PlanetCatfish.com

Just finding out where the majority of us are from....

This may prove my "law of catfish keeper distribution" theory which is roughly:

The total number of catfish keepers in any given area is inversely proportionate to the number of individual catfish occuring in the wild in that area.



Jools

Then shouldn't there be a heck of lot of catfish keepers in Australia and Antarctica?

What about all those ACLF (Australian Catfish and Loach Forum) people ?

Australia has very interesting catfish fauna, so I think it holds true. Antartica is a bit tricky unless I re-word the theory...

The percentage of catfish keepers amongst the aquarist population in any given area is inversely proportionate to the percentage of individual catfish species occuring in the wild in that area (versus other aquarium fish).

Jools (and others),
I agree with your "law" for the most part. It also follows that the farther you get from the ocean, the more marine aquarists you will find. That said, ther are to other large factors. First of all, Europeans tend to be fluent in many languages with Asians coming in second. In the Third World (read South America and Africa esp.) there are not so many English speakers. Also, it has to do with access to resources. The average YEARLY income in Colombia is around US $2,500. Down here that might get you a second hand computer but you would still have to pay US $30 per month for internet access. With an average wage of $52 a week, over half of your salary would go towards your internet bill. So, just to join the forum, you would have to save 100% of your wages for a year and then dedicate most of your salary to pay the internet fees. Don't ever forget how good some of us have it.
-Shane

G'day Mate. Don't go pickin on "The Land DownUnder".
Regards Bogus...

Umm... wasn't too sure which of those options available I'd fall under so I'll just post here; I live in New Zealand

We're surrounded by the sea! Alas all the fish I like, are from South America ;)

I've added an option for our friends down under...

Jools

Hi I am from central England . Only keeping stingrays comes close to keeping catfish. In the 18yrs of keeping fish I must have had or sold nearly every variety of cat available but still look forward to seing new deliverys hoping to find something that little bit special.

There are 96 signed up members that have not given there location. That more than 25% of the total membership.

I would apreciate knowing where the people I am talking to come from, Your country will do.

Ian

USA, Colorado, Colorado Springs to be exact. About as far as you can get from the ocean at 6500 feet ASL(kind of intersted in the way fish behave up here, 2 clicks above sea level, seem fine, even discus). Catfish are actually abundant, within driving range, but only in 2 or 3 varieties, and at that large, ravenous(fish for them with cow liver that's not quite expired, but not what you'd feed to people), and not particularly pretty. Other fish are trout, and suckerfish(carp of some sort I believe were introduced), and I can catch pumpkin seed/blue gill in a pond about half a mile from my house... private property owned by a dairy that use to own the land my house is on, but has lately started bringing the milk in, rather than raising in a highly desirable real estate area. I may go fishing there some time, always ran down the creek that runs to it as a kid, a massive forest of some sort of willow and cat tails, a place where the dirt is so loose you can sled down without snow, and if you pay attention, a wealth of fossils.

Jools, I'd have to argue your theory, outside of the tropics it seems most catfish are "big, dumb, and ugly", at least to me. Of course I've been heard to call banjo cats "hard pieces of dog poo rolled flat"... And in the tropics fishkeeping seems to be either much less reported, or less common. That's from friends from the UK to the phillipenes and just about everywhere in between.

Hi,
I think, there would be many more forum users from German speaking countries (Switzerland, Austria, Germany, ...), if there wouldn´t be such a lot of German aquaristik forums yet, even some special catfish-forums (e.g. http://www.l-welse.com. , http://www.welse.net , yahoo catfish-mailinglist, ...).
Besides ist´s rather difficult for us, even impossible for many catfish keepers, to discuss in English language ;) , probably for many Scandinavian Users ist´s not so easy either.

What I would like to know, are there any other interesting special catfish-fori in English speaking www too? Or good catfishsites? (I know this site here for years, scotcat and Schaefer´s and Armbrusters sites).

As far as i know, there are not many sites that deal with catfish in general other than those you mentioned (Isn't Armbrusters site only Loricariids?).

Besides ist´s rather difficult for us, even impossible for many catfish keepers, to discuss in English language , probably for many Scandinavian Users ist´s not so easy either.

I think you are wrong about this. There are several scandinavians here, when you keep in mind that in all of scandinavia there are less than 20 million people alltogether (suddently started wondering if Finland is considered as a part of Scandinavia...) The english knowledge in these countries is generally good. Since there are so few people living here, if you want to talk to other people, you have to know a more "usable" language, such as english or german.

