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I was at the LFS today and saw a fish I had never heard of before. They had a small (roughly 3-inch) fish labeled "Catfish, Sun." My first impression was that he (she?) was beautiful, but looked to me like it would get quite large. It also looked like it was more of a predator than a scavenger. I hope to be setting up a much larger tank, soon, and wonder what experiences you all have had with these creatures. The Cat-eLog lists their potential size as anywhere from 6 to 17.7 inches, depending on the source.

Hey,

for catelog says 45cm which is maximum size reached by this species.

Not often, but sometimes catelog is not right about size, especially with bigger species which are too small to be a potential food for humans in bigger scale. They are not often keep in home aquarium and usually data about size comes from a bit old and sometimes not up to date scientific papers or other not too sure sources.

I've personally never seen sun catfish bigger than 25cm but if there is no other sources of it potential size you have to consider it growing as big as almost half of the meter. So the rule for the size of the tank for bigger catfishes is:
lenght of a tank = 4x maximum lenght of a fish
width of a tank = 2x maximum length of a fish
in catfish world heigh usually doesn't matter ;).

So you would need a tank that is 90cm width and 180cm long. And this particular species like to swim, they are very active catfishes that like company of each other so even a bigger tank would be needed if catelog is right about size of this fish .
And it is always good to consider a particular species grows as big as you may find in any source because if it stay smaller that's ok to keep it in bigger fishtank but if it grows as big as 45cm you will just mistread your pet.

Regards.

Sounds like the minimum tank size for Sun cats is around 150 gallons. The other issue is that they prefer the company of their own species, but the LFS only had one. Sounds like a species tank for another time.

How fast do they grow?

Thanks

I've not seen a big one either but there are photos around http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?imgur ... start%3D40 looks like it is 12" plus.

I'm sure there is a pic in a thread somewhere in the not-too-distant past of a bigger one. IME these are quite quick growing & do well in groups of the same sp - ie don't mix the ordinary one with the black collared one.

They are not out-&-out predators & can be successfully mixed with large peaceful fish.

The more I hear about these guys, the more i am convinced that they will be great centerpieces for a fish room! A bit more research is in order, but it sounds like discus, pacu, or angels, would be a good mix to share a tank with them. What are some of the bigger peaceful fish thatcome from the same region? I'm not one to stick strictly to the regional biotope model (my favorite community tank has inhabitants from all over the world), but these guys might be worth exploring the idea.

The one that Petland had was fairly shy, but looked like he had the kind of personlity that make Oscars so popular. Stayed backed into his cave about 70% of the time and then went patrolling before returning. The Cat-eLog says "light-shy" but he seemed more wary of movement outside the tank. If I stood still long enough, he came out and after a while, he got used to me and came to the front to see what I was.

What are some of the bigger peaceful fish thatcome from the same region?

You might want to try the southern Indian barbs of the Puntius filamentosus group (P. arulius, P. assmilis, P. exclmatio, P. filamentosus, and P. tambraparniei) or maybe even chromides (Etroplus spp.). A spiny eel or two from the region (e.g. Mastacembelus armatus) is another possibility.

I have a 8-10 inch suncat in a 100 gallon tank with 2 blue gill, a jack dempsy, a 4 inch hopolo cat, 4 inch pim, a 6 inch channel cat and a 5 inch "clown catfish". None of these fish are getting beat up.
Before I moved him to this 100 gallon, when he was smaller, he lived in a 20 long and was quite vicious. Even earlier he was in a 10 alone and would routinely kill large crayfish and any other fish i put in, even feeder guppies.
Don't know if its the larger tank or older age, hes about 7 years old, but he seems to have calmed down. I never see him when the lights are on unless food drops near the end of his clay pipe. Then he will come out and bite at the large Plec. and gobble the food and slide back in. After dark is a different story..he is usually found cruising the mid level. As soon as i turn on even a dim room light, back in the pipe he goes.

Hi I know this is rather old, Don't know if you ever got your sun cats?
My boyfriend and I have 2. He bought them when they were about 6cm, now over 3 years later, the larger of the 2 is about 25cm in length.
They do and will eat anything that fits in their mouth. Currently their tank mates include various barbs, silver dollars, black widows and gouramis.

They are nocturnal, and do require a lot of swimming space. They like tight spaces, for some reason. I've never sexed the 2 I have, but the larger one is definately more aggressive and he often doesn't like to share his cave with the other one. They do get a bit skittish when exposed, i.e. no where to hide, but they're quite placid and they tolerate being stroked.

I feed mine pellets.

This is another case of the hobby benefiting from food fish breeding programs. The first time these fish showed up in the US (early 90s) they were US $750 each. They cost more than a handful of zebra plecos in their day.
-Shane