Catfish - what do you keep?

I don't think I've ever posted any of my catfish on here but I do keep a few.

- 1 Cephalosilurus Apurensis, about 6 inches and growing rapidly
- 1 Auchenoglanis occidentalis (Giraffe catfish) 15 or 16 inches
- 2 Megladoras Irwini 6/7 inches
- 1 Oxydoras Niger 8 inches
- 1 Common Bristlenose 4 inches
- 1 Starlight Bristlenose (L182) 6 inches
- 2 White Seam Starlight Bristlenose (L183) 3 inches
- 1 L177 Golden Nugget 3 inches
- 1 L018 Golden Nugget 3.5 inches

A mix of oddballs and a few fancy plecs. Personal favs are the Giraffe cat and the C. Apurensis. The O. Niger is new but will be a stunner.

So what catfish do you keep? Any monster fancy plecs out there?
I'm looking for a massive royal or scoby if anyone one for sale.

Cheers,
Patrick

I keep a foot long Common Plec with my Oscar. Nothing fancy and ugly as hell but he rules. They used to scrap all the time but ever since the plec gave as good as he got one day, things seem to have settled a bit.

Jay

Well i have a huge sailfin pleco, some bown hoplo catfish, bronze cory's, L142 and some other pleco i dont know the name of

Common/Sailfin plecs look great when they’re huge alright. (Just not when they're in tiny tanks of course).
I know somebody that has a 16 inch Gibbeceps and it’s a sight to behold.

The L142 is a beautiful plec, I used to have one too. I actually gave a load of fancy plecs to my brother in law for free. Scabby git never gives me anything I like hoplos too, pity they don't get bigger though.

Alex, you do realise that saying you have an unidentified plec just won't do, you'll have to post some pics and start an "Id my plec" thread.
For some reason they always end up being Clown plecs so check those out before you do

i have a sailfin pleco, adonis pleco, 4 clown plecos, golden bristlenose, 13 corydoras, synodontis, talking catfish, humbug raphael catfish, thats it i think.......

mickdeja wrote:

i have a sailfin pleco, adonis pleco, 4 clown plecos, golden bristlenose, 13 corydoras, synodontis, talking catfish, humbug raphael catfish, thats it i think.......

What Synodontis species do you have Mick?

I'm expecting 2 Synodontis Angelicus some time soon, coming all the way from the Congo.

Is the Adonis pleco big and ugly or does it still have its spots?

i think he is a synodontis robbianus, may get a pic up for a proper I.D.
would love one of these synodontis decora

Yeah the adonis is young and still has his spots....absolutely love him, looks like someone painted the spots on him......
Synodontis Angelicus are beautiful man, where are ye gettin them from. A bit like Mark me, i love me catfish.....

Decora are stunners alright, supposed to be pretty aggressive. I've seen juveniles on lists but have never seen them in the flesh.

I've been after the Angelicus for a long time, Ioan in Seahorse sent me an African list last week (which itself was something else..), it had Angelicus on it and he was good enough to put my name down beside a couple.

2poc wrote:

I actually gave a load of fancy plecs to my brother in law for free. Scabby git never gives me anything

I know someone like that too;)

At the moment I just have a variety of small 'plecs' and corys.

what sort of money do those L183 go for?
they are lovely fish, ive never seen them in any shop.

Alex, you do realise that saying you have an unidentified plec just won't do, you'll have to post some pics and start an "Id my plec" thread.
For some reason they always end up being Clown plecs so check those out before you do

Haha Ill try post a pic... Its hard to spot a 4" pleco in a 800L tank lol. I got it 2 years ago. It looks a lot like a peckoltia Vittata... however it has spots instead of stripes on his tail....

Here's what I'm keeping at the moment.

1 Common bristlenose
1 Common plec? ( I think it a bit more yellow than a common one so not really sure what it is)
2 Striped talking cats, ones around 5-6" the other 2-3"
1 Spotted talking cat
1 Chocolate talking cat?
1 South American bumblebee cat
1 Holopo
1 Jaguar
And my favourite of the lot 2 Chaca Chaca.

Cheers
Dan

I have loved cats ever since i was a kid and i first seen my Grandfathers big 12 inch common plec, and that was somewhere about 25 years ago!
here is what i have now;
L200 Green Phantom
L136 Stardust
L114 Leopard Cactus
and my two newests
L204 Flash
and the guy with the recent indigestion problems that some of ya help me out with, L048 (I think!) Scobinancistrus spp, or could also be L142!

Dave - you know what he's like alright, he won't even give me the big piece of bogwood that's in his shed for the past few years. Keeps on kissing his fingers like a Frenchman lately, think he's been drinking the discus water.

Dyco - I picked up the L183 on the longmile road for the bargain price of 15 Euro each. And they look exactly like your avatar, fin perfect.

Dan - Gotta love the chaca chaca, I havent kept them but they never fail to grab my attention when I see them. I think I have a chocolate talking cat too, picked it up recently but haven't got a positive id yet. It has a huge pot belly and white whiskers (sounds very festive I know).

