Did you know fantastic help is an anagram of Planet Catfish? This forum is for those of you with pictures of your catfish who are looking for help identifying them. There are many here to help and a firm ID is the first step towards keeping your catfish in the best conditions.
These were sold to me as sturisoma festivum.
I'm not sure, because of the long (up to 20cm) tendrils on the tail fin, and tendrils on the pectoral fins (up to 5cm). I can't seem to unmistakably identify them on the internet, nor have i seen them being sold in stores with the tendrils. The previous owner did tell me they are wild caught and fairly old, and they are supposedly older then 10 years.
It's a Sturiosoma indeed. However I think you would like to know the species.
Problem is, in the Netherlands we have a rather large population of mixed Sturiosoma, whith which as far as I know all breeders work. That is, unless oyur fish was wild caught, it is a mixture of species.
I myself used to have a trio, which shared much of their looks with S panamensae, but that was just a matter of luck (they shared their tank with cichlids from Panama, so it was luck indeed) but looks don't turn a hybrid into a pure species.
Your fish does look OK, and as virtually all Sturiosoma in NL are mixtures, there is no such think as a pure species you could spoil, so if you manage to raise some of the fry, go and make someone happy with them - that is, do enjoy your fishes, but it will be hard to name them any further.
It seams likely the situation in Europe will be most likely be the same as here, but I cannot say whether this is the case.
