The PlanetCatfish coolwall thread

[L number Banana, posts: 2140]

P. maccus, cool but not sub-zero.

It looks like a fish version of a teddy bear, not dorky fluffy ones, more like classic antique ones. Nice colouring but not in-your-face.
The first catfish for many people.
It watches everything with interest.
Has personality, one of mine is pretty much invisible, one is a small battering ram to anything that nears his territory the other two stick together and are visible and fun to watch when good food shows up.
Looks like a Muppet when eating. Cute.
Small enough for anyone's tank.
Can hang with friends if there's room or can go solo with no ill effects.

Vehicle equivalent? Either a good ol' mercedes benz/old Volvo or a small bulldozer and who wouldn't want to play with a bulldozer if no one was watching?

Cool.

[wrasse, posts: 729]

Where's the excitement with this fish???

All the comments are that it's 'middle of the road'.

So for me, P Maccus is uncool.

BTW, Jools Clarkson - hello? are you loosening your grip on this thread? I thought you had the final say with each fish...? Or did Clare lay down the law????????? Ooops, again. Tee hee.

[Jools]

OK, I'm back! RTC is uncool, zebra is seriously uncool. That's the Clarksonesque low-down and I will explain the reasoning so far when I do the cool wall update I am planning for the weekend. It's a mix of the keepers and the fish I guess in summary.

OK with Panaque maccus, but let's keep going on a species until either I say it's time for a new one or no posts on this thread for > 3 days? On the condition please that we do a couple of non plecos (and non South Americans) next?

For me, Panaque maccus is cool, this is because it's common, cheap, interesting breeding project and a great worker fish. Only reason it's not super cool is it's effect on filters! That it has many keepers is a cool thing too. Much better this than common plecos that grow too big for most tanks eh?

Jools

[RickE, posts: 438]

... this is because it's common, cheap, interesting breeding project and a great worker fish. Only reason it's not super cool is it's effect on filters! That it has many keepers is a cool thing too. Much better this than common plecos that grow too big for most tanks eh?

Jools

Bit like those common, cheap, interesting to soup-up Corsas you see in the hands of boy racers everywhere. Never lusted after one of them myself. Uncool to me.

[wrasse, posts: 729]

On the condition please that we do a couple of non plecos (and non South Americans) next?

What do you mean - a wels catfish? (no, I know you don't mean that... )
Or a gaggatus??? - now that IS a cool cat.

[Jools]

On the condition please that we do a couple of non plecos (and non South Americans) next?

What do you mean - a wels catfish? (no, I know you don't mean that... )
Or a gaggatus??? - now that IS a cool cat.

Well, let's just discuss P. maccus for a few days eh??

Jools

[wrasse, posts: 729]

Of course . And whats a gaggatus anyway? Had to look it up - gagata - clown catfish (I think...)

[RickE, posts: 438]

This has gone a bit quiet hasn't it?

I think it's because to get a good conversation going, the fish has to be something controversial and/or highly desirable so that people care enough to have a post. P.maccus probably isn't in that category.

Maybe Jools should just decide which species is up for discussion next in Clarksonesque fashion?

[Richard B, posts: 6338]

This has gone a bit quiet hasn't it?

I think it's because to get a good conversation going, the fish has to be something controversial and/or highly desirable so that people care enough to have a post. P.maccus probably isn't in that category.

Maybe Jools should just decide which species is up for discussion next in Clarksonesque fashion?

I do think you've got something here. The TG coolwall does however have a bit of everything on so to replicate that we need the less popular, less fancy etc

Jools might wanna give us a bit of guidance...

without giving anything away, i'm composing a list of fish i'd like to see (in my head) included on the PC coolwall

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

ALL L-numbers and Ancistrinae are UN-cool by definition and by concept

-they're hyped to death! anything that's hyped isn't worth the bother.

-they get tagged by numbers instead of proper names, even if they HAVE a proper name; they still are tagged by their numbers.....
wich makes them all the more appeasable to the Neaderthal type of analphabetic inbred crowd. a partof the population I can enjoy my hobby without.

-fish that are collectibles by number do appeal to the money-obsessed crowd, the beancounters, the hypers and the status infected fools with their bling bling, big cars, fat butts and misty glasses.
the type of person that's too lazy to learn proper scientific names, but can do the numbers and pinpoint the worth of their hobby to the cent with extreme accuracy.
and the fish get equalized with "how much it's worth". the more liquid money one has the better?

