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![]() | Big Pims Part Two! |
Calilasseia![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() *Ultimate Fish Guru* Panda Funster Posts: 5496 Kudos: 2828 Votes: 731 Registered: 10-Feb-2003 ![]() ![]() | Some time ago, I wrote a feature entitled "Big Pims", in which I featured a number of truly huge catfish for the specialist big catfish keeper. Well, Practical Fishkeeping did something similar, spread across two issues, namely February 2004 and March 2004, written by Richard Hardwick, who is something of an 'oddball' fish specialist. In his article, as well as featuring one or two of the species I covered, he introduced his readers to some that I did not cover, and so, I thought I'd indulge in another Baedecker tour for everyone. ![]() One of Richard Hardwick's 'oddball' Pims is Lophiosilurus alexandri. This is a sort of South American version of Chaca chaca, with a similarly flattened head and tiny eyes, adapted for lurking for prey while buried in a sandy substrate. To add to its stealth characteristics, it has a pimply, warty upper surface, so that when it buries itself, any upper body parts showing blend in with the substrate. As it frequents waters whose substrates consist of light coloured sand, the fish is a sort of fawn colour. It is equipped with a huge mouth, but despite being superbly adapted for life as a half-buried stealth predator, it is surprisingly well-behaved with fishes too large for it to eat, and can be kept with others of its own kind too. However, given that this is a 30-inch fish when fully grown (and Richard Hardwick has seen one that size to counter statements in the literature that they only max out as 12 inches!), its quarters will have to be substantial to put it mildly. But then, specialists in Big Pims are usually prepared to buy huge aquaria from the onset, knowing that their chosen favourites will usually be huge fishes as adults. In the case of Lophiosilurus alexandri, the problems likely to be encountered will be the usual 'Big Pim' problems - a huge appetite, and an equally colossal ability to foul the water with excreta. It accepts a wide range of foods, and surprisingly, does NOT need live fishes to remain happy and well-fed, accepting whitebait, freshwater mollusc flesh of various kinds, basically any reasonably meaty foods. This fish alternates between long periods of almost comatose-seeming inactivity, with explosive activity when its excellent sense of smell detects food. Big ones will lunge out of the water at the aquarist's fingers, and as they are equipped with Velcro-like gripper teeth on the lips, they can manage big morsels - an adult is easily capable of swallowing a morsel a third of its own weight in a single feed! Hardwick has three at home according to his article, which says a lot about the kind of home he must live in - wall-to-wall huge aquaria for his assorted oddballs (including an enormous Hoplias lacerdae Erythrinid with a mouth like a car crusher!). One of Hardwick's catfishes that will never win any beauty contests is Pseudopimelodus fowleri, the Jelly Catfish. Another flat-headed predator, this time one that will eat live voles with ease and becomes, in Hardwick's memorable words, a two-foot aquatic dustbin with fins. Meaty foods are eaten with relish, and again, this fish combines long periods of inactivity with explosive feeding. The modus operandi of this fish in the wild is to lurk among submerged tree roots, with its barbels just stroking the water surface, picking up vibrations with radar-like accuracy. An adult will eat a fish half its own weight, and lunge at prey with lightning speed, so watch your fingers! Hardwick recommends that this species be kept in a large cube-shaped aquarium, as it is not particularly adept at turning around. This catfish is also an underwater bulldozer par excellence, so protection for filter tubes is a must (like the infamous Redtailed Catfish, it will sometimes try to eat them!), and Hardwick also advises using an external thermo-filter instead of a heater in the aquarium itself, as the fish is likely to try and swallow the heater, with disastrous results. This fish is aggressive towards others of its own species, so it is likely to end up as a lone occupant of its watery cube, glowering at passers-by while waiting for a nice leg bone to strip the flesh from! I mentioned Sorubiimichthys planiceps in my own article, but Hardiwck informs us that it has a common name - the Firewood Catfish. A three-foot monster that has a habit of swallowing anything remotely edible and quite a few things that are not, Hardiwck describes his experience of one that ate a plastic replica Cabomba. Knowing that large catfish cannot digest animal fat, Hardwick offered it a piece of beef with considerable fat attached, and 48 hours later, the fish regurgitated the fat along with the now-lubricated plastic plant. A tip for anyone else with Big Pims that have eaten something they shouldn't! Hardwick cites this species as only really suitable for a public aquarium, not only because of its size, ravenous appetite, and Redtail-Catfish style habit of trying to eat the filter tubing or heater, but it has a nervous disposition, is easily spooked, and jumps. Its effortless, graceful swimming should be a warning that it can fly some distance when it becomes airborne, and a three-footer will land with the impact of a mortar round upon