Killer Catfish?!?

[dispunky]

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!

 

[smithrc]

Photo?

Description??

 

[Bloo]

Tiger (Shovelnose) Catfish perhaps ?

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

 

[dispunky]

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.

 

[Bloo]

ok, what about a striped talking catfish then ?

 

[CFC]

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.

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.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

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.

 

[dispunky]

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

 

[DirtyHarry]

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