Jaguar Catfish At Lfs

[Mamba]

I've come across in my LFS a couple of Jaguar Catfish. They are very small and as far as I can tell look more like the oncinus than the morrowi (false Jaguar catfish).

My ph level is generally 7.2-7.4 but I hear these prefer accidic water. These, from what I understand are imported as they haven't been bred in captivity succesffully as far as I am aware. There seems to be lots of conflicting info of temp etc as one site says 20-24 and that they stop eating after 24 celsius and another says 20-28 but 25-26 is ideal!!

Has anyone kept any of these and can advise me on what is really needed temp etc?

All help gratefully received.

Cheers.

 

[MartinS]

They will be fine at 23-25c, I've kept large specimens of these at 'standard' tropical temperatures with no problems. According to PlanetCatfish, they can accept a range of 20-28, so somewhere in the middle is ideal.
Feeding wise, they can be very nocturnal, but with the right food can be tempted out. See this video. They are a stunning fish and i'd love to get my hands on a couple of small specimens, but they certainly don't come up very often at small sizes. If it were me (and the price was right), your tank was a good size, had plenty of hiding places, nothing too small that it would become dinner for these (they will happily take live fish if hungry enough) and not too brightly lit, I'd have 2-3. They are sexable, but it sounds like probably too small at the moment.
Hope this help
Martin

 

[Squidward]

There is a very good article in this month's PFK.

I would love to get one, but for the price of them, I want to see it all the time. Not in the dark!

 

[Mamba]

That's one hell of a video and a beautiful fish too MartinS!!

My worry was more the PH but I assume that the ph level in my LFS 30 miles away should be the same.

Really tempted but I have a small 3ft tank with Chinese banded loaches and a few Tiger Barbs, a larger 3ft tank with a mix of Fancy Goldfish, Praecox Rainbow, 2 Ancistrus (Golden + one ling finned), some Dianema catfish and a few Penguin Tetra. The small 5ft tank has Koi, an Adonis Pleco, a spotted talking catfish and two Crayfish. If I had have known about the Jaguar Catfish I probably wouldn't have had the Adonis, The spotted and the crayfish.
Going to have to think about it and see what can be done.

Cheers again for the help.

 

[Mamba]

Well, I couldn't resist the temptation and got one, £18 but I think it's lovely:

 

[MartinS]

£18!!! That's a bargain price. The last time i saw them that size they were £35 each. Which tank is this going into?
Can I ask why you keep coldwater and tropical fish together? Koi and not suited to indoor aquaria because of their obvious adult size, and they will not do well if kept at continued elevated (tropical) temperatures. Equally if you are keeping the tropical fish at lower temperatures, the tropical fish will not be able to process their food correctly and may end up being stunted and almost definitely live a shorter life than if kept at the correct temps.
The same goes for the larger 3' tank with goldfish and the other inhabitants. All coldwater fish are extremely messy feeders and produce large amounts of waste, this will increase in warmer temps and make keeping the tank clean and the water params stable very difficult.
Martin

 

[Mamba]

It's in my Quarantine tank tbh, just a 2 footer. It is very small right now, only about an inch and a half at most. The water is acidic, PH 6 so it should be within it's parameters. I understand these cab get big, to about 10" so i'm hoping to sort a proper full tropical tank out for it soon. Right now I don't really
have the space for a proper big tank.

I have my Fancy Goldfish with the Praecox and an Albino Rainbow Shark at 24-25 degrees Celsius. I've found that the Fancy Goldfish do seem to like hotter temperatures and have seen a growth spurt on these.

The Koi and Common/Comet Goldfish are kept in the 5ft tank. I bought them when small and feed them twice a day so they are about 4-5" now. They are kept at slightly above room temperature as I have an Acanthicus Adonis Pleco and Spotted Talking Catfish in there temporarily. They too seem to prefer the slightly elevated temperature to at 20-22 degrees celsius. It's not idela for the pleco and catfish but they are being rehomed soon I hope. I also have two Blue Lobster/Cryfish as clean up crew.

Yes, keeping the water clean is a large weekly job but that's what it takes. All of my tanks are mature, they keep weekly showing up as no Nitrite and no Ammonia. I do regular water changes and the fish seem fine. Yes, i know I am going to have to rehome some or move them on. When I first started I was like many other over zealous and bought everything I liked. I am making amends I hope and are planning my next set of tanks, two 5ft, one 4ft and the larger 3ft which are going to be put into the spare room once the renovation work is finished.

I do weekly have to clean out my filters, I do the gravel vacuum also weekly and I reckon the clean up crew are too, also doing more than their fair share. It is alot of work, my dad doesn't have to clean out his filters a quarter as much as I have to with my coldwater fish. But i like them and I think where they are worht the extra effort. The same with my Loaches, all cool water fish but at the end day I think they're worth the effort.

Space is the problem at the moment. These tanks are just temporary. When I get all in order they will have exactly what they need for a long time.

 

[MartinS]

I'd suggest you leave the jag where it is, make sure it's feeding etc, and at that size, as they are not fast growers, it will be fine for more than a few months.

With regards the other tanks, I appreciate you replying in detail - I wasn't having a dig, just trying to make you aware the side-effects of keeping fish at elevated temps.
You've already noticed the growth spurt of the goldfish, and this will continue but be aware that they will be breaking down food quicker due to the higher temps, and will almost definitely lead to a reduced lifespan if kept at the higher temps.
It's great that you are so diligent with tank maintenance, but I'd strongly suggest you re-think the tanks and inhabitants. The issue you have now is time of year - if it were spring you could look to move the koi to a pond, but with winter afoot, it's the wrong time to move them outside. The koi will continue to grow in a 5' and would not surprise me if they were at least 10-12" in the next 6 months.

