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channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 21:56
by munkeycraz
I asked the lady what this cute lil catfish was and if he would be ok in my fish tank. She said yea..so i bought him. He is growing quite quickly...maybe from the lil fart eating all my fish up at night..or just growing b/c of type. I have been on many forums tryin to fig out what he is. Can any one help?

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 22:13
by Graeme
Any pictures?

:foggie:

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 22:16
by munkeycraz
IT SAIS THE FILE IS TOO BIG..HOW ELSE CAN I POST?

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 22:20
by Dave Rinaldo
Resize the pic :wink:

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 22:28
by munkeycraz
:0( i CANT FIG OUT HOW TO DO THAT LIL MAN WITH A PIPE?

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 22:35
by Dave Rinaldo
munkeycraz wrote::0( i CANT FIG OUT HOW TO DO THAT LIL MAN WITH A PIPE?
Click on a smilies to the right when you post :D
8) :foggie: :thumbsup:

Preview your post to make sure everything is the way you want it smokin

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 22:36
by Graeme
Try this for resizing your pictures. :beardy:

http://www.shrinkpictures.com/

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 22:46
by munkeycraz
:mrgreen: :!:

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 23:09
by Graeme
:?:

[Mod edit: Use persistant link... --Mats]

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 27 Oct 2008, 23:21
by munkeycraz
SIDE VIEW

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 00:09
by munkeycraz
I HOPE YOUR RIGHT...I LOOKED AT THE PICS UNDER THAT NAME AND IT LOOKS LIKE HIM. HOW BIG DO THOSE CATS GET. I HAVE A WIERD AQUARIUM..IT IS TALL..PAIN TO CHANGE OUT WATER OR DECORATE!! IT IS 47 GALLON...BUT I GOT FOR 140 FOR HOOD, TANK, AND STAND AT PETSMART...NEXT TANK WONT BE LIKE THAT AT ALL. CAN THIS TYPE OF CAT THRIVE IN . IF YOU HAVENT GUESSED IM A NEWBIE AT THIS WHOLE THING. HE HAS ATE MOST OF MY FISH THAT COULDNT DEFEND THEMSELVES. I LIKE HIM THO.... :headbang: :headbang:

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 02:55
by Yann
If it is indeed Hemibagrus nemurus, it will grow to a whoopy 65cm SL...which would make it 75-80cm long cat at adult size...so it will well overpass your tank...and will not be happy in such tank...and will keep eating any other fish you will put him with...except for any similar sized...which is not the best idea to do...

So either get a much much bigger tank...like 10 times what you have already...or bring it back to the shop that has sold you these fish... you might find similar shaped fish with similar behaviour but growing to a much small size and more adapted to your aquarium size

Cheers
Yann

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 09:01
by sidguppy
two things:
this fish doesn't just grow big, it can and will develop into a real killer. very few other fish can survive being in 1 tank with any Hemibagrus :shock:

typing in caps is considered shouting....you might want to lay off the caps a wee bit :wink:

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 12:40
by Richard B
I can't see any nasal barbels in the photos :( - this would mean it is not from the bagrid family & not H.Nemerus. Has anyone picked them out in any of the photos :?:

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 22:59
by munkeycraz
Do you think i need to get a better pic of his face? He is pretty quick! Would this help you all out any? :oops: And sorry for all the shoutin'..i didnt realize

Shari

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 28 Oct 2008, 23:34
by Yann
Sure it could help!!
Cheers
Yann

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 29 Oct 2008, 13:37
by Richard B
munkeycraz wrote:Do you think i need to get a better pic of his face? He is pretty quick! Would this help you all out any? :oops: And sorry for all the shoutin'..i didnt realize

Shari

No worries via the CAPS - everyone makes mistakes :thumbsup:

A good close-up of the head would help to definately ID the fish as advice could vary massively dependant upon what it is. As a simple question, does it have 4 pairs of barbels? (2 small pairs under the chin (inner & outer mandibular barbels), a small pair on top of the nose (nasal barbels) & a main large pair at the sides of the mouth (maxillary barbels) - see this http://www.planetcatfish.com/core/anatomy.php for a better explanation

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 29 Oct 2008, 14:11
by apistomaster
Most likely, you have an albino channel catfish.
The only other common large albino catfish sold is Clarias batrachus and they have been banned in the USA for decades and there is always a good supply of young channel catfish(albino form) available in this country's aquarium trade.

