Please help with ID

[pnyklr3]

My daycare provider offered me her tank (30 or 40 gallon TOPS) that has 2 common plecos, a few tetras, and 2 large catfish. I told her that is she didn't find them a home by the end of summer, I would put them in my classroom.

One is about 6 inches and the other is around8 inches. They have HUGE eyes on the sides of their heads. I know that fish generally do have them on the sides, but these are where the cheeks should be. The closest I could find one Planetcatfish was This. Please click on the thumbnails to see a larger photo. I know that some of these are blurry, but this was the closest to the body shape that I could find. Here's my big question: Are these not very common? It says that there is no info, so I'm assuming that perhaps what I am looking at is not this exactly but something very close. Sorry, but I couldn't look through all of the pages in this category, but I think this may be the closest I get. I will try to update with a pic if possible.

 

[pnyklr3]

Ok. I think I have it narrowed down to Ageneiosus cf. atronasus (family: Auchenipteridae), a South American Catfish, that is a mid-dweller. I have read that it is also somtimes called Wood cats, Zamora catfish, jaguar catfish, and Slopehead catfish, and may or may not be predatory. It also said that they only get to be about 12 cm, but the 2 I saw were already bigger than this. I ended up finding this on a google search that found some posts from the planet catfish forum.

Any other info on this fish would be greatly appreciated.

 

[glolite]

Another catfish with big eyes is the synodontis eupterus (featherfin catfish)

 

[pnyklr3]

Sorry to say that it's eyes are far buggier than that! After some more looking...while at work ...I found that the common name I said above, aren't even used for cats in the same species. This is getting hard! I've asked the owner to send me a photo, but I won't be able to check my email from here.

The cats in question are nearly completely black, or at least a very dark grey. The eys are, once again, HUMONGOUS. It's like looking at a pug. They are very low-set on the head, too.

Thanks for the help so far!

 

[SirMinion]

With the description of the eyes 'where the cheeks are', I imediately thought of the pangasius family.

Here's a pangasius hypophthalmus as sold in fish stores everywhere.

and here's what they don't tell you.

yes? no?

 

[ryan]

I'd think Sirminion is spot on here. Ageneiosus cf. atronasus are not commonly found and will fetch a higher price than Pangasius hypophthalmus and are usually only kept by specailist in comparison Pangasius hypophthalmus is commonly seen and resonable priced.

 

[sylvia]

Any chance it's this (not a catfish)? http/badmanstropicalfish.com/cyprinids/black_shark1.jpg I was thinking possibly because you said it was black or dark grey and they do have huge eyes. That's probably not it though. I think SirMinion must have got it right - when it comes to eyes where the cheeks are - though Oh and those eyes are deffinately 'buggy'... how cute!

 

[pnyklr3]

The fact that there wasn't much info on Ageneiosus cf. atronasus led me to believe that they weren't common. And if they aren't common, they aren't given away as "it's a catfih...don't know which kind."

I had seen the pics of pangasius hypophthalmus before (sorry, can't see these right now; work doesn't let most pics on this site come through for some reason) and passed them over quickly because they didn't look the same. But upon looking more closely at the adults, and then at the juveniles, I realized that you are spot on. Like I said before, they are very dark, and the adults didn't seem that way. After looking at more and more pics, turns out that they are of varying shades. They are also very skittish.

Yikes. They offered me the tank, and all of it's inahbitants, and now I'm torn. It's a 30-40 gallon tank with 2 common plecos (quite large already) 2 of these catfish, and 3 different tetras. I'm not sure why the tetras haven't become lunch, but I'm going to assume it's only because they are too big. I was tempted to move some of the inhabitants to my 55 gallon, and perhaps selling or giving the others away. The plecos full-grown won't fit, and neither will the catfish. I don't want the various tetras, because I don't want to buy enough to have the groups they need. I'm not going to risk my cockatoos to a hungry pangasius hypophthalmus either.

Not only is this tank severely overstocked, they feed all of the inhabitants gold-fish flakes. Sounds like the cats need waaaay more than this (mainly: meat).

Sigh, I don't know what to do. Do you suppose a lfs would buy these, or trade for supplies? Sound more like pangasius hypophthalmus is a pest to have in a home setting. So I'm tempted to have an extra used tank, but I'm not sure what to do with the fishies.

As soon as they send me the pics, I'll compare the two. Thanks you guys!