PlanetCatfish.com

Given the discussions that frequently appear in this forum about catfishes that grow too large, I thought it might be instructive to give people an idea of growth rates of large pimelodids, utilizing information from a recent publication.

The source is:
Penha, JMF, LAF Mateus & G Barbieri, 2004. Age and growth of the duckbill catfish (Sorubim cf. lima) in the Pantanal. Brazilian Journal of Biology, 64: 125-134.

This species reaches 26 cm FL (fork length) after the first year, 35 cm FL after the second and 45 cm FL after the fifth.

Is that the captive sizes or wild sizes? I have three S.lima and the sizes are almost exactly right for the first two years with my eldest one being close to 14" after around 2 years and the one i added a year later being around 10" and the smallest which was added just 6 months ago is around 6". However ive not ever seen a S.lima which has grown larger than 14" and most seem to top out at around a foot, i would love to see my shovelnoses grow to 18" plus but it just doesnt seem likely really.

Their tank is 66"Lx30"Wx24"H (205 US gallons) and is filtered with 3 eheim classic 2217's, the tank is shared by a few other medium/large fish.

Is that the captive sizes or wild sizes?

As the title suggests, wild sizes.