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 29 Oct 2008, 20:27
by sidguppy
nope, the mouth is too wide for a Channelcat. this is most likely a Hemibagrus.

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 29 Oct 2008, 21:29
by munkeycraz
Yeah, he has 2 small on top, 2 small on bottm and 2 large on sides. I will try to get a good pic of his face today. He stayes in his "cave" unless he comes out a makes a round or so and then goes back in. He likes when i shut the light off tho.... Any hints on gettin a good pic...flash.,.no flash...light on/off in tank?

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 29 Oct 2008, 21:38
by munkeycraz
Correction... He has a total of 8. Two short, small ones on his "nose" and 4 under his "chin" and the two long ones on the side.

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 29 Oct 2008, 23:52
by MatsP
So definitely an asian catfish then - all North and South American catfish (that could possibly be confused with this one, at least] have a total of 3 pairs.

Here is a picture of the H. nemurus close-up of the face, and you can clearly see it's barbels:
Image

--
Mats

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 30 Oct 2008, 00:29
by apistomaster
Not to get too side tracked, but are albino Hemibagrus spp in the trade?
I've never heard or seen of any but an absence of my knowledge is not evidence of proof.
I know anything big enough to be cultured for food is eventually likely to produce albinos which often find their way into the fish trade.(I never make mistakes. :oops: )
A photo showing the whole fish would make an identification easy.

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 30 Oct 2008, 00:51
by Richard B
There seems to have been quite a few albino species appearing in the trade in the uk over the past year or so. I haven't paid too much attention to any of them as they're not my thing but certainly they include some bagrids & were not made up of run-of-the-mill albinos like clarias. H.Nemerus could well have been one of them :?:

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 30 Oct 2008, 01:28
by Silurus
apistomaster wrote:Not to get too side tracked, but are albino Hemibagrus spp in the trade?
They are quite common in LFSs here.

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 30 Oct 2008, 05:21
by andywoolloo
dang that's a nice pic Mats! Look at those whiskers!

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 30 Oct 2008, 09:38
by MatsP
andywoolloo wrote:dang that's a nice pic Mats! Look at those whiskers!
Not my picture - came out of the Cat-eLog.

--
Mats

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 30 Oct 2008, 23:45
by munkeycraz
I need to do a partial water change tomorrow. I will see if I can get him in a container to get some good pics and post them. He does look like that picture up there ^^. I live in Virginia Beach and have heard of people importing some strange things to the LFS. He was in a tank with a sand bottom and a baby sting ray. Freshwater..... If he is however not a channel cat and the other will I be able to keep him you think if I get a lager tank for just him and a few "hold ya own" fish? :twisted: Happy Halloween Y'all :al:

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 31 Oct 2008, 09:03
by Martin S
Not kept these, but generally, they are a fish which are best kept alone - anything else in the tank will normally get killed, however big! From the catelog "An aggressive loner. As with other Hemibagrus specis, very intolerant of other fish inhabiting the same tank. What it cannot eat, it will kill out of spite." As you will also see from the catelog, adult size is about 2' (not sure if albinos get as big?), but you'd need a big tank to take a fully grown specimen - I would recommend tank size to be anything upwards from 6' x 3' x 3' on the assumption it doesn't grow much above 18".
HTH
Martin

Re: channel catfish? I hope not please help,bought from pet shop

Posted: 31 Oct 2008, 12:49
by pureplecs
:shock: Yowza I would take that fish back to the LFS and give that worker lady a stern talkin' to!!! :-X