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the other day i was in an aquarium store and there was a and it said blue whale shark on the tank and a single fish cost $60 and it was about this long |________________________| i was just wondering is it a rare find because i couldnt find anything about it on the aquarium sites i go to

This is the only whale shark I know of no where near an aquarium fish
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Last edited by spaced emu at 28-Nov-2005 13:39

It was probably one of a couple Mormyrids commonly known as "Baby Whales". They are not very rare, but can be difficult to care for.


Photo taken from Cornell University

Last edited by Cory Addict at 29-Nov-2005 21:59[/font]

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

^^^ that looks like the fish except this fish was kind of a flat blue colour and it was actually fairly slender in shape

Can you give a more specific description of the fish, or at least narrow it down to a specific group of fish it could be?

I'm still willing to bet it's some kind of Mormyrid, there are several species imported under similar names.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

i really cant give a specific description but it does look similar to the baby whale ill see if i can go to the store and see if i could get more info about this fish

The Baench aquarium atlas volume 2 has some nice info on these fish so check that out.

Theres quite a few of them with that overall look but in different shades and colours. No less difficult to keep than elephant noses, and the care and problems are all very similar.They prefer small, live, wormy foods, and have some limited electrical abilities. They all hail from africa, the largest species being about a foot long , although most are half that length or smaller. These species have been reclassified often and are found under various latin names including Gnathonemus, Marcusenius,and Petrocephalus.

The one nice thing about them is that unlike the more commonly seen elephant noses as least they dont have an easily damaged nose. Temps and water qualities are all pretty similar across the board.Almost none of them have been bred in aquaria yet, so theyre all gonna be wild caught and will probably need the gentlest handling and some good anti-parasite care. Like elephant noses generally, they can either be really aggressive to conspecifics or are indeed schooling fish, so should you decide to own one, check the species very carefully.

Probably a good project for a species specific tank, but I wouldnt just add them to any random community tank.People buying them should really be trying to really establish good captive care and breeding. They will be sensitive to environmental stress, lighting, cagemates, and water quality, so one for the more experienced aquarist who will set up a perfect aquarium for them and leave them to get on with it in moderate seclusion. Theres a bit of pioneering to be done with these species.



Last edited by longhairedgit at 02-Dec-2005 02:25

Probably a corpse-burrowing catfish of the genus Cetopsis.

Veneer took my guess, though they are predators first and scavengers second, specializing in puesdoparasitic behavior. The only species ever to be imported with any regularity is c. coecutiens. I've noticed they've been on the influx lately; we've got them here at 20 bucks or less.

My first quess was also Baby Whale. They can come bluish-greyish in color IME.



Didn't think of Cetopsis much, but they're another possibility.

I've seen both in my homely state of Delaware, so neither are particularly rare. In any case $60 is waaaaaaay overpricing either of these fish.[/font]

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.