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I had a couple of salmon catfish with two turtles in my tank for 6 months and everything was fine. The salmon catfish were bigger than the turtles due to their fast growth rates compared to the turtles, they all started off as babies together. Then one day I come home to find the turtle riding the catfish like a horse. He had hold of the dorsal fin and was being carried around the tank by the catfish. It may sound funny but it was not good to watch, the catfish was obviously quite distressed. This continued for a week and no matter what I did, the turtles would both grab hold of the dorsal fin and not let go. Eventually the catfish died, mainly from stress. Now I have the other catfish in the tank with the turtles but so far they have left it alone. I did notice that the catfish they killed had stopped eating long before this occurred, so maybe the turtles could sense that it was not well and this is why they picked on it.

Thats sucks, dude. sorry about your loss Those are some aggresive turtles.

Gumby,
Could you provide a Latin name for those catfish? I checked the common names section in the Cat-eLog, but couldn't find Salmon catfish....
Thanks.

It's a North Australian arius species, but its' scientific name eludes me now; probably one of these two:

Arius berneyi
or
Arius graeffei

or maybe the true Salmon Cat is still missing in the catelog.

I remember pictures of a very similar cat, steelblue with a high dark triangular dorsal from oz and pretty often kept there as well.

would be the one according to fishbase, although the US also uses this name for and .

There's also "Lesser" and "Giant" Salmon Catfish. The lesser can be A. graeffei, or . Giant is .

Finally, there's small-mouthed salmon catfish: .

[I haven't checked that my Cat-eLog links actually work].

--
Mats

Hi Guys, sorry for the lack of a response but haven't checked the forum for a while. My catfish is the Lesser Salmon Catfish or Arius berneyi in the link. They are quite common in Australian stores and not very expensive, about $10 U.S. By the way the catfish I have left is going fine and the turtles have left it completely alone. I'm now convinced that it was sick, hence why it wasn't eating and why the turtles killed it.

Gumby wrote: I'm now convinced that it was sick, hence why it wasn't eating and why the turtles killed it.

If you consider the fact that a predator will rarely kill a healthy victim plus the fact that your other specimen is doing fine, I think you've drawn the correct conclusion.

I used to have a problem with a red ear slider wanting to eat usually only my more expensive fish I'd try to throw in there... I can remember him having several at least 20 dollar dinners rather upset me so I gave him to my girlfriends mother for her school classroom!

My 15 year old Red Eared Slider has been living with tiger barbs and a rainbow shark for a year..he ignores them, but its hard to feed them as he is always chasing me for attention. Older RES are more peaceful than young specimens...they turn to vegetables when they become older, although mine never wants to try them.