FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Has any1 owned a salmontail catfish [L2992] on here before?
I saw 11 in my aunt's tank and it was very active, swimming constantly.
How big do they get?
Are they tropical or coldwater?
What do they eat?
THanks

Chrysichthys brachynema, and Arius leptaspis (probably your L2992 ) are both known as salmontail cats, both get over two feet with the largest at about 80 cm. Even in aquaria, they will end up a minimum of 30 cm, and maybe double that. Both are carnivore/omnivores and will eat surprisingly large fish if given the opportunity.

Both are tropical, but fairly water quality tolerant, and easy to keep as long as you have the room. For 11 of them at full size youd need 500-1000 gallon plus.

I think your aunt is about to have a small heart attack! Unless she has a room she can dedicate to either species, and a small fortune ready to spend on them, she'd better take those babies back to the shop sharpish!

Ive seen people advertise them as excellent for aquaria when young, but presumably only an idiot would buy a fish without the intention to house it all its life, or a confirmed destination to pass it on to. With fish that big, and that hungry, lots of adoptive homes will NOT be just waiting in the wings for when yours grow up. Better to pass them on sooner rather than later if you dont have the funds for monster fish.

Thanks to the invent of the internet, all such purchases should be researched before actually taking the fish home. Maybe auntie has a huge tank just waiting or knows someone witha huge tank waiting to accept the fish when they grow, but... ah well. you know.

Perhaps return catfish with acrid note saying "what the hell are you doing selling fish like that to beginners".

Hi,

How big is your aunt's tank? If this is the fish you are talking about you may be in for some trouble http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/607.htm

These fish can reach 80cm according to the profile (I have caught bigger ones while fishing in local waterways) and can live for 15 years.

Unless you have a suitably sized pond, this is probably not the best fish for a home aquarist.

GT

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

lol i meant she had 1 in her tank.
I was thinking of putting them into a pond.....
HOw big would it need to be?
COuld i keep other aussie natives.....eg. yabbies etc.?

Unfiltered, I guess somewhere around 4000 gallon plus. Theyd eat yabbies probably.

Indoors , heavily filtered , 200 gallon plus.

what about a filtered, heated pond??
What other fishes could go in for a biotope?

Jardini, bream, dunno...

There is a whole range of Aussie natives you could keep alongside the salmontail cats in a pond or huge tank, a few examples would be barramundi, saratoga, eeltail cats, bream, scats, mono angels and archer fish, just to name a few. You will need to do a lot of research to be sure you can suitably house anything you do decide to put with it, that is if you do decide to get any of them at all, most of the fish I suggested above will eventually grow too large for any tank under 300 gallons and would be more suited to a pond environment or an ex-aquaculture tank something in the vicinity of 2500 gallons/10'000L especially if you wanted to keep more than a few of any of them, you would also need a filtration system to match.

The redclaw would be ok for a little while if you got really small juvinile catfish to start with, a couple of years at most, but a redclaw will be considered as food just as soon as the catfish gets large enough to eat it, and the redclaws would be vulnerable at moulting even with smaller catfish, and if your going to get a barra or saratoga to go in with the catfish then the redclaws will dissapear very quickly.

You could also try a cherabin (giant freshwater prawn)sp. macrobrachium rosenbergii, sorry I couldn't provide a better picture, I know its not the best shot of one to show but I didn't have access to a camera while it was still alive, one of these days I will get another cherabin and will be able to provide a better picture, however this is all I have at the moment, and by the way this one hadn't quite reached its full size at the time of its demise but they only get a little bit bigger than this.http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s250/Gone_Troppo/DSC00243.jpg

Cherabin are definitely better equipped to defend themselves than the redclaw are, don't ever try to pick one up in your hands though because those claws are quite flexible and they can reach you no matter how you pick them up and I can tell you from experience that they will inflict a rather painful chomp with those claws and you would be lucky if it didn't draw blood, these guys are highly territorial and have a heirachal structure that requires a much lower stocking density than can be achieved with redclaw.

Another point of consideration is the volume of food that these large fish need to eat, and knowing that they are going to grow to be a couple of kilograms each, feeding at 5%-10% of body weight per day, means that for every kilogram of fish weight you will need to feed 50-100 grams of food every day, it will get very very expensive if the only source food you have available for them is from the LFS, so unless you can find an aquaculture farm or commercial fish food supplier who is willing to sell you the food directly, you had better start digging a gold mine or drilling for oil.

I don't want to put you off doing this project, but you do need to be aware of the consequences and financial costs involved in the undertaking of something like this.
I hope this is of some help for you in finding something that will work for you, happy researching,

GT

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.