Rolly - you have some interesting fish. Always wanted a leopard cactus plec. Is it big? I've only ever seen tiny ones for sale for 50 Euro+. Interesting to see that you have an L136, Hypancistrus species are hard to come by. I had one of these and gave it away a couple of years ago.

I have 12 Synodontis Petricola.

One of my favourite is the Golden nugget.

Patrick, thats a big compliment from someone owning your list of cats!

The Cactus is only a wee guy yet, bout 5cm, still a cracker though. think i paid around 35 quid in seahorse a while back. have the L136 for 3 or 4 years at this stage, i think he is near fully grown, bour 6 or 7cm.

Dan, the chaca chaca is a very impressive fish, what size are yours?

2poc wrote:

I don't think I've ever posted any of my catfish on here but I do keep a few.

- 1 Cephalosilurus Apurensis, about 6 inches and growing rapidly
- 1 Auchenoglanis occidentalis (Giraffe catfish) 15 or 16 inches
- 2 Megladoras Irwini 6/7 inches
- 1 Oxydoras Niger 8 inches
- 1 Common Bristlenose 4 inches
- 1 Starlight Bristlenose (L182) 6 inches
- 2 White Seam Starlight Bristlenose (L183) 3 inches
- 1 L177 Golden Nugget 3 inches
- 1 L018 Golden Nugget 3.5 inches

A mix of oddballs and a few fancy plecs. Personal favs are the Giraffe cat and the C. Apurensis. The O. Niger is new but will be a stunner.

So what catfish do you keep? Any monster fancy plecs out there?
I'm looking for a massive royal or scoby if anyone one for sale.
we have a huge royal in stcok that may be of interest to you.

Cheers,
Patrick

12 Petricola Pete? Wow that's a lot of synos, must look pretty cool.

Gavin - I'd deffo be interested in the Royal, would you mind dropping me a PM with the details?

I keep..

L-330 Panaque cf. nigrolineatus (Watermelon Pleco) 8"
L-310 Hypostomus cochliodon (Rusty Pleco) Male & female 7"
L-142 Baryancistrus sp (Snowball Pleco) 3"
L-111 Ancistrus sp (Bristlenose Pleco) x2 3"
L-178b and Chaetostoma sp. (Bulldog Pleco) x2 3"
Ancistrus cf. cirrhosus sp(3) Common Bristlenose? x2 2"
Syndontis Decorus 9"
Mystus_leucophasis (Giant Asian Upsidedown catfish) x3 Male x1 female, all 4 are about 7" yet I read they grow as big as 5", but that must be wrong.
2 Clown Plecos on the way shortly too:)


Mark

Some nice cat's people are keeping.

At the moment i have;
2 Hypancistrus sp. L004
4 Hypancistrus sp. L066 King tiger
2 Hypancistrus sp. L333
Several Hypancistrus sp. L046 Zebra
2 Hypancistrus sp. L174
2 Hypancistrus sp. L411 Monte Dourado
5 Hemiancistrus sp. L128 Blue phantom
4 Panaque sp. L204 Flash Panaque
6 Hyalobagrus flavus (Pelteobagrus Ornata)
3-4 Tatia perugiae
4 Loricaria simillima
2 (possibly) Hemiloricaria fallax

I'm sure there's a couple i'm missing from the list.

Wow Mark/Darren, impressive...

The 9 inch syno must be impressive Mark as must the big panaque. You must keep me in mind if you ever want to shift them. I kept an Asian upsidedown cat for a while. Lovely looking fish, suprising you don't see them more often.

Darren, I Googled the Tatia perugiae, wow - they are stunners. They look like little cigar shaped puffers.. Some collection of L numbers there, Zebra plecs and all. Are you breeding any of the them bar the whiptails?

catfish i look after

2 red tail cats bout 2 foot
2x red tail x tiger shovelnose hybrids 22"
giraffe 22"
2 x marbles lerius marmoratus 22"
ripsaw oxydoras niger 14"
3 x paroons 4"
14" gibbiceps
would love to get lerius pictus,peacock cichlids,tilipia tanganyika,dovii,channel cat,bigish adonis,big clown knife ,durense theres loads of interesting cats if i could get my hands on them

brian wrote:

catfish i look after

2 red tail cats bout 2 foot
2x red tail x tiger shovelnose hybrids 22"
giraffe 22"
2 x marbles lerius marmoratus 22"
ripsaw oxydoras niger 14"
3 x paroons 4"
14" gibbiceps
would love to get lerius pictus,peacock cichlids,tilipia tanganyika,dovii,channel cat,bigish adonis,big clown knife ,durense theres loads of interesting cats if i could get my hands on them

Thery're not cats they're monsters Brian....

I've seen small peacock bass and dovii on sale recently. Some fairly good size royal clown knives too. Aquatic village have a 30 inch shovelnose for sale a good while now too.

2poc wrote:

Darren, I Googled the Tatia perugiae, wow - they are stunners. They look like little cigar shaped puffers.. Some collection of L numbers there, Zebra plecs and all. Are you breeding any of the them bar the whiptails?

Yes the Tatia perugiae are little beauties alright. Unfortunately i only have females and have been unlucky sourcing males.
I have promised these to someone so i must remember to give them to him next time i see him.

