Giraffe catfish

[shawy]

This weekend or next weekend i am getting a giraffe catfish from the lfs which has been saved for me but im wondering if it needs sand on the bottom or gravel?

 

[CFC]

As for nearly all catfish sand would be the best substrate, Girraffe cats love to root about the substrate looking for anything edible and gravel could damage its barbels. I trust you already know what you are letting yourself in for with this fish? Girraffe cats are in the same league as redtails and tiger shovelnoses in terms of tank sizes and a full grown adult is going to need a minimum of a 8x3x2 tank at least.

 

[corrosive]

Maybe he plans to put it, in his pond , I think even cats would stay away, if it gets the size your saying CFC lol.

 

[Clare]

I have 2 Giraffe cats at the moment. They are in a tank 8 x 2 x 2, soon to be upgraded to an 8 x 3 x 2. They are growing VERY fast and we are bringing them on with 2 Pseudodoras Niger and 2 Granulosys. Then, when they are big they are going in a tank 12 x 5 x 4 with the Red Tail which we are also growing on but who is tiny at the moment. They are great fish and i would say sand is a must have. They love prawns, cockles, mussels, whelk and whitebait. They are brilliant at uprooting plants so we keep our plants to a minimum but they have bogwood and pots to hide in. They are very peaceful and tend to stick together but also spend time with the others.
Clare

P.S, Lithril should be posting my pictures on the `members pictures` site soon and there is a picture of Flo and Ernie on there if you are intereted in seeing them. They are around 1ft long. ( the cats not the pictures)!!

 

[Oddball]

Well when i was younger i commited one of fish keepings donts.......i bought fish without researching properly...........

well amongst these guys i got a two pangasius, an oscar, a girafee and a hi fin pangassius...........

all in a 3ft tank (dont hurt me guys).

anyway the young oscar ate one pangassius and removed the othere eye, so the oscar was rehomed...............down to giraffe and hifin...........now three months went by, then hi fin ate the giraffe........

the moral, research your fish lol, but the giraffe always burrwoed under a log till feeding time in the sandy bottom so id go with sand

 

[shawy]

I have got the sand now and also got cockle and bloodworm for it

 

[SirMinion]

There's an adult giraffe in the showtank at one of my LFS's. It shares the tank with two adult pacus, an adult tiger shovelnose, several half grown red tails, some huge syno's and a few two foot gibbies.

This is a BIG tank!

The giraffe cat's head is about two feet long!

Another LFS nearby sells 3 inch giraffes with a label on the tank which just says "Peaceful, grows large"

...and the award for understatment of the year goes to....

 

[CFC]

There is a popular misconception that giraffe catfish only grow to around 2 feet which makes them just about suitable for home aquariums, unfortunately they can and often do exceed 36" and since they are constantly active require a huge tank to be happy. This is yet another fish i personally feel should be struck off the importers lists as very very few people will ever have the space to keep them.

Clare your going to need more than one of those 12x5x4 tanks! The 4 large Doradids make up 16 feet of fish alone when full grown, you would be better off building a large indoor raised level brick pond of about 12x12x4 as with just 7 fish you have around 26 feet of fish to keep!