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Hi there, i saw a fish that looked like a pleco a few days back. I thought it was a dwarf pleco, a species that i thought existed, but in fact it was a Doradid. The species i saw came up with the name: Agamyxis pectinifrons.

Does anybody know anything about these species? I would like to put some in the larger aquarium, specifically a 20 long, or larger(40 long).

Is it a community fish?

Thanks everybody!

PS: I couldnt find too much on it, and my book says only minimal info about it. My only concern is if they are schooling. I wont be able to fit too many if they are.

They are like panda cories to me! One of my favorite fish!

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Yup , I have a couple, its a white spotted talking catfish, they are community only with larger fish as once past 2- 3 inches in length they may take fish like tetras, they have large mouths and surprisingly large stomachs, and can be gluttonous when feeding. Despite the fact that they dont look overly well equipped for predation, they can certainly spring a few surprises.

One of mine ate a black neon tetra when it was only two inches long, to say the least I was amazed. One second the tetra was cruising, then the catfish swam directly up into it and ate it so smoothly for a second it was like a disappearing trick, as if the doradid never even opened its mouth. It was amazing to see a tetra half the length of the doradid just disappear! Needless to say I moved the doradid to another tank with bigger fish immediately.


They arent really an aggressive fish though, and are if anything reclusive and peaceful.

They are easy to care for though, nocturnal (strongly so, they really hide from light) so they really must have cover, they love to hide upside down under bogwood,wedged in by their pectoral fins.

When they are fully mature and more confidant they may sit in plain sight.They generally scavenge and eat catfish pellets, the odd bit of algae wafer and meaty , wormy foods. They are pretty water quality tolerant, and will suit average water values well. Night feeds are really essential for most specimens as many will simply not break cover in daylight hours, even for a good feed. Most happily eats snails too, and have real bite power to crush the shells, though obviously this means small shrimp will also be on the menu.

They do get pretty chunky,at a rather fat 16 cm, and you wont see much of them, they typically hide themselves from view for about 90% of the time. As I write this it occurs to me I havent even seen my specimens for a clear month, so they could not, by conventional standards, be considered a great display fish. My other species , the chocolate doradid, is by far a better display fish and can be seen rummaging around for food just before lights go off. This is also a good species for the aquarium , although a little bigger at around 22cm.

there is a profile on this site, http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/432.htm

They are interesting looking , make the odd noise , and vibrate when handled or moved (not something they enjoy) but they dont really do a great deal in their daily lives.

They dont mind their own species being around, but they may get territorial if overcrowded. They could not be considered a schooling fish. Single individuals in tanks do just fine. They dont tend to breed in captivity anyway.Its not unusual for youngsters to cluster together in shops, more often than not just nervous, and trying to avoid the light, but adults like to spread out and spend many months alone.

They are slow growing, so a 20 gal will do for a few years, but given that when you have them you tend to have other display species too, you might want to go for a 30 or bigger to handle the bioload. They are a long lived fish too, often reaching more than 10 -15 years of age, so be prepared to have a long lived pet. Nice thing about them is the slow growth, you may have five or more years to plan for the bigger tank they will need when they mature if you aquire them as little more than fry.

If you like a fish that dont do a great deal, but look interesting, then this is a fish for you.

Beware of many of the other species of doradid though, many are true tankbusters (often quite literally when they start flinging stones around!). Common bacu's, irwini's, paucisquamatus,black doradids and queen of snails catfish all get over two to three feet in length, obviously requiring 500 gallons or more for truly humane care rather than just a fish in a box.

Im currently thinking about getting a jaguar catfish, a less heavily armoured but much prettier relative, that gets to 25 cm.It will be a more accomplished predator than some of the other doradids though.

its such as shame half of these cool catfish arent avaiable in aus,id like 1 of these tankbusters for my 200gal

Ah, Doradids.

I love these things, because they are quirky beasts. Several of them are known as "Talking Catfishes" because they make audible grunting noises - frequently loud enough to make the aquarist wonder how come his tank has suddenly acquired a pig population it never had before!

The other major feature of Doradids is the armour plating. In past threads, I've described the typical Doradid as the M1 Abrams main battle tank of the aquarium - and when you see close up how well armoured a Doradid catfish is, it's not that surprising I chose to make the comparison. As well as possessing heavy duty pony scutes covering the body, Doradids throw into the mix rows of serrations and spines that in the case of some species are like razor wire. Most predatory creatures do not make the mistake of trying to ingest a Doradid catfish twice - one extreme example among the smaller species is Acanthodoras spinosissimus (whose name alone betrays what you're up against -'Acanthodoras' translates as 'spiny helmet' and 'spinosissimus' translates as 'extremely spiny'), so what you have here is a chetsnut burr with fins.