I'll agree that writing more "advanced" stuff about fish is hard at some time, such as remebering the english words for all the different fins and body parts.

I have an impression that most aquarists in Sweden care more for cichlids than people elsewhere in western europe does, but this is probably wrong

Well, Lion King ;) ,
you´re probably right, but I cant imagine, that every Northman is fit enough in English to discuss in an English speaking forum. High esteem to your education system, if I´m wrong.´
In Austria most of the younger people are also able to speak English more or less well, but many of the older ones do not. And I know more than one "old and very experienced aquarist" ;)

(suddently started wondering if Finland is considered as a part of Scandinavia...)

It's not in Scandinavia König Löwe.

But I do agree with you that the Scandinavians have no problems in partisipating on English forums. We might suck a little in the terms of correct spelling, but people tend to get the point

I actually think that as much as 90% of the Scandinavians younger then 40'ish +/-
know english pretty well.

I'm wondering if there are any catfish fans and fish keepers in Iraq, either way I hope they keep themselves and their families safe in the coming days, I just heard on the news that the assault has started.

jason

Coryman wrote:There are 96 signed up members that have not given there location. That more than 25% of the total membership.

Ian

even worse : 150 members with 1 or less posts

Perrush
* the only one from Belgium *

I'm really quite amazed at the lack of Canadians here. I have seen a few others, but they are all in western Canada. As far as I know, I'm the only one east of Alberta!

I agree with how shocking it is to see so many people with no posts, or just one. I suppose many people might get an account just to have one or two questions answered.

I think I am very unique in this forum. I'm from Austria!!

There are a lot of people that join sites just to be able to say
"I am a member at .................."
I could thin them out if they have done absolutely nothing, Jools your shout.

servas ;)

SynoPetri wrote:I think I am very unique in this forum. I'm from Austria!!

nana, bist net allan

Hallo Walter, gut zu wissen eine österreichische Stütze zu haben. Ich komme aus Bairisch Kölldorf, liegt in der Süd-Ost Steiermark.
Was für Fische führen dich in dieses ausserordentlich gute Forum? In meinem Fall sind es vor allem die Synodontis Arten.
Es ist jedoch schon ziemlich gemein, dass wir uns hier auf Deutsch unterhalten.

Hi Georg,
to talk in German we should use another catfish forum ( http://www.l-welse.com , maybe http://www.welse.net ).
My favourits are the Loricariids.

Hi,
I've just became very interested in Pl*co's and thought this would be a good place to start learning. I have one common Pl*co and hope to add a Zebra to the clan asap. Of course, here in the SunShine State (Florida) I may have a problem finding the Zebra. So, if anyone in or around the Tampa Florida area knows of a pet store that has what I am looking for please let me know.
I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time here and becoming part of the Pl*co world.

Hi Twylight,
you´re from Florida? And there are no Zebraplecos in Florida?
What´s true of the rumor, Zebra´s are (have been?) spawned in ponds in Florida?

minneapolis minnesota here...home of the bullhead, channel cat, mud cat, walleye, northern, bass, crappie, sunfish, perch, muskie, walleye...hey its not called the land of 10000 lakes for nothing...i know some people who actually keep indigenous species here mostly northern pike for the absolute shock appeal involved...you think pirhanas have teeth

ben

deutsch ware mir auch ok...:rock:

Hey Ben make that 2 of us east of Alberta as I'm from Windsor Ontario' Canada....

Les

Chill wrote:But I do agree with you that the Scandinavians have no problems in partisipating on English forums. We might suck a little in the terms of correct spelling, but people tend to get the point. I actually think that as much as 90% of the Scandinavians younger then 40'ish +/- know english pretty well.

I would like to point out something very briefly. Though, Finland is not a part of Scandinavia it is part of the Nordic Counties with more similarities than differencies with other Nordic Countries when population and education are concerned. Most Finns of ages 15 - 50 do not have difficulties in participating in English forums but those older than 50 might prefer German forums because that was one of the most popular languages taught at school in their youth. (Och eftersom vi har lärt oss so kallad tvång svenska i skolan [därför att vi har en svenskspråkig och inflytande minoritet här i Finland...] skulle vi kunna delta i svenskspråkiga diskussioner lika så. Finns det nogra bra svenskspråkiga grupper om malar till exempel?)