Killer Catfish?!?

Several months ago I bought what was being sold as a "tiger catfish" and within a few days noticed the smaller of my neon tetras disappearing (without a trace). It continued until I had only one tetra left and he was very lonely for a long time. I recently began buying neon tetras again, and again they are disappearing. In addition to the killer tiger /shark/ cat / fish, my 10 gallon tank contains a Betta (very nice fish), a pleco (obviously not capable of eating tetras), an albino catfish, some harlequin rasboras, a leopard danio, and now 4 neon tetras. I have not officially seen the "tiger" eat a neon, but he is almost always hiding - he is positively proficient at burrowing under rocks and he clearly despises all light - and this morning he was swimming around for the first time in a while, and when he saw me, quickly buried himself. I noticed the other fish were sort of startled or nervous-looking... and behold, another neon tetra was gone.

The tiger hid in a way that his belly was up against the glass (under the gravel) and when I lifted the bottom trim of the base of the tank, I got a pretty good look at him, and I might be crazy, but I thought I could see the shape and color of a tetra inside him. WHAT IS THIS FISH. ?! I've done research and THERE IS NO "TIGER CAT FISH" - EVEN THE FISH STORE I BOUGHT IT FROM HAS NO IDEA WHAT IT IS !!! Has anyone even heard of this happening HELP!

Photo?

Description??

Tiger (Shovelnose) Catfish perhaps ?

How large is it now ? Do you have any pics ?

It's never out long enough for me to get a picture of it. He's about 2.5 inches (6.35 cm). He's striped like a tiger... blackish with orangish cream colored stripes (or vice versa?) He's got whiskers, but not quite like a cat fish, - they're long, not like the tiny whiskers of a normal cat fish.

ok, what about a striped talking catfish then ?

Malix said:

It's never out long enough for me to get a picture of it. He's about 2.5 inches (6.35 cm). He's striped like a tiger... blackish with orangish cream colored stripes (or vice versa?) He's got whiskers, but not quite like a cat fish, - they're long, not like the tiny whiskers of a normal cat fish.

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Sounds like a tiger shovelnose to me.

The general rule with cafish is the longer the whiskers are the more predatory the catfish is, the shape of the mouth is often a give away too as predatory cats usually have wide deeply cut mouths which can open wide to fit prey in easily.
If your fish is a tiger shovelnose (and i would suspect it is) then you have a fish that is capable of reaching 4 feet in length and swallowing average sized household pets like cats and small dogs.

Theres nothing you can do to stop the fish eating other fish or growing massive in your tank if it is a Tiger shovelnose- i would strongly advise you rehome it unless you fancy getting it a massive tank of its own.

It is certainly not the Shovelnose Catfish... He has a wide open mouth and long whiskers but not a shovelnose. And over the past year he has grown slightly but he is still only a couple of inches in length. Thanks for all your help! But it seems he will remain a mystery. And I will keep feeding him neon tetras. lol

It wouldn't happen to look like this one would it?