I bought a catfish(?) tonight that was sold as a "marble catfish." It was 5.99, so it's probably not a rare species or anything, but I've worked at PetsMart before and I'd never seen this fish before. It's about 6 inches from nose to tail. It's scale-less, I think. It's a gray color with mottled black spots--marble in color. It has relatively small eyes. It has two fins on its back, one on its stomach, one near the vent, an average-size tail, and two average-size pectoral fins. Its mouth is in the front of its face, not at the bottom, it's not a sucker or vacuum-type fish.
It is definitely not a pleco-type catfish, and it is definitely not related to corydoras-types. It is not a pnagasius. It is not a pictus catfish or a similar species. It does have whiskers but they are rather short--I can count 8: 2 small ones on the top of the nose, two slightly longer 'feeler'-type on the top lip, and 4 small ones on the chin.
It is very active, though not hyperactive. It is very curious and is investigating the tank and swimming at all levels, though mostly near the bottom. In the tank at the store, there were about 15 of them, and some were racing around like pictus catfish, but some were just kind of hovering. My little guy, though, is swimming around quite a bit.
Maybe he's not even a catfish! Who knows? One of you probably does. Help!
Here is an MS Paint approximation of his general appearance...he doesn't actually look this happy, but in my mind he's happy. :P
