Cetopsidae spp./whale catfishes

[Mika]

New Wels Atlas 1 gives some great information about these fascinating fishes. What are hobbyists personal exreriences with these "whales"? Cetopsis spp. needs species aquarium , but pseudocetopsis spp. are possible to keep with other fish- am i right?. Nobody imports them here in Finland. I planned to import them from Germany by myself. Some say that these are very hyperactive and others that they are very inactive never seem to move. Cetopsis coecutiens is my favourite. Tank of size 500l with very powerful filtration and powerhead should be enough? If i have four could there be some trouble?

[Silurus]

I have a small group of brown <i>Pseudocetopsis</i> (or <i>Hemicetopsis</i>...I'm not too sure), and they are fascinating catfishes, but very, very shy and never come out from their hiding place under the PVC pipes (they seem to like hiding under the pipes instead of in them), even during feeding time.
Otherwise, they are greedy feeders and will take both prepared and frozen food with gusto.

[Dave Rinaldo]

My <I>C. coecutiens</I> seemed to always be on the move, back and forth mid level in the front of the tank. With that in mind, you must also close the lid after feeding.

[Deagan]

WoW! Finally a place where someone knows a little about these fish. I've got a cocutiens and am experimenting with him weekly. He's tottally hyperactive, when feeding or hunting. Otherwise he swims vertically in his corner most of the day. What a wild fun fish. In case anyone here is interested, i'm keeping a running log of all conditions and behaviours for later posting as this species is not widely kept. Cheers!

[Dinyar]

Kept two Pseudocetopsids for a while. Pix will be up on the Catalog as soon a Jools gets through his backalog. Mine were also very reclusive. Didn't seem to bother the other fish, though. Overall, definitely a cool fish.

Dinyar

[Sid Guppy]

Cousin and me had a Cetopsis (some fairly big golden one; about 5" when bought, but *" when we got rid of it) we both kept; but had to get rid of it....very nasty cat!
I've never seen the small pseudocetopsis, and I dO have the Wels-atlas; these seem OK; but the true Cetopsis are indeed into finpicking, biting, rasping and harassing other fish. How they do it, boggles me because they have a seemingly small toothless mouth; but in short order all the other fish feared this one. It was one of the few cats that makes me wary; very fast and aggressive and a reputation for a nasty bite. Not good on the nerve when rooting around a tank with loads of plants and bogwood and a villaineous cat hiding....

[Loricariidae Wholesales]

We have Cetopsis coecutans in stock at the moment but unfortunately we are in the UK. I have kept these fish at home in a comunity setting and they do not appear to cause a problem with each other or to other species. My specimens that were kept in 'community' surroundings were only small, about 3" to 4". When they grow up they may well be very unpleasant to other fish although not to each other. I have caught them in Peru in excess of 12" and they can fit things of unbelievable proportions into their mouths and stomachs so other fish similar sizes to themselves would not be a problem if they wanted to dine on others. All the fish I caught were with other dead fish not live ones.

[Britt]

I would not suggest putting anything with your coecutiens. They are not visible, but this guy has an entire row of teeth. This is sad, it started out that I saw this guy one day at a petstore and I asked the owner to please give me more info about him and he told me he was called a 'Blue Shark,' and harmless, and 'can be put with anyone.' I took him home and put him with some medium sized angelfish. Well, I went to a petstore in Baltimore, and saw him in a tank marked 'Blue Shark Catfish,' and the sticker said he was aggressive. We called them later and asked for info, they said he will get 18", and he eats his victims inside out!
So, now, he (4.5") is in a thiry gallon all by himself. There is no light on him so he is always active. This fish should only be bought by someone who knows what to expect! In my case, I didn't know!:lol: This fish should not even be put with fish 4 times his size, because he does not get intimidated.

Britt

[S. Allen]

heh, i wouldn't necessarily go by what one pet store says, he may very well be right, but... they don't always know much.

[Britt]

Yeah, I know. I have known him for several years. I believe he got suckered and would not intentionally lie to me. Many pet store owners are too lazy or too trusting when it comes to what they're told, and pass on to their customers.

Britt

[S. Allen]

well, I'm not saying he's wrong, I've never kept a whale cat of any species, although I may try one out at some point. I just wanted to say it's not always the best idea to believe what they say, as they can be just as wrong as someone at petsmart...

[Dave Rinaldo]

MyC. coecutiens never bothered other fish. My impression is they take advantage of large wounded fish taking the opportunity to borrow into the wound. In An Atlas of Freshwater and Marine Catfishes there is a paragraph on pg. 290 and a pic, Plate 154, pg.636.

[Silurus]

Baskin et al. (1980) [Baskin, JN, TM Zaret & F Mago-Leccia, 1980. Feeding of reportedly parasitic catfishes (Trichomycteridae and Cetopsidae) in the Rio Portuguesa basin, Venezuela. Biotropica 12: 182-186] do not report cetopsids as being parasitic.

[S. Allen]

dave, that's what I was thinking... belive they mentioned something about already hooked or gaffed fish, and of course the picture's worth a thousand words.

of course, to quote... "One species of Cetopsis was even captured as it attempted to rasp the skin off the leg of one of the collectors" Burgess' atlas of marine and freshwater catfish.

so, there seems to be a potential for nastiness at least, but all of you who have kept them say they're mild except SG... maybe a different species?