nearby furniture! The Firewood Cat can be kept with other fishes, but they had better be large companions such as Black Adonis Plecs, certain other Big Pims and Pacus that are too big to fit into its mouth. A community aquarium containing that little lot will be colosssal - to give all of them growing and swimming space will require a civil engineering project with bullet-proof glass to stop the occupants crashing out, the entire edifice being about the size of a Mack truck. WITH the trailer. I'm not kidding here - this 'community aquarium' will need to be at least THIRTY FEET in length! Then, there are Leiarus pictus and Leiarus marmoratus, both originally classified in the Genus Sciades before being moved by taxonomists. Both of these can grow 12 inches in their first year, and reach 30 inches in length, which means that they are definitely 'Big Pims'. They can become real pets, tapping their owners on the shoulder with their barbels demanding to be fed, and generally engaging in extrovert antics to attract attention in the hope of being rewarded with food. Both are territorial, best kept on their own, and marmoratus is somewhat nervous in addition. However, they have heroic appetites, placing enormous demands upon filtration systems, and while they can become real pets, allowing the owner to stroke them, when feeding time comes around, make sure that they don't add your fingers to their diet, as they can snap at astonishing speed and aren't fussy about adding a fingertip or two to the regular food! Hardwick mentions Merodontotus tigrinus, another species from my past article, and cites another reason why msot people won't get to keep one. When they appear in the shops, the price tag is colossal - prime specimens cost over 1000 each! The species is, apparently, ![]() Goeldiella eques is a sort of 'Medium-Big Pim', included in Hardwick's article for rarity value, as it is seldom imported. Hardwick describes it as 'beautifully camouflaged', and my now-obsolete Japanese catfish book features a photograph of it. And yes, it IS beautifully camouflaged - it can perform an excellent imitation of a piece of bogwood! Hardwick says that the fish reaches around 10 inches, and is thus more manageable than a Firewood Cat, but it will still need large quarters, and will probably be unsafe with any other fish that can fit into its considerable mouth. Then, Hardwick introduces us to a 'Big Pim' that can ONLY be kept in a species tank. And, his anecdote illustrates why eloquently. Calophysus macropterus is known as the Vulture Catfish, because it can rip a corpse apart with frightening speed and ease. Voracious, predatory, and equipped with a mouth full of sharp teeth giving them the ability to cut through flesh like a scalpel, Vulture Cats look, as Hardwick says, like overgrown versions of Pimelodus pictus, the Polka Dot Pim, and have as a distinguishing feature a truly huge adipose fin, almost half the length of the body. This is a fish that can sometimes decide to help itself to its tankmates for food, and when it does, as Hardwick says, it takes no prisoners. Hardwick described bringing home a Porthole Shovelnose, Hemisorubim platyrhynchos, itself a tank-busting bruiser, and temporarily housing it with his Vulture Cats (Hardwick had several in the same aquarium). In seconds, the Vulture Cats had dismantled the Porthole Shovelnose completely, leaving just the head and tail. The rest of the unfortunate Porthole Shovelnose had disappeared into the mouths of the Vulture Cats, who amply demonstrated how they acquired their name in the process. Vulture Cats are cited by Hardwick as reaching 20 inches in length, making them almost as big as Sorubim lima, and any fish that size capable of dismantling a bigger fish for food is NOT to be messed with. The photograph of this species in my old catfish book shows a stockily-built fish that looks as if it is spoiling for a fight, but which gives no immediate indication of being anything other than another typical 'Big Pim' with a large appetite. Don't let that fool you for one moment, because it can, when the mood takes it, become a butcher par excellence. It would not surprise me in the least if someone told me it shared its waters with that brutal Hoplias lacerdae with the car crusher jaws in the wild, as it is the Pim equivalent. If you are in a position to keep this fish, do NOT keep it with anything else! Furthermore, on the basis of that anecdote, I'd warn the prospective keeper not to place his limbs too close to a Vulture Cat's mouth either, unless he wishes to part company with said limbs ... ![]() |
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Shinigami![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Ichthyophile Catfish/Oddball Fan Posts: 9962 Kudos: 2915 Registered: 22-Feb-2001 ![]() ![]() ![]() | There is only one obvious error in this article: Sorubimichthys planiceps gets 5 feet long. ![]() Just look at these pics for comparison. IMO these two fish have to be 4' already at least. ![]() -------------------------------------------- The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian. |
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Calilasseia![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() *Ultimate Fish Guru* Panda Funster Posts: 5496 Kudos: 2828 Votes: 731 Registered: 10-Feb-2003 ![]() ![]() | Another knowledge ba ![]() ![]() |
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