Mini-sharks

[TIIEWL]

I'm trying to identify a suitable catfish/shark for my first tank (is this a good idea ?)

I've come up with an idea for a fairly large 'designer' tank for my first house as I can't think of anywhere suitable to put a regular type one - living room isn't exactly huge

tank idea

I'm sure on my travels I've seen some catfish (or maybe they actually were sharks) that look like this :

(I know this is a shark - I've just pulled the piccy to give you an idea of the sort of thing I'm after)

I've had a look on the 'catfish index' but it's not always clear how big these things grow and whether they're easy to look after

Do any of you guys have anything similar and/or what could you recommend for a tank like this ?

Thanks

 

[TIIEWL]

Ok so perhaps I got a little carried away with the search for 'shark' on Google

Anyone here keep Perunno catfish ? (for some reason whenever I search for it an error comes up)

From what information I've managed to find already these (well, one of them) should be ok in a 150 gallon tank - similar to the one I'm thinking of

 

[CFC]

Providing it was the only bottom dweller in the tank a single perruno cat could be housed in a 150 gallon tank. Remember large Pimeloid catfishes such as these are hardcore predators that will make short work of any fish less than half their own size, if you want to keep any tankmates with one choose them carefully.

 

[TIIEWL]

Would he be ok in there on his own ? (not bored or lonely)

Best reference info I've found is on mongabay and provided it's accurate, these seem to be a fairly good choice

I'd be interested to see any pictures anyone has of their tank with these or similar fish in or to hear any suggestions - would I be better trying to establish a 'mature' tank before getting a fish like this ?

 

[Vip]

What about a salmotail catfish? they get pretty big, upto about 20"
There is a pic of mine in my signature

 

[Vip]

Or even better, why not a black shark.

 

[CFC]

A single peruno will be fine alone, they do not enjoy the company of their own kind and are territorial. If you wanted a few tankmates to liven up the middle and surface area's of the tank then you could try large cyprinids such as bala sharks or tinfoil barbs, cichlids such as oscars, severums or any other medium/large non aggressive cichlid or larger oddballs such as arowana's or gars.

I keep a Leiarius pictus which is a very similar fish, much of the information particually the care info here http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=34130 is the same as for the perruno cat.