What The Hell Is This?

[Lynden]

Hi, i bought a catfish about 8 months ago. Apparently it was a synodontis. It is grey, with white barbels and a red tail. It looks like a tiger shovelnose crossed with a red tailed crossed with a channelcat. When I bought it, it was about 3''. It is now about 11'', not including its massive barbels. It regularly kicks the crap out of my oscar pair. These oscars are the meanest oscars i have ever heard of, and they are paired, so they team up on their enemies. When the oscars spawn, the catfish beats them up and eats the eggs. I would like to know what this is before it gets five feet long and breaks the glass!

Note that it is nocturnal, like most cats.

 

[Fella]

Red tailed cat?

 

[Lynden]

Nope, it looks like a red tailed, however there is no white on the body, just on the barbels (whiskers). It is also much slimmer and streamlined looking, it is a very graceful animal. It is actually rather beautiful Catfish as a family are very nice. Its too bad itll probably get ten feet long

Its characteristics are as follows: About 11'' long, with about 8'' white barbels. It has several pairs of whiskers, 8'' being the longest, then 4'', and so on. It has a large head, and large eyes. Its body and fins, excluding the caudal and barbels, are uniformally dull smokey grey. The very end of the caudal pundicle, to the end of the caudal, is scarlet red. It has a string-like extension to the fin on each caudal lobe.

My camera blows mule balls, so i cannot provide a picture. Sorry ) I hope my description helps, and keep the pictures coming!

Thanks,
-Lynden

 

[Mad Duff]

Could this be the fella Hemibagrus Wyckioides, The Asian Red-tailed Catfish
hemibagrus wyckioides

 

[woodie]

sounds like an asian i have one pics below

ignore the dirty glass these were taken as i was cleaning it

and i am amzed if it is one of these that are oscars arnt dead there are known to take chunks out of bigger fish

mine is housed by himself and has been known to try and bite my fingers when cleaning the tank

 

[CFC]

and the moral of the story here is DONT BUY CATFISH UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT THEY ARE.

 

[Lynden]

Oh balls. Even against an oscar pair it will still kill them? I knew this bastard was tough , but an oscar pair? My oscars are the meanest i have ever seen or heard of mind you. How big do these asains get? Im pretty sure thats what mine is. I think it beat up my tinfoil, it is in a 77 gallon which is slightly overstocked. It will soon be upgraded to a 125 gallon. In it is a red devil, a JD, a blue acara, and my oscars, as well as a plec, tinfoil and a golden apple snail.

Hey thanks for id ing this beast

 

[CFC]

In captivity they can easily grow to 2 feet and can grow to 3 feet when given enough space and food, they get meaner and nastier as they grow, adults over a foot usually wont tollerate any fish in the tank and dispatch them over night by ripping their bellies open while they sleap. These catfish are in the top 3 most aggressive freshwater fish on the planet, there isnt a cichlid that even comes close in the aggression and ability to kill stakes, in their native waters they have been known to attack swimmers that get too close.

 

[Fish_Mike]

In captivity they can easily grow to 2 feet and can grow to 3 feet when given enough space and food, they get meaner and nastier as they grow, adults over a foot usually wont tollerate any fish in the tank and dispatch them over night by ripping their bellies open while they sleap. These catfish are in the top 3 most aggressive freshwater fish on the planet, there isnt a cichlid that even comes close in the aggression and ability to kill stakes, in their native waters they have been known to attack swimmers that get too close.

 

[Lynden]

In captivity they can easily grow to 2 feet and can grow to 3 feet when given enough space and food, they get meaner and nastier as they grow, adults over a foot usually wont tollerate any fish in the tank and dispatch them over night by ripping their bellies open while they sleap. These catfish are in the top 3 most aggressive freshwater fish on the planet, there isnt a cichlid that even comes close in the aggression and ability to kill stakes, in their native waters they have been known to attack swimmers that get too close.

Aarrgh. That is one hell of a fish Makes me proud of them

It is said that pirahnas are the worlds most ferocious freshwater fish. However obviously they did not even glance at the african tiger characin, they get 3 times the size of a black piranha and have 2 inch teeth. They hunt in masssive packs and attack even hippos and crocodiles. And piranhas are scardey cats, ive seen a dwarf gourami beat up a piranha.

It seems like catfish reach all the exremities, such as size, predatory capabilities, electricity, venom, ect.
They sure are awesome What size of tank is needed for a lone asian red-tail? (dontsay300gallonsdontsay300gallonsdontsay300gallons..... )

 

[CFC]

As they will have to have the entire tank to themselves a tank of 72x30x24" (225 gallons) would suffice as a bare minimum to allow the fish room to turn around and swim.