Blue channel Catfish?

[Colefishing]

i have one in my 75 gallon tank. he is very active even when my LED light is on. he has been growing around an inch a month and is very friendly to me when i come to the tank to look at him. however he is very territorial when my cichlids come over to his driftwood. he only allows my lima shovelnose in his area. they are very cool fish with a great personality.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Welcome. Thanks for sharing. Do you have a pic or two of him/them and your tank to share, by any chance? Of course, if you feel like it.

Be careful combining blue channel and a lima. One's got a huge mouth. The other is as skinny as a stick. After they grow a little together, this harmony may be over one day/night. After they grow a lot, it will most certainly be over - just a question of time. I do submit though that channels are far more of scavengers and far less of predators than the likes of TSNs - tiger shovelnoses, and RTCs, etc.

The rule of thumb tells us: if a fish fits in the mouth of a catfish, the catfish will attempt to eat it.. sooner or later but it will, regardless how well you feed it.

Also, chances are against you that you have Sorubim lima. It is much more likely Sorubim elongatus.

[Skiwee10]

Wiscash, it is so refreshing to see someone actually interested in brown bullheads - for all I know, you may be one of the kind because these fish are not showy-flashy and to somebody who lives in Carolina they are definitely not exotic, maybe to somebody in Thailand or Paraguay . I commend you on your ability to see beauty in humble places!

So you got yourself a (not blue but) channel cat too. Like Shane said, 10 gal is way way too small for them, unless they are like 2-3" each, and they will need large quarters when they grow up. I have a post with pics on channels and bullheads of perhaps tangential value to you but you may wanna check it out and more importantly, there is a link in it to a NY DEC website describing yellow, brown, black, and white bullheads in a nice fashion http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... 13&t=29628

Did you NOT note the temp ranges for the two fish as a part of your research/care/prep? If you provided the before/before the before/and after temps in your case, that could be informative for the readers in posterity (how did Larry Waybright know the temp, a lucky guess? summer time in Carolina?). Fish sizes are also good to know.

As for the bullhead availability: (1) again, not showy/flashy/interesting enough the the vast majority of USA hobbyists, and (2) I may be wrong, but LFSs shy away from native species (except say for channels and blue channels) - something about the laws that says LFSs cannot sell local fauna - you know, otherwise they would go out and fish out all they can and sell what they net out, which could deplete the local populations and destroy ecosystems. But I did see bullheads in LFSs every now and then as trade-ins - I think there is no law that says you cannot keep a fish you catch (legally) as a pet and that you MUST eat it

I also would love to have had all 4-5 types of bullheads but cannot find any sellers. Neither I could buy a flathead catfish or a wels so far. Well, wels is foreign (not illegal though), but flathead is native and abundant but cannot find any sources in Northern USA or USA for that matter.

I agree with crkinney's comments, except it is like always with wild animals (remember Sigfried and Roy?): you think you tamed and trained and changed them but one day the old killer-fish (or killer tiger) instinct kicks in and vualya (pardon my French), you got yourself a fish (man) eater back.

"plus channel catfish are punks unless the other fish can be swallowed" ---- I have not a clue what this means, could someone enlighten me on the latest and the greatest in English? Even if I understood "punks", I do not get the sentence.

Kydsexy: so far I only have had florida bullheads in my collection, they are nice, gentle, and sweet and have a beautiful marbled appearance. No bulling. No mess. But of course, people's experiences can differ vastly.

I can get you baby Yellow Bullheads (3-5 inches), Albino and Blue Channel Catfish (3-4 inches) and 6-8 inch Channel Catfish (pure strain)