I see from your ID post you are aware of the adonis plec's adult size - a shame as a lovely fish but way too big for the even a large home aquarium. I'd also be wary of the crayfish as clean-up crew - they can and will take fish if they get a chance and are not really suited to a tank containing fish. The rainbow shark can (and nearly always do) get aggressive as they grow.

I'm just trying to point out the issues, and like I said not having a dig at your fishkeeping.

Hope this helps
Martin

 

[Mamba]

I do appreciate that mate and understand that you are trying to impart valuable infomation to me. Thanks.
I am new to this and am reading all sorts of posts on here and asking my fair share of daft questions to in order to expand my own bredth and depth of knowledge too. If i'm wrong i'd rather someone said so rather than mince their words. I do appreciate the advice.

Circumstances delayed the refurb of the room, a rotten wooden header in a stone and rubble built wall that's going to be very hard to replace with a concrete one because of the weight above it. I also have to be mindful of the weight the old 6"x2" floor joists will have to take so this has delayed things somewhat as i'm taking the opportunity to strengthen where I can.

In all seriousness I would most likely have had different tanks, I was also caught up with buying spur of the moment fish I liked when I first got the tanks so yep, I will be reworking what I will be putting in. This time of year isn't the best time to be getting rid of Koi and Common/Comet Goldfish. Once the Pleco and catfish are picked up i'll lower the temp in the 5ft to 19-20 and go back to feeding them once only a day which is what I did last winter too. Temperature wise we haven't done too badly but last year my tanks went down to 12 degrees unheated so i'd rather keep it at room temp as i was plagued with various illnesses and dead fish, particularly in the 5ft tank. Since the heat, it has been very rare I have lost any fish at all and I haven't had illness in the tanks. Unless of course this is just an entire fluke.

 

[Mamba]

Well, I had a bit of a treat these past few days. In the mornings I have been chucking in some large, broken up Veg type sinking pellets and some small JMC Catfish Pellets. It comes out after a minute or two, hunts around an feeds on them. It is a marvellous looking fish.

I will have to get some pics of it again as I swear it's got bigger (probably my imagination though).

I used to not realy like catfish too much, couldn't see the point of people keeping fish they'd hardly ever see! I've had my eyes opened. Now I have the following catfish:

1 x Jaguar Catfish
3 x Dianema
1 x Spotted Talking Catfish
1 x Acanthicus Adonis Pleco
1 x Golden Ancistrus
1 x Long Finned Ancistrus
1 x L008 Leopard Pleco

And I have no doubt I will be looking at getting more too.

 

[MartinS]

Definitely be good to see more pics - one of my all-time favourite fish!
Great to hear it's feeding during the day - they can get used to this and will continue to do so, but if they are only fed in the night with al the lights off, they easily stay fully nocturnal. I've seen them even feed with the lights on, but I'd suggest you stay as you are, maybe starve the tank one or two days a week (no fish eats constantly in the wild) and give a varied diet, including earthworms, small prawns, pellets of various sizes and tablet food.
The video i linked to earlier was of a fish (not mine BTW) feeding on a home-made mix that contains prawns, garlic, spinach and a few other ingedients, and the fish love it. But variety is key!
Martin

 

[Mamba]

Ah, I had been feeding him/her daily. i'll keep things interesting then, give a bit more variety too. Cheers for the extra tips.

I had inheritted a 7-8" Featherfin from a tank i'd bought but the tank isn't set up yet and I had to sell that one off. It was a shame cos it was out and about alot and was, until now my favourite Catfish for sure. The Oniculous definitely blows the socks off other catfish as far as looks goes at least.

 

[Mamba]

I couldn't resist it, I wasn't at my LFS last week but called over to see what they had in. They had 2 Leopard Frog Mouth Pleco's £45 ea and 2 x Jaguar Catfish at £18 ea.

I really like the Pleco's but in truth don't have a tank hot enough for them so I bought the Jaguar Catfish. These two hid behind the bracket of the filter in the LFS's within an inch of each other. An hour or so drive back home and I put them in to acclimatise them whilt they were in the bag, there was a bit of argy bargy between them, nothing too severe. As soon as they were let into the tank with the other one the smallest one found a hidey hole almost next to the first one I bought and is still there several hours later. The other one must be in there somewhere.
I constructed a nice little cave/set of hidey holes but needless to say not one of them used it!

I just hope all is well when they come out to feed.

 

[phantomlink]

It should be fine, how much larger is the bigger one compared to the smaller one? Its suggested when you bring them home to have them in separate bags, or else they might fight like you mentioned. I'm getting a tank ready to house some Jaguars if my LFS has them when I go this week, last time I was there they had about 30 in a tank and they've never been sold out so heres hoping. I would like to have some more Raphael catfish but they aren't really sold around here

 

[Mamba]

Cheers, well, I had a look and they all seem to be still in the tank and not floating which is always a good sign!! The smallest is about 3/4 of an inch smaller and definitely quite a bit younger but then again can hide in smaller spaces so hopefully all will be well, fingers crossed.

It's a pity you weren't over in this neck of the woods (Northern Ireland) there are about 4 Striped Raphael Catfish in my LFS, Grosvenor Tropical's they are about 4" each, they're only looking £8 each.

I think you're better off with the Jaguar Cats tbh, they do, IMHO look so much nicer.