Featherfin Catfish

[maskedrainbow]

I have two featherfin cats in my tank, and i was just wondering if anybody else has had experiece with them, these were my first catfish and i totally love my two
they are quite big i would say already a good 3/4" with one being slightly bigger than the other, i have read up they can reach double this, is this true?!....they also seem to whenever they meet tend to chase each other around a bit and seem to be tertorial.......i'm also assuming that they are egg layers?

 

[gixer]

Yes they are egglayers but i very much doubt you will ever get them to breed. its true they double the size your are at the moment a size of 8 inches is about the norm for a fully grown adult.

They can live for upto 30years or more. They can be very terratorial its each syno is different. they might tollerate another of its own kind but it might not. so good luck on that.

heres a pic of mine. he's about 6 inches now.

 

[adcs]

All I know is, I bought it like this :

And it turned into this :

Casualties so far :

8 Neon Tetras
1 Long-finned Barb
The tails from two of my Rosy Barbs (now grown back)

Fish stores around here still claim that these catfish only grow to between 3-4cm...

He now lives with 2 8" Botia modesta (Redfinned Blue Loach) and they fight over an ornamental castle all day long. I'd like to put him in a big Cichlid tank eventually.

 

[maskedrainbow]

wow now that is big, roughly how big is he adcs?!...

thanks for all your info gixer....when i brought my two i was told they may get agressive to each other once they grew, and up until now havent really had too much of a problem...they just tend to squabble over the mini cave ive built them and the area behind my castle....
The only reason i wondered if they were egg layers, is because my slightly larger one seems to have a larger belly area then the slightly smaller one..just wondering if he may actually be a 'she' had have eggs in there...lol

 

[jumpman]

Yeah got mine small and they turned out to be Euruptus and not the true upside down cats. I have four in a 75g with various chichlids and clown loaches...,they chase a bit now and then but settle down after feeding. Are about 6 inches now and one is still 3 inches, but catching up fast! They seem to get much more active the older they get, mine now take flake from the surface too!

here is a link to a post with pics of them....

my synodontis euruptus pics

 

[Fawke]

Just to chip in, i love these fish and just wondering how they would fair with my Syno Angelicus?

Syno's being syno's, im presuming they would fight?

Thanks (and sorry to gatecrash)

 

[adcs]

The one we have is about 7" but I'm sure I've read that they can reach 12".

He now lives with my mum because he couldn't behaving himself in my Barb tank!!

 

[Oddball]

Synodontis Eupterus what a cool little cat! Personnel experience finds that the fems get longer than the males but they tend to lose that glorious finnage that the males keep (SOB be nice if they coul keep it) and the fems also are lighter. The males are shorter and stockier, darker in colouration with a thick fat belly. Youngsters love to hide and hang upside down in sructures such as caves (maybe why they chase). Older specimins can be chasey......and tend to turn mostly nocturnal occaisionally turn up to hunt for food.
If you can get them to spawn (rare indeed) they lay a cluster of adhesive eggs on a cave like structure, slate being ideal, and the male becomes very aggressive to protect the eggs.
Note dont keep these lovely fish with tiger barbs........

Another note for fawke......Synos havee unique personalities, so they may get on, if you want to try at least have a back up plan to relocate him if it goes wrong!

 

[adcs]

Note dont keep these lovely fish with tiger barbs........

Is that because he might eat them?! Because my Tiger Barbs didn't even get close enough to nip his fins when he lived with me!!

I have a Leopard Sailfin plec that lives with the Tiger Barbs and he has beautiful fins... and a very bad temper

 

[Oddball]

well i tried keeping mine with tigers but as he matured into a large male they started to nip him until it lost it one day and beat three up.......needless to say my barbs now live my cousin!

The pleco should (dont take my word for it too much this is only personnel experiece) be fine as the fins aren't long and flowing or very fast moving (wish i could find a fast moving pleco!)