers:)** » 20 Mar 2005, 10:02

Family:Cetopsidea ,12 medium size species 4 genera ,rarely imported,highly predacious and some in this family and the Hemicetopis species ,compareable to some piranah types. A parasitic catfish praying on larger fish, and even warm blooded animals attacked .ie attacking and borrowing inside larger fish,thats why mouth is rounded with rounded sharp teeth for digging and logging inside .Frm Brasil,Peru.15 cm length,ph7,22-28c Not a comunity fish and not active

Elspeth · Post by **Elspeth** » 20 Mar 2005, 16:46

Courtney, have you found where it's hiding yet?

fishysmell · Post by **fishysmell** » 03 Apr 2005, 09:44

lol

just be glad its that kind of a parasitic fish.....
i`d hate for someone to get the one parasitic catfish from the amazon whos attrated to urine, and
well flush him......

SorubimLima · Post by **SorubimLima** » 10 Feb 2006, 00:38

Courtney, you said you had snail, a ropefish, and guppies, among other things. A ropefish in a 55 is pushing it sizewise, and once he hits about 4-5 inches, the guppies and snails are doomed, because the rope is nocturnal and quite predatory. They guppie's colors probably condemn them more. And from what other people are saying about the whale cat, it looks like it is pushing it on size too. Hope everything turns out all right, SorubimLima

Whale Catfish.....

Whale Catfish.....

whale catfish/Cetopis coecutiens