The Power of an Electric Catfish...

Arrived home last night with a new electric catfish. He was a freebie as the shop was very keen to get rid of him.

I had a two foot African Biotope tank set up for him but when I arrived home the heater had gone in the tank (thats elite heaters for you, buy Jager folks!)

So with nowhere to put him and all shops closed I had no choice but to float him in one of my other tanks til the morning.

I put him into my tank containg a 2'+ Anguilla Eel and two 8\" (ish) golden cobra snakeheads.

I rolled down his bag, slowly changed most of his water and added some zeolite to deal with whatever waste he created. With everyone happy, I went to bed.

Now I should mention, this catfish is barely 2\" long.

I got up this morning and went to check the tank, It was quite a sight.

I was greeted by 2 snakeheads crammed into one 6\" fish bag, floating around the top of the tank. And one 2 foot eel lying in my built in overhead trickle filter!

The catfish meanwhile swam happily around his new spacious aquarium.

The cat obviously got out after I had went to bed and provoked or otherwise, stunned the much much larger fish and had them run off like big pussycats themselves.

Happy-Ending though, its now in its own tank and the other fish are swimming around, eating and seem completely none the worse for the experience.

It just goes to show what these guys can do. I knew they packed a bit of a kick from having watched someone attempt to perform a skin scrape on one once, but seeing these other much larger, supposedly aggressive fish get owned by it was still pretty awe-inspiring.

Here is a good profile on the species for anyone interested;
www.planetcatfish.com/cotm/cotm.php?article_id=86


On a side note, I just took the guy because I felt sorry for him, while I am happy to keep him I would also be happy to pass him on to anyone with the facilities to look after him properly. PM me if your interested.

Interesting stuff!
I know a guy that caught an electric ray off a beach down in Waterford & got a fair shock off it too. The ray was over a hundred pounds in weight though!

Out of curiousity - re: the Anguilla Eel you mention - is this a native eel?

No this one is Anguilla marmorata, the giant mottled eel, which is a tropical species. From the Indo-Pacific area mostly. Wouldn't survive our weather.

Anguilla Anguilla is our native species.

i have had an electric catfish for about a year and a half now, i have him in with 2 oscars a plec and 3 other south american chiclids, as he is predominatly nocturnal i can realy only see him on the rare occasion but ive never noticed him bullying any of the other fish he is about 6 inches long now and will eat anything he can fit in his mouth. interesting fish tough, unfortunatly they tend not to breed to well in captivity

johnnysam79 wrote:

i have had an electric catfish for about a year and a half now, i have him in with 2 oscars a plec and 3 other south american chiclids, as he is predominatly nocturnal i can realy only see him on the rare occasion but ive never noticed him bullying any of the other fish he is about 6 inches long now and will eat anything he can fit in his mouth. interesting fish tough, unfortunatly they tend not to breed to well in captivity

I recon if they did breed the sparks would fly......


Ok is was not that funny.

What size is your e-cat in relation to the other fish in the tank?

I dont think its a matter of bullying, the catfish probably felt threatened being in with fish that were so much bigger than it and shocked them in self defense.

I have seen them in with fish of a similar size without problems, but if they feel threatened or are bullied they can do a lot of damage.

I missed the original post, sounds like the little guy can pack a punch.

I watched the Flooded Forest the other night and there was footage of an EC stunning a cichlid and then dining on it, appently the local believe it can shock trees to make the fruit fall, but it has not been proven, interesting thought though.

What size is he (or her) now?

Its about 3-4\" now Daragh, still only a baby. He's really cute at this size but only a mother could love them when they get to adult-hood. Wharf aquatics have had an 18\"-24\" one for a while now, I can only imagine what a shock from one that size could do.

They are very interesting fish though, the Egyptians believed them to have healing powers and depicted them in their drawings etc.

I didnt see the program you mention, what channel or when is it on?

It is an old program, I had on video, don't think it has been released on DVD. Narrated by Anthony Hopkins of all people.

wouldnt like to put my hand into that tank. you might get more then you bargained for...