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Hi
Im searching for help to ID this Auchenoglanis
The Seller say they are Auchenoglanis tanganicanus and i hope he is right i dont want to end up with a A.Occidentalis
so would be a great if someone can help me ID them clearly
thanks
David

I've seen for sale in few places lately...all advertised as A. tanganicanus.I believe them to be correct.

They look good in a group though, you can tell they are very sociable fish, its a shame only one can usually be kept, unless you have a very large tank!

thank you very much
the size they reach goes from 30cm -50cm i read a blog of someone who has them for years and they stopped at 40cm so that would be no problem for my tank but A.Occidentalis would be to big.

I would love to buy A.Biscatus as they stay also a lot smaller but you cant buy them here searched for years now, even the Tanganicanus are ultra rare here in middle Europe (i have to drive 6h to pick them up)

so again thanks a lot

Welcome to the Planet, David!

IIRC we know little of the max sizes of this relatively freshly revised genus and Birger said before that he is reasonably sure that only senegali stays small. What others max out at remains to see.

Oftentimes, the max known size keeps climbing with years as people get to know a newly described fish better and better, ID'ing wild catches, growing their pets.

In terms of eventual sizes, I will share this- in an extremely ill informed decision a few years back, partially on the part of the retail outlet, I'm ashamed to admit it but moreso upon myself. That I didn't leave him in the shop, then go off and do my research and then decide, its something which I always do now, but not after a purchase, when a fish I know nothing about is already in one of my tanks - a lesson learned. As a result I ended up with an Auchenoglanis Occidentalis, I should think I'm not the only one where this situation has happened. After seeing all the google images, some of these were huge, but some smaller even though they appeared to be adults, i also think there is big variations in adult sizes. Obviously I realised for the long term It would have been completely wrong for me to keep him. He was rehomed, I'd like to think he's now being kept suitably.

A few years back - depending on what this means - all Auchenoglanis came in as occidentalis. There had been no others described yet. Hence, the startling variation. Hence, the genus revision.

For me it was about three to four years ago to be more specific, I have seen some threads around on the forum regarding the revision.

This is a thread on the ID of my fish that appears to be related http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 40#p297940

You will notice victor the spotting is different between the two threads, the fish in this thread I believe to be a. tanganicanus...the other has different spotting and could be an undescribed species considering the area it was exported from.
.

Birger