Pterodoras granulosus • Doradidae • Cat-eLog

Cat-eLog Data Sheet
Scientific Name	**Pterodoras granulosus** (Valenciennes in Humboldt & Valenciennes, 1821)
Common Name(s)	Armado (Spanish, Venezuelan), Bacu (Portuguese, Brazilian), Common Bacu, Granulated Catfish
Type Locality	South America.
Synonym(s)	Doras granulosus
Pronunciation	gran you LOW sus
Etymology	Pterodoras: From the Greek pteron, meaning fin, and doras, meaning skin (also a word commonly used in forming generic names for doradids); in reference to the forked caudal fin.
Species Information
Size	920mm (36.2") SL. Find near, nearer or same sized spp.
Identification	The colour pattern of these catfish varies depending upon the location that they originate from. These fish are usually a muddy-brown colour with some darker spots over the body and fins. As these fish mature the spotting tends to fade. Juvenile specimens tend not to be as dark coloured as adult fish,
Sexing	There are no reported external sexual differences. Personal observation shows that females tend to be more heavily built/robust than the males, which tend to be slender. There may also be differences associated with the structure of the head as with the Synodontis catfish, but further observations need to be made.
Habitat Information
Distribution	Widespread throughout most of the larger river systems of South America. Amazon (click on these areas to find other species found there) La Plata, Paraná (click on these areas to find other species found there) (Click the map-icon to show/hide map of species distribution)
pH	6.4 - 7.6
Temperature	20.0-24.0°C or 68-75.2°F (Show others within this range)
Other Parameters	Wamer water will be tolerated at least for a period of time. It is documented that keeping these fish in water with a pH value above 7.5 can cause skin and eye cloudiness.
Husbandry Information
Feeding	Omnivore feeding on a very mixed and varied diet including catfish pellets, earthworms, whole prawns, mussels, floating sticks/pellets and snails. In their natural environment they would feed upon snails, aquatic plants and fruits. See also natural feeding behaviour paper in the references section.
Furniture	Large pieces of bogwood are ideal. Large diameter pipe can be used but it should be large enough for the catfish to easily fit in without becoming stuck. I have managed to create two shady areas within my tropical pond, by covering the ends with decking, where these catfish prefer to hide until feeding time.
Compatibility	Ideally suited to life with other large fish. These catfish are not predatory but would mistakenly take a smaller fish if hungry.
Suggested Tankmates	Other large catfish such as Leiarius, Megalodoras, Oscars and larger characins.
Breeding	There are no known aquarium spawnings of this catfish. This is most likely due to the size that these fish can attain and hence the subsequent size of aquarium in which to spawn them.
Further Information
References	Humboldt & Bonpland's voyagev. 2 (Title page 1833) - pp184 Iheringia, Sér. Zool., Porto Alegre, 99(3):301-306: Feeding behaviour of Pterodoras granulosus
Registered Keepers	(1) arapaima, (2) Koltsix, (3) Junttis, (4) Dave Rinaldo (k: 2), (5) MADRacing, (6) SoCalDiscus, (7) Wiccatfish, (8) Argentum, (9) mi-tatsu, (10) arapaimag (k: 3), (11) kp90, (12) capester, (13) Decker504, (14) BernieEcht, (15) luv4bigcats. Click on a username above to see all that persons registered catfish species. You can also view all "my cats" data for this species.
Breeding Reports	None.
Articles	- CotM 2002 September
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Last Update	2010 Dec 22 07:56 (species record created: 2001 May 04 00:00)

Cat-eLog Data Sheet

Scientific Name

Pterodoras granulosus (Valenciennes in Humboldt & Valenciennes, 1821)

Common Name(s)

Armado (Spanish, Venezuelan), Bacu (Portuguese, Brazilian), Common Bacu, Granulated Catfish

South America.

Doras granulosus

gran you LOW sus

Pterodoras: From the Greek pteron, meaning fin, and doras, meaning skin (also a word commonly used in forming generic names for doradids); in reference to the forked caudal fin.

Species Information

Size

920mm (36.2") SL. Find near, nearer or same sized spp.

Identification

The colour pattern of these catfish varies depending upon the location that they originate from. These fish are usually a muddy-brown colour with some darker spots over the body and fins. As these fish mature the spotting tends to fade. Juvenile specimens tend not to be as dark coloured as adult fish,

Sexing

There are no reported external sexual differences. Personal observation shows that females tend to be more heavily built/robust than the males, which tend to be slender. There may also be differences associated with the structure of the head as with the Synodontis catfish, but further observations need to be made.

Habitat Information

Distribution

Widespread throughout most of the larger river systems of South America.
Amazon (click on these areas to find other species found there)
La Plata, Paraná (click on these areas to find other species found there)

(Click the map-icon to show/hide map of species distribution)

6.4 - 7.6

Temperature

20.0-24.0°C or 68-75.2°F (Show others within this range)

Other Parameters

Wamer water will be tolerated at least for a period of time. It is documented that keeping these fish in water with a pH value above 7.5 can cause skin and eye cloudiness.

Husbandry Information

Feeding

Omnivore feeding on a very mixed and varied diet including catfish pellets, earthworms, whole prawns, mussels, floating sticks/pellets and snails. In their natural environment they would feed upon snails, aquatic plants and fruits.
See also natural feeding behaviour paper in the references section.

Furniture

Large pieces of bogwood are ideal. Large diameter pipe can be used but it should be large enough for the catfish to easily fit in without becoming stuck. I have managed to create two shady areas within my tropical pond, by covering the ends with decking, where these catfish prefer to hide until feeding time.

Compatibility

Ideally suited to life with other large fish. These catfish are not predatory but would mistakenly take a smaller fish if hungry.

Suggested Tankmates

Other large catfish such as Leiarius, Megalodoras, Oscars and larger characins.

Breeding

There are no known aquarium spawnings of this catfish. This is most likely due to the size that these fish can attain and hence the subsequent size of aquarium in which to spawn them.

Further Information

References

Humboldt & Bonpland's voyagev. 2 (Title page 1833) - pp184
Iheringia, Sér. Zool., Porto Alegre, 99(3):301-306: Feeding behaviour of Pterodoras granulosus

Registered Keepers