As an additional defence, take a look at the pectoral fin. In many fishes, this is a fairly delicate affair (ranging right the way from Characins to Cichlids), being basically a flexible membrane supported by soft branched fin rays. In Doradids, the pectoral fin is robustly constructed, the first ray being a hard ray, which moreover is itself covered in one or more rows of serrations (some species have triple serrated edges to the pectoral fin). This fin is operated by powerful muscles, and mates neatly with a ridge alongside the body that possesses more serrations. Basically, if a Doradid is attacked by another creature, the Doradid can, if it finds itself in open water and thus required to defend itself by a means other than wedging itself into a cave, turn around and attempt to catch the attacker's fins (or limbs in the case of terrestrial animals) between the pectoral fin and the serrated body ridge. When the Doradid does this, the attacker has two choices - sit around waiting patiently for the Doradid to let go, and endure a fair amount of pain in the process, or try an extricate itself from the Doradid's grip, which will invariably involve some very unpleasant tearing of flesh.

Thanks to the combination of heavy armour, body spines and spiny fins (the dorsal has a serrated first ray in several species too) Doradids are fortified against unwelcome attentions from other fishes. Consequently, Doradids can be pressed into service as bottom feeders in aquaria containing aggressive and bad tempered fishes. Even a large, aggressive Cichlid will think twice about tangling with a Doradid Catfish once it has a taste of those spines. You can see the body spines (and to a lesser extent the pectoral spines) in this head on shot of a Raphael Cat]http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/image.php?image_id=601[/link], which illustrates why these fishes are well equipped to cope with the rough and tumble of a Cichlid aquarium, for example. Likewise, [link=this bird's eye view of a pair of [Orinocodoras eigenmanni illustrates the "living razor wire" feature very well.

However, as observed above, not all Doradids are suitable for general purpose aquaria by any stretch of the imagination. Some of them exceed two feet in length, and this beast is one of those - Megalodoras uranoscopus (the mere fact that "mega" is part of its generic name should be enough to warn you!). A fish that boasts possibly the best armour plate per unit of mass of any fish, and which is big enough to be a serious predator on other aquarium fishes in its own right, dear old Megalodoras is a fantastic fish to keep if you KNOW what you are letting yourself in for (namely the need to set up a 200 gallon aquarium as a baseline maintenance setup, and if your budget and floor joists run to 500 gallons, so much the better!), but if you're not prepared to spend a LARGE capital sum on a proper home for it, steer well clear of it!

Remember that these fishes have evolved to live in a VERY tough environment - they share their home waters with such delights as big Cichlids, Pimelodid Catfishes such as the Giant Piraiba and the Red Tailed Catfish, Giant Otters, Hoplias lacerdae Wolf Fishes with jaws like car crushers and, of course, Piranhas ... not to mention Spectacled Cayman and Anacondas. Their way of dealing with the rigours of Amazonian life is to be armoured battle tanks.


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Just to back up what cal said here, looky at this pic, this is my whitespot, and here you can see quite clearly that little razor cutter arrangement of the pectoral fin and opposing blade housing on the body. This guy is nearly 3 unches long and being a pillock, I managed to drop him onto the carpet when moving bogwood i didnt know he was hiding in.

He buzzed, and wedged himself into the carpet weave with those pectorals, and I tried to pull him free. I lost a 3 mm slice off the tip of my finger and had to cut him loose with a scalpel while bleeding profusely. He was out of the water 2 minutes, buzzing and vibrating the whole time, was he bothered? He ate a pellet 5 minutes later. I however bled for a clear half hour.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a245/longhairedgit/IMG_3094.jpg

He lives with my now notoriously violent blue acaras who have been breeding for about the last 3 months solid. Do they touch him? Nah.
Handle with caution.

Most doradidae are obligate invertebrate feeders…most of the large talkers, such as m. uranoscopus and p. niger can be housed with fish quite a ways smaller than themselves (anything that is large enough to not be accidentally "vacuumed up" via midnight foraging is safe), and are, in the wild, detritus feeders sifters.

Also, most such fish would not stand a chance against a hoplias or piranha.