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Does anyone have any experience in keeping the pufferfish Colomesus asellus, preferable in combination with catfishes?
Comments welcome.

No-one? Does anyone have experiences with other fresh water puffers combined with (mainly nocturnal) catfishes?

Ask forum member "dorad" - he wrote a book on the subject.

Jools

Thanks, I'll ask him via PM.

I keep my Colomesus with Tatia, Brochis, Corydoras, Ancistrus and Mochokiella with no problems.

Floody,
Is it any good at getting rid of snails (specifically Malaysian digger snails)?
The puffer itself is of course a nice asset, but it has to "work" for a living.

Try this:

http://www.pufferfish.co.uk

Thanks Chris,
I had a very quick look. It's added to my favourites, along with the other UK page: thetropicaltank.co.uk.
I'll dive into it shortly

the information in there -and I had to look for it, cause that site isn't well designed- is very very spare, Marc.

on Colomesus it only says this:

One of the more peaceful pufferfish this fish originates from South America.

Often the colours are not as bold as shown in the photo and they can be more subtle with the puffer having more of a uniform colour. Stripes may show faintly giving this puffer the common name of Zebra Puffer.

This puffer is similar in appearance to the Chonerhinos naritus, particularly in the facial area. This may lead to some confusion when purchasing.


Living Conditions Freshwater and light brackish.

Temperature 26C
pH 7.2
Hardness 10dH

Average Size in Wild 15cm
Temperament Peaceful.

looks like it's just copied straight out of any book, it's just a tiny bit of general info.

I can say for sure you already have many books with much more specific info (like in the Mergus Atlas, can't remember wich 1 right now)

but maybe this helps; a complete Puffer forum!
as with all forums, there's likely a large population of noobs but also a fair number of very experienced keepers or even breeders, check it out;
http://www.pufferresources.net/forum/

edit: just found a profile on the Colomesus HERE

never kept it myself, so haven't got a clue if it will behave in your tank or that you would need to become a fish dentist with all those trumpetsnails running amok.
GL with em.

Sid

Thanks for the link. I'll search for them shortly at Zajac, Blecha and some LFS in Köln. Have to go to Zajac anyway, because I'm out of flakes. Ten liters in 14 months, so I think I'll go for two buckets.

wow that's even more than I use and I got some big fishes these days.

those Auchenipterids are eating your wallet dry I guess.


Hey, Marc, you might want to take another approach if the Colomesus scenario doesn't work.

first a question: do you still have sandsifting cats in the tank where the trumpetsnails are a plague? Corydoras or something?

I know that Auchenipterids don't sieve tiny foodparticlkes out of the sand, and they're messy eaters. I think the Ageneiosus are likely the same.

this results into foodparticles "sinking in" the sand. now if there are some sandsifters (or a big voracious sandsifter) these leftovers are cleaned up wich results in less food in the sand, less trumpetsnails and sometimes even trumpetsnails starving to death.

since you obviously can get lots of rarities from South America, you might think about getting a few Callichthys callichthys.
it's weird, it's rare, you've kept it before and it sure keeps ALL the sand void from any foodparticles.

Unfortunately Malaysian trumpet snails are one of the few that mine are'nt keen on. They will eat young snails but once they are adult they seem too tough to crack

sidguppy wrote:since you obviously can get lots of rarities from South America, you might think about getting a few Callichthys callichthys.

I don't quite understand the first part of the remark.
With regard to Callichthys: Pier had some very nice specimen when we were there. They immediately caught my attention. And so did many, many other fishes....Eventually I chose the flathead driftwoods, but it could have been anything else. I had some first-time-at-Blecha-experiences that day.
Perhaps the oncoming Germany trip will hold a surprise (?).

Floody wrote:Unfortunately Malaysian trumpet snails are one of the few that mine are'nt keen on. They will eat young snails but once they are adult they seem too tough to crack

Okay. Thanks for the information. Much appreciated.

no offense, I just referred to the fact that you have a fair number of increasingly rare South American fishes, including more and more Auchenipterids.

thought you could perhaps get them through a wholesaler or by ordering them from several LFS.

nothing intended whatsoever.

with Callichthys I wasn't referring too much to the snaileating habit, more to the competing with them. it's all a food issue.
I kept mine long ago, but I still remember that tank having very very few snails, including trumpets. they were there, but it wasn't a plague at all. just outcompeted for food cause the Callichthys made sure there were no leftovers in the sand.
and adult Trumpets don't last that long really. once you make a dent in the baby population and starve a fair number of adults the whole trouble gets managable.

eradicating them is a total bugger! it often means cleaning out the tank and then they return with a plant or wood or whatever.
dumping chemicals to kill them will turn the whole sand into toxic waste, cause they can die way deep in the sand in huge numbers (often they come up to die, but don't count on it) and then the tank is nuked, busted. the amount of very toxic wastes and ammonia will cause a huge problem for any fish in there.
no, it's controlling them that'll work.

I've had the same here; I got a few snaileating cichlids and cats in here (Neolamprologus tretocephalus, Grammatotria lemairi and Synodontis polli) but these too only eat the baby trumpets (S polli doesn't, just eats ramshorns). it works though. without a 'next generation' the trumpets die out or get very few.

I've had the very same experience with sandsifting cichlids or Auchenoglanis in my Tang tanks.
a tank with NO sandsifters or snailkillers was often overrun by the buggers, but in a tank where one of the above fishes was present the snails didn't get a nuisance unless I was feeding far too much or with too crappy dusty food.

that's another trick: feeding with less "crumbly" food. but fishes still mess up. sandcleaners/sifters really keep a check on trumpetsnails, even if they don't eat them at all.