I was breeding the L66,L411 and Ancistrus claro.
Unfortunately i had a problem a while back and had to try sell, give away and have fish minded for me.
I lost a good few fish along the way and am now just getting back on top of things.
I just got some of the plecs back so once they are settled i will try encourage them to start breeding again.

I lost the whiptails i was breeding and i'm now trying the Hemiloricaria fallax.
They will breed but wont look after the eggs. Regardless what i try with the eggs it's a fungus nightmare.

my current stock of catfish are.
synodontis multipunctatus 3 adults
synodontis petricola. 7 adults. 80 5cm young.
corydoras sterbai. 5 adults. 60 1cm young
scleromystax c112. 4 adults. numerous tiny young
L66.4 adults. laying eggs but no hatches so far. (any tips darren?)

looking forward to daragh owens list, it will take a week to read it.

2poc wrote:

I think I have a chocolate talking cat too, picked it up recently but haven't got a positive id yet. It has a huge pot belly and white whiskers (sounds very festive I know).


That sounds like the fella I have alright. ( All he's missing is a red suit )




Rolly wrote:

Dan, the chaca chaca is a very impressive fish, what size are yours?


Cheers, I've always been fascinated by them. They are always worth picking up when you see them cos they don't be around often. Big thanks to Xeon in seahorse for getting them in for me.

I got 2 off them a coulpe off months ago ( was up there today and still two left if annyones interested ).
One of them is around 6" the other one around 3".
They ate there first bit of dead food for me tonight,so chuffed with that.

Cheers
Dan

derek wrote:
L66.4 adults. laying eggs but no hatches so far. (any tips darren?)[/quote]

Do you mean the eggs dont hatch at all? Are the eggs been fertilized? Is the male eating the eggs or young? Dose the male prematurely eject the eggs or just abandon the eggs?

This is basically what i do and some of the problems i've had.
Prior to trying to breed them the first time the tank is kept at about 28c(82f), ph6.5, kh1, gh1 and the water for water changes has a tds of 60.
I leave the tank running like this for a while (maybe a month) before making some changes.

When i try encourage them to spawn(the first time) i lower the heater down to 26.5(79f) and lower the tds (of replacement water)to 40/50.
I dont do cool water changes at this point.
I add extra food like worms and prawns and do dayly or by dayly water changes of 10-20%.
I try not go near the tank as much as possible.
I keep this up for about a week or two looking to see if the male starts to advertise to females that he is ready to breed.
He will sit in a cave waving his tail at the entrance making it look like he is already fanning some eggs. The females seem to respond to this thinking he would be a good partner since he is already (falsely) looking after eggs.
If this works and a pair breed, great. There should be no need to alter the water again and they will usually breed again.
If this dosent work then i will try a couple of cool water changes. Only dropping the temp. of the replacement water by about 2c..
If they dont spawn this time round i leave the temp. at 26.5, ph6.5 and the tds back up to 60.
The tank is kept like this most of the time.
I leave it for a month or so before slowly raising the temp and start all over again.

Ok i know you already have them breeding but i just taught i would trow that in for anyone else reading.
The male i had for breeding used to eat the eggs if i so much as looked at the tank sideways.
I stayed away from the tank as much as possible once he was on eggs and once he got over this he then started to eat the young when they hatched.
There was nothing i could do about this except wait it out. He would eventually learn and he did. He stopped eating them and then wouldn't let them out of the cave. Again i had to wait.
Eventually after about a year he had no problems looking after the eggs and letting the young from the cave once the eggsac was gone.
I could have removed the eggs from the cave at the start but i prefer to let them learn how to look after them. It's better for them and easier for me in the long run.

If you think he is eating the eggs you could try going near the tank as little as possible. Mine seem to startle easily and eat the eggs in a panic.

If you think the eggs are just not developing or are not fertilized, remove the eggs after a week and have a look at them. See if there is any development at all. If there isnt maybe he is only carrying a starting pistol and needs to learn to load his gun before battle.

f it gets to the stage were he dosent let them out of the cave try tipping the cave to let some young out. If he sees young in the tank he might let them out in future.

I think sometimes it just takes time for them to put all the pieces together.

On a side note, i just checked on my L66 to see if there was anything going on and guess what... nothing.
But i did just find a female L333 with eggs:) First spawn from them:cheer:
I taught i only had two females:huh:


Sorry for slightly hijacking the post.

Wow that is so involved Darren, sounds like a lot of work... You are obviously very dedicated.
The zebra's would be a nice little earner if you got them breeding regularly.

2poc wrote:

Wow that is so involved Darren, sounds like a lot of work... You are obviously very dedicated.
The zebra's would be a nice little earner if you got them breeding regularly.

It looks like a lot but it dosent involve any real extra work than i already do.
The tank gets water changes every second day anyway. I make up my own water RO/tap/minerals so i just alter the TDS.
The only real changes are food and tweaking the temperature.
It is all done at my leisure so i dont have to give up loads of time checking water stats etc.

Yes it would be nice to get the zebras breeding. Maybe next year. Although i have been saying that for the past couple of years. Someday.