Colourful catfish

[daisycat]

Can anyone recommend some brightly (natural) coloured catfish that are a reasonable size (6-10inches). I want one or two more "showy" fish for our tank and had originally considered a banded Leporinus which comes under characins but on advice that they can be agressive to other fish have decided against it. Since all our fish are currently catfish I thought maybe it would be a good idea to stick with more catfish in terms of friendliness/compatability (although maybe this is not a good idea either). Have been trawling through planet catfish but they all look pretty brown/greyish.

Am I on a hiding to nothing here?

 

[ryan]

Although not overly colourful Sorubim Lima are nice or Hemisorubim platyrhynchos if you can find them. Or if you want a colourful fish why not try Merodontotus tigrinus or Aguarunichthys cf. torosus.

 

[daisycat]

Thanks for the reply. Funnily enough the only name I had noted down after my exhaustive search of planet catfish was Merodontotus tigrinus but I am a little fearful that it would get far far too big for our tank!

 

[ryan]

Thanks for the reply. Funnily enough the only name I had noted down after my exhaustive search of planet catfish was Merodontotus tigrinus but I am a little fearful that it would get far far too big for our tank!

I presume you also know the price of these fish!!! I would agree that a larger tank would be need to house it for life.

 

[daisycat]

To be honest I hadn't thought of the price because I already assumed it would be almost impossible to obtain one! Logically following on from that would be the price issue of course, although I have to say that our turtle didn't come cheap and he/she was only a tiny thing at the time. I would pay reasonable money for a suitable fish - different people's definition of reasonable is of course different! A guy we know recently bought a £500 arrowana - I wouldn't do that but only because they look wierd and freak me out so much (plus we don't have a big enough tank for that)

I think we may have to look outside of the catfish family for something suitable. There is just *too* much choice. My husband doesn't want any chichlids (some random off the cuff decision) and I just want something colourful and unusual to brighten up the tank (shallow girly!). One day we'll do a marine tank but at the moment it would be too time consuming to maintain properly, unfortunately.

 

[ryan]

Ok. Why not try something like a Tiger Datnioid or a species of Asain Spiny Eel.

 

[daisycat]

The Tiger Datnoid looks great but I don't think it would like our tank (not salty enough, not cool enough) and he might eat the corys...similar problems with that species as with the leporinus.

I wish I could just type "peaceful non-aggressive medium sized colourful freshwater fish" into Yahoo! and get a nice selection to choose from!!!

Eels....oooh, they freak me out too.

(I am impossible to please it would seem )

 

[ryan]

Tigers can live happily in FW, if you are looking for a larger colourful fish in most cases the Cories will be in danger I am afraid. Theres other I could suggest but the Corys would be in danger. Good luck in your search.

 

[daisycat]

Hmmm, maybe I should keep the corys in the 30g then - or even get a new tank for them I will have to think long and hard...

Thanks for your help, it's very much appreciated.

 

[CFC]

Firstly, if you think the tigrinus will grow too large for your tank you do realise that pangasius catfish can grow to 4 feet long dont you?

As for some colourful good sized fish how about these,

Clown loaches
Tinfoil barbs
Red finned cigar sharks
Pimelodus pictus (not really colourful but very pretty and sticking with the catfish theme)
Distichodus sexfasciatus
Anostomus anostomus (brighter coloured more mild cousin of Leporinus)

 

[ryan]

IMO Leptobarbus hoevenii is a schooling fish that needs a tank of at least 6', so I would say that this tank is to small. Distichodus sexfasciatus is also quite similar to the Leporinus in temperament, although maybe not quite as aggressive it can still be nasty.

 

[CFC]

The pangasius cats are going to need a larger tank one day as well so i wasnt worrying about size, besides the rio 400 is 5 feet long anyway so its in the right ball park for keeping large fish.
Ive not kept D.sexfasciatus so im not sure of its actual temperament, from all the ones ive seen they always "appear" to be peaceful giants but as we know you can never really tell how a fish will behave till you have kept one for a while.

 

[ryan]

Ok good point. I was under the impression that she wouldn't be upgrading. I keep Distichodus lusosso and have found the fish although young to be qutie nippy to other mid-water fish.

 

[daisycat]

Yes, we will be upgrading in the future as the turtle eventually requires at least 8ft long tank although it is fairly slow growing so we should have up to 10 years to prepare for that (probably need a new house or something to put it in too ).

As for the pangasias - unfortunately we obtained them at a time where we knew no better about their growth (4 odd years ago) and the LFS gave them out like sweeties with no warning. I do find it hard to believe they will grow as big as 4ft now (especially with the general statements around these fish being that they *can* grow, not that they *will* grow to a certain length), given that we have had them about 4 years and they grew to their current length (8-9inches) in about 6months to a year and haven't grown at all since then - or not visibly to my eye anyway. Maybe they will have a growth spurt or something now but it seems unlikely to me, especially since (now I have done lots of reading on the subject) I have found several references that say they don't tend to get past 13inches in captivity. I expect they have been stunted by the aquarium size (they were in 30g for a long time), which is very sad but unfortunately can't be changed now. I know we wouldn't get them again even though they are really really lovely fish, but we have had these ones for the time being and can only do our best for them with what we have available.

So, after that waffle - in terms of sizes I am looking for something that would fit comfortably into our current tank - so around 10-12 inches for a single fish or a couple of 8inch max fish.

Thanks for those recommendations both, I shall have a look up about them shortly.