Porthole Catfish

[njstockley]

Hi

I've set up and (fishless) cycled my 90L (30"x12"x18") tank. It's housing my shoal of Black Neons and I went to the LFS a couple of days ago and saw 3 porthole catfish. They look very healthy, and I'm pretty keen on buying the three of them, but I've had a search around on the internet and can't seem to find much info on them.

My questions are, would they be suitable for my tank size? It's well planted, has a sand substrate, and bogwood and caves for cover. Are they best kept in a group (if I got all 3 would they be ok together?)? what size would they get to - i've read some articles say 4" some say +6"?

finally, are they ok to live with the smaller cichlids (bolivian rams/kribs etc) or would they get knocked around all the time?

thanks,

nick

 

[Wills]

I would say the tank is border line to small for them. Ideally you would want to start with something around 40 gallons and at least 36 inches long or more. They are very active catfish and do get to a chunky 4-6 inches.

I think the best alternative would be http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=13 these Hoplosternum Pectorale aka dwarf hoplo catfish they get a little over 2 inches and I know there are a quite a few being distributed around the UK.

The other alternative would be a further relative of the flagtails which would be any of the cory catfish or brochis catfish?

Wills

 

[njstockley]

great thanks for the info. will have to see what else i can find.

 

[njstockley]

i did some reading up on these guys after the last post, and had a look at some more pics of them on the internet. the ones in the shop do have the large spots on them, but seems their eyes are sat higher on the head, and the tail has a continuation of the spots, and is a different shape again to the pictures i have seen. is there something similar that they might be, or am i just being hopeful? the back part is also much thicker, the same height as the tail, and in general they just look much more solid.

 

[njstockley]

i do actually have a picture i took on my phone, but cant get it to upload onto the forum. will try again in a bit.

 

[Wills]

Cool cool sounds interesting try putting the picture on photobucket and then adding the image tags

 

[njstockley]

http/s1090.photobucket.com/albums/i362/njstockley/?action=view&current=Photo0067.jpg

this is the link to the photo i took...i think i might have just been very hopeful as these guys look so cool...what do you reckon?

 

[Wills]

Hi yeah that isnt the porthole catfish they are hoplos my guess would be Megalechis thoracata which gets to about 5 inches or so http/www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=14 good profile on them

Wills

 

[njstockley]

yeah that looks like a good match. by the looks of it though still too big for my tank?