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I did have two of these catfishes. When i bought them i already had read their reputation of constatly fighting with each other - or that`s what book said. This is called also "Asian fighting catfish". Mine were living peacefully almost a year and ½ together in a 100 l tank. I sure about the species. Is the reputation true or just a myth? Probably i had two females.The one died at increasing temperature(29c) and the other got sucked to filter.

Mine did so in a 15-gallon tank (that had no other aggressive tankmates).
After they died, I added 3 Heptapterus that looked and behaved identically (i.e. they constantly fought with each other).

I kept 15 in a 20 gallon tank, hoping that would help with the aggression. It did for a while, until the largest specimen started asserting his dominance. Eventually 8 were killed, but the seven left seem to be getting along.

Rusty

PS. Mika, I haven't forgotten about the photos, but it is very difficult to get any decent shots of them, since they almost never come out into the open.

Mika.Do you have a more large and clearer picture of this species?

Hi,

i also had similar problems with this species. I kept mine in a heavily planted 80x40x40cm tank. I didn't have problems with the agression (I only kept females, maybe thats the reason), however, mine died during the last (very hot) summer. I tried to get some males for some time, because all females were gravid, but unfortunatly i couldn't get some.

it is very difficult to get any decent shots of them, since they almost never come out into the open.

Yep. Even in a photo tank i had problems to get any decent pictures. Even more horrible than making Akysis pics ;)

Greetings,

Achim

As Rusty said, we started with about a dozen (a few were DOA and shouldn't count), and are now down to 7-8 in a 20 g long. Hard to get a precise count. If we are sexing them correctly (according to advice from Achim, if I'm not mistaken), we have both males and females. They have grown considerably in the six months we've had them. The largest are now at least 8 cm, maybe longer. I'm not fully convinced that the deaths were due to intraspecific aggression, though that's certainly a possibility. And the population of 7-8 that we have now has been stable for some months. Mind you, not only is a 20 gal long not a big tank, but they are in there with some 70 Amblyceps mangois

At the moment, O. longicaudata is probably my favorite fish of all the many fish we keep. Stunningly beautiful in a serpentine way. It's a real pity that there are so many fascinating Asian cats, but those we see in the trade and discuss ad nauseam in the Asian Catfish forum are the same old iridescent sharks and Asian RTCs. When you look at importers' lists, I'm always amazed to find that the most expensive Indian cats are still cheaper than the cheapest, run-of-the-mill South American cats of an equivalent size. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that these cats will survive the pressure on their native habitats and be around for a while. Places like north Bengal. Assam, Manipur, Myanmar are among the least developed regions of Asia.

Dinyar

Mika,can you give me a clearer picture of the species"Olyra longicaudata"?Thank you.[/img]

It's in the Cat-eLog: http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/ba ... /645_f.php

Thank you ,do you have this species 's picture you collected yourself.