Has anyone kept Glyptothorax fuscus?

[bekateen]

Hi all, I'm driving past a LFS tomorrow that has

Glyptothorax fuscus

. Anyone have any experience with these? There are no registered keepers.
Thanks, Eric

[Silurus]

I can tell you something about their habitat, having collected quite a number in field expeditions throughout years of field collections (the record was about 77 individuals from a one site after about three hours' work). These are lowland species typically found in forested streams in foothill regions (as opposed to most congeners, which are usually found at elevation, these can be found at nearly sea level). That said, they still require cool temperatures (although they can tolerate slightly higher temperatures than congeners). I think something in the 23-25°C range is ideal. Water should be slightly acidic (pH is typically in the 6.0–6.5 range in their habitats). I have found that they tend to prefer hiding in submerged vegetation slightly more than under rocks (probably because there are not as many rocks in their natural habitat as a typical Glyptothorax habitat).

[bekateen]

Hi Silurus, Thanks for the info. If you don't mind, I have more questions. The CLOGS describe its congeners as coming from torrential streams. Is the current very strong where fuscus is found? If so, what kinds of plants does it hide amongst? IME, plants and strong currents don't get along well together in my past aquaria. Also, I'm curious why so few people are listed as keepers of ANY Glyptothorax, given that it's such a speciose genus. Is is simply not exported much? Does anybody breed these fish? If I buy these, I'd like to try to breed them, but with so little info, I bet that will be a challenge and a gamble.

Silurus ( or anybody else), do you know anything of their reproduction ?

Thank you, Eric

[bekateen]

Sighhhhhh! Drove through the town, stopped at the store to buy the cats, and discovered that the store wouldn't sell them for 3 more days while they waited for the fish to complete their quarantine procedure. (It begs the question why they'd advertise the fish, with prices, when they aren't ready to be sold).

Problem is I won't be back in that town again for a year or more (it's ~650-700 miles from home), but they wouldn't go for my request to sell the cats. It's frustrating, but I understand. I guess it wasn't meant to be.

Silurus, thanks anyway, for the info on the fish. They would have been nice to buy.

[kvnbyl]

if you go to wet spot tropical fish, http://www.wetspottropicalfish.com/, you will find this,
Glyptothorax fuscus "Hillstream Torrent Cat" 2" $15.00
the bold type means they are new in this week so I would probably move fast as they seem to brought in infrequently
(no, I don't work there, just happened to see them looking for something else.)

[bekateen]

Thanks, but that's where I went. I even explained that I was driving through town from out of state, and would be happy to take the fish from quarantine, but they said no way. I imagine they get a lot of requests like this, so they probably have to say no. But my point is their customers would never experience this problem if they didn't post availability until the fish were ready to sell. IMHO, that store has too high a profile through the internet and places like Aquabid to act unaware that they are setting up this conflict.

Cheers, Eric

[Barbie]

It's really strange that they wouldn't make an exception. It makes me wonder if someone else had tried to buy the fish already or something. It's a terribly sticky situation to try to make everyone happy in a retail shop. I do know that they regularly ship fish. Have you considered contacting them to purchase them that way?

Barbie

[bekateen]

Hi Barbie,

Thanks for the feedback. Yes I contacted them today about buying the cats online, and I was told the fish may not yet be out of quarantine.

But to be honest, once shipping costs are added, these fish are getting more expensive than I am prepared to accept at this time (they estimated $30 to ship a max of three fish, but I'd want to buy more than three, so shipping would be higher). That's why I tried so diligently to buy them in person, as I drove through Portland: 1) it would have saved me a lot of money (the shipping is over half again the price of the fish) and 2) I could have hand-picked the fish, trying (in my limited experience) to pick out a mix of males and females if they were available (the store's policy states that it won't pick out fish special for you on mail-order purchases).

As an alternate strategy, another person has suggested that the same fish might be available for my LFS to order through a wholesale supplier, which would reduce the cost of shipping; so I'm going to look into that option, too. Ultimately, I don't know what the retail price to me would be, but hopefully less than ~ $25 per cat (that's what I estimate the cost per fish to be if ordered on-line through WetSpot with shipping). I like my fish, and unusual/rare fish like these are worth spending extra dollars on, but I still operate on a budget so I'm constrained from spending too much on any fish (i.e., no zebras for me anytime soon ).

Cheers, Eric

[bekateen]

In summary, if the mortality rate is like my experience i.e. one out of fifteen or even worse, should these cats to be left where they do belong - in nature? From my view, I must say that it is better to pass on these catfishes and enjoy them only in pictures.

Grammatically, Mika meant that his mortality rate was 14/15, not 1/15. In hindsight, maybe I dodged a bullet not getting the G. fuscus. The COTM about

Glyptothorax platypogon

is fraught with reasons why at least one species of

Glyptothorax

tends to die in captivity. Hopefully the (few) other hobbyists that keep this genus aren't having such poor luck.

Cheers, Eric

[Silurus]

I have to say that G. fuscus is probably the easiest to maintain in the aquarium, since it does not require rheophilic conditions almost all other species need. If you can maintain Gastromyzon (which require more rheophilic conditions than G. fuscus), it should not be too much of a stretch maintaining this species.

[bekateen]

Thanks for the advice, Silurus; that's encouraging news. Personally, I've never kept Gastromyzon, but obviously a lot of people do, so it's not impossible. My LFS contacted the wholesaler today, so we'll see what comes of that. If I'm able to get some, I'm sure I'll have more questions.

Cheers, Eric

[Richard B]

I've kept about 3 species without any problem at all - they had been quarantined & acclimatised by the wholesaler/dealer before purchase & settled in well

[bekateen]

Good to know. Thanks Richard.

[Richard B]

Unheated tank in a bedroom, sand & pebble substrate, internal power filter*, fed on prepared commercial foods.

Filter used was a fluval 4 in an 18" or 2' tank, placed either horizontal or 45 degrees inverted

[bekateen]

Thanks; that's about what I had in mind (with some plants added).