I also remember Callichthys being a completely utter total glutton, crazy for food; way more freaked out than a herd of Hoplo's.

since Xenotilapia is obviously not an option (nor is Auchenoglanis as you know yourself; too big), and earth eaters (Geopagus) haven't turned out that well with catfishes, or to each other or with the Exodons....Callichthys seemed to me the obviously sandcleaning solution for a tank without eather eaters etc and weird and rare enough for someone with a taste for uncommon catfishes like you.

Marc van Arc wrote:Ten liters in 14 months, so I think I'll go for two buckets.

That's all? I feed 2 buckets of granulate in 2 months - so I keep going to Zajac

Bas Pels wrote:I feed 2 buckets of granulate in 2 months - so I keep going to Zajac

Oh, is that you?

sidguppy wrote:no offense, I just referred to the fact that you have a fair number of increasingly rare South American fishes, including more and more Auchenipterids. thought you could perhaps get them through a wholesaler or by ordering them from several LFS.

No offense taken.
Yes, the numbers of Auchenipterids are increasing, but they are not brought to my doorstep. I still have to search for them, which is no problem as it is an interesting part of the hobby because it gets you somewhere.
So apart from Zevenaar and Amersfoort you have to go abroad to find fishes that are truly worthwhile - at least in my case.
Thanks for your explanation with regard to Callichthys; I'll think about it. There are however more options these days for I no longer have the Exodons.
They were temporarily replaced by some Leptobarbus hoevenii (15 cms average, 1,95 euro pp), but as these have barbels too they apparently think they are catfishes as well. At the moment I see all kinds of Auchenipteridae pop up in the evening and eventually the Leptos show up. No dither at all.

The whole puffer fish issue is off afaic. I tried Carinotetraodon irrubesco in one of my smaller tanks. This one is supposed to be mildly tempered. Apparently I got some that couldn't read .
Seriously, my bad. They are not to be kept with slow fishes and I completely missed the fact that sleeping Auchenipterids are very slow. When I noticed that several of my Tatias were on the move during the day with nipped tail and dorsal fins, I hastily removed the puffers before they could do any more damage.
Given the fact that the situation in the large tank is the same, I don't think it would be wise to try the same thing overthere as well.
Thanks for all your reactions.

Marc van Arc wrote:The whole puffer fish issue is off afaic.

Uhhhhh... I'll come back to that shortly. Just need some time to find out how things will work out - don't want to make an utter fool of myself.

Oops, Carinotetraodon are a bit more aggressive than colomessus.

I've kept colomesus asellus with Microglanis iherengi, Psuedomystus siamensis and BN's before now. I kept Tatia perugae with carinotetraodon puffers, and they pestered them.

Colomesus asellus is the most placid of the puffers available, but still shouldn't be cobined with fish that can't stand up for themselves, or move quickly.

sidguppy wrote: earth eaters (Geopagus) haven't turned out that well with catfishes, or to each other

I've recently added a pair of Geophagus sp. Bahia red and that seems to work out alright.

a new cichlid in there?

nice one though, just googled it.

hope they match; most true Geophagus are actually shoaling fish wich should be kept in a group of 8 or more and in such a group pairs will form. this is at least a good way to keep the Xingu and Tapajos Red Head Geophagus species.

are they young fish or adult ones?

@ sidguppy, You are completely right, but the Bahia red is in fact an untrue Geophagus: It belongs in the 'G' brasiliensis group which is only referred as Geophagus for lack of a better name.

The fishes in the brasiliensis group are better compared with the former Cichlasoma grout than Geophagus, thus better kept in pairs than in groupes, more agressieve and more resitant.

I myself have a group of 5, another species from this group, consisting of 1 dominant male, 2 clearly submissive ones and 2 females. I can only hope the problems will not be too severe

sidguppy wrote:hope they match

Yes, it's matching pair. They were caught as such by someone who knows his stuff. They are together all the time and are digging pits into the sand. I'll take some pix shortly, but right now I'm having one of the busiest weeks at school. Just one more day and then a full week off!
(@ Bas too) I initially went for G. pellegrini, but they were still too small. I was specifically advised to buy no more than a pair of Bahia reds; perhaps I was lucky that a pair had already seperated itself from the other specimen in that tank. They are adolescents so to speak: male about 10 cms and female about 7 cms.
Although they may not be "true" Geophagus, I think they are pretty close to the real stuff. Their form is good and so are their colours. So far they leave the catfishes alone and - very important - the other way round.
Still these are not the main assets in my tank, but as said before: I'll come back to that.

It's only an hour by car, we could discuss true and false Geophagus, but also Uruguayan catfish.

Although they may not be "true" Geophagus, I think they are pretty close to the real stuff

off course they are real - but not Geoophagus. Genetically, they are certainly Geophaginae (or, if you don't consider this group as a subfamily, within the tribus around geophagus). However, as discribed, they behave quite untypical.
In fact, together twith the Gymnogeophagus meriodonalis group (also a genus without its own name, in my eyes) they are te least earth eating

But, a very nice fish indeed

Marc van Arc wrote:Yes, it's matching pair.

And here's some proof:







I would be very surprised if the nest is still there tomorrow....

Marc van Arc wrote:I would be very surprised if the nest is still there tomorrow....

And it's still there! Amazing that these two fish are able to keep all these driftwood cats away from their eggs . They've dug a pit in the heap that can be seen on the pictures; perhaps that's where the young go in??

Anyway, I think that I can say now that the major asset - Colomesus asellus - does very well in my tank. It's not interested in any Auchenipterid. It cruises the tank constantly, eats well (very fond of Mysis, bloodworms and shrimps) and behaves properly!
And to be honest: it's nice to see a fish on the move during the day

how many do you have? only one or a group?