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Seems like I remember reading a research paper about the plecos in the San Antonio River, Texas, not so long ago.

I'm pretty sure said paper only reported their presence and didn't look at their ecological impacts.

Suckermouth wrote:I'm pretty sure said paper only reported their presence and didn't look at their ecological impacts.

Hi Milton,
That is about all I remember, too. Population density and size distribution was about all that was covered.

Something has to give though if any invasive species is introduced.
Spawns from Darters could be eaten and the food pyramid supported by algae eaten by the plecos should have some effect on the population distributions and numbers of native species over time but would be difficult to compare after the cat's out of the bag, so to speak.

Ha! Nice use of the figure of speech!

Hey Victor,
I'm glad you liked that one.
We should take an occasional from our usually serious tone.
This is after all, our hobby.

Don't know if it's an alternative to a Clarias or even a possible option but might be interesting to check out.
It seems to grow to about 50 cm and that would certainly outrule it for any other tanks but huge ones.
I bought one sometime in the 90's and had it for about 10 years before it died (of reasons I can't remember).
It was around 12 cm and during those 10 years it didn't grow at all. The first years it was housed in a 200 l tank and later on in a 500 l.

Since it was so small I thought it was a Heteropneustes microps. That species was still valid by then and it was said to stay smaller than fossilis. Furthermore it had the joined anal and caudal fins which where also said to differ them from fossilis.

If there actually are smaller Heteropneustes species or subspecies out there they might be an alternative.
But on the other hand they're probably be very rare in the trade and furthermore (if found) very difficult to know if they will grow to 20 cm or 50 cm.

So now I realize that my reply to the original topic is more a question about Heteropneustes than a real tip about walking catfish alternatives

Hey Back! Nice to have you back! Thought we lost you for quite a while but maybe I was just missing your other posts.

Viktor Jarikov wrote:Hey Back! Nice to have you back! Thought we lost you for quite a while but maybe I was just missing your other posts.

Thanks!
Nope, no posts for quite a while. Haven't had anything to say
...or in reality there has been a lot of other things occupying my mind. Like work.

Not that I've written much earlier either.