PlanetCatfish.com

Is it possible to tell whether a Giraffe Catfish Auchenoglanis occidentalis is male or female? What would I look for?

you will be able to tell when thay get older.bob

How?

I actually believe differences in gender are up to now unknown to us.
But don't worry, for it's hardly likely that you'll get any offspring due to the fact that they need huge tanks once mature. I once had three of them and that didn't go very well. This species is imo best kept on its own(*) as long as that is possible: it'll outgrow any tank sooner or later.

other fishes as company are of course no problem, although the recommended Distichodus species (Cat-eLog) are notorious fin nippers and thus imo highly unsuitable.

would some sort of genital papillae not be evident on mature specimens?

i understand Alan has a large tank which could house substanial individuals but i think breeding is beyond any hobbyist.

I have seen more than 1 kept successfuly but this has been in public aquaria

I wasn't wanting to attempt to breed them - I don't have a tank big enough for two of these wonderful fish! I'm asking because my g/f wants to know whether to give it a male name or a female name!

As we're having trouble naming it, has anyone got any suggestions?

Hmmm, how about Doris? It's maybe not the greatest response but it's the only one so far!

Used to have a mudskipper called Doris. Have a Black Ghost Knife fish called Gerald, so can't use that either!

Nice!!!

Ok then what about Jessica or Gertie?

Maybe you could go for something indicative of the long snout or vacuuming feeding from the gravel, like Dyson or Piggy?

reading this back i'm clearly not as inspirational as i thought i could be!!!

an unisex name, such as george could also be considered