-all Ancistrinae with the possible exception of the Punk Pleco look like they come from a mold and differ in paintjob only. it's production line stuff. they don't even have proper whiskers!

-the massive hype on anything with a suckermouth has put all the other catfish into a narrow margin something that i'm not likely to forgive the traders, importers, exporters and hobbyists, even if i live to be 200......

-for this particular species Uncooldom is also proven by the fact that they're at least as shy as Auchenipterids but lack the enthousiasm at feedingtime and the whiskers of the latter.
so you can buy it and only see it again if you sell it. some fish....


now if you want to talk about a COOL Loricariid, i'd like to introduce you to Sturisomatichthys leightoni
it's tonguetangling name positively drips elegance, gracility, beauty and simplicity

and LO! and BEHOLD!
Sturisomatichthys leightoni
it has all

[wrasse, posts: 729]

'hey're hyped to death! anything that's hyped isn't worth the bother.'

Sidguppy, you are inflammatory !!! And u know it!

If you had a tropical pond with L no cats, like Panaque Xingu tapajos (I want!), you wouldn't say that.

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

my dear man,
do you really think that IF I was lucky enough to have a tropical pond
there would be L numbers in it?

no way!!!!!

any tropical pond would house my Paretroplus species, and I would try REALLY HARD to lay my hands on Gogo atratus or Ancharius spp to go with them.
and if I could not get those fish then I'd go and aim for the first captive breeding of Auchenoglanis occidentalis; a prima candidate for any tropical pond

or pond-breeding Xenoclarias eupogon if there still are any left......to save this fish from the brink of extinction would catapult me right into the historybooks and you can't get any better than that

or of course Synodontis granulosus
the Granny breeding in my own pond.......

no I don't need any L-numbers to get rich and/or very very famous (wich is far better than rich) in the catfishy business once I can lay my hands on a tropical pond
no sirrah!

[L number Banana, posts: 2140]

Well, it's about time Sidguppy.

But I was way off when you wrote this:

...to get rich and/or very very famous (wich is far better than rich)....

I would have thought you would be the exact opposite: anti-celebrity but money to have fun forever. Goes to show that no one can ever be pegged down.

-for this particular species Uncooldom is also proven by the fact that they're at least as shy as Auchenipterids but lack the enthousiasm at feedingtime and the whiskers of the latter.
so you can buy it and only see it again if you sell it. some fish....

Totally disagree with that part. My P.maccus are very visible, one is feisty when other fish draw near and guards his territory like a small battering ram, and three of the four are public eaters but not so wild that you can't observe them.

Okay, no beautiful whiskers.

Sturisomatichthys leightoni = subzero. Can only be called elegant.

[racoll, posts: 4494]

... they get tagged by numbers instead of proper names, even if they HAVE a proper name; they still are tagged by their numbers ...
... wich makes them all the more appeasable to the Neaderthal type of analphabetic inbred crowd.

-fish that are collectibles by number do appeal to the money-obsessed crowd ...

... the type of person that's too lazy to learn proper scientific names, but can do the numbers and pinpoint the worth of their hobby to the cent with extreme accuracy ...
... and the fish get equalized with "how much it's worth".

So, so true

But, I still think P. maccus are COOL, maybe because they're not at all desired by this crowd!

[Shane]

P. maccus is way, way cool. First species of Panaque I ever collected in their natural habitat. For that they will always hold a special place to me. If they are available where I am I will always find some space for a little colony.

-Shane

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

I would have thought you would be the exact opposite: anti-celebrity but money to have fun forever. Goes to show that no one can ever be pegged down.

hehe

i never had much money; in the past i've been quite poor for a loooooong time
wich tought me that money's just rubbish.
everytime i have a bit, i'll spend it.

but with a million dollars, what would I do with it?
I'm too old to enjoy it the way I would love to, if I stumbled across a million dollars.
now a million dollars and being 25 again, NOW you're talking!

it'll likely kill me if i had it now; overdosed on anything you can think of.
beer, choppers, gnu's, wildebeests, siberian tigers, a private army, a spaceship to get me away from here, nitrous oxide in divin gear, too many cookies, powerful firearms, my own little civil war at home....nah
money's for rich people. give me fame anytime!
or health.......you can keep ALL my money and ALL my fish and books and my old motorbike and even my women if it would get me a healthy body instead of a creakin' corpse.
money = overrated!

about P maccus
yes, they have their charm.
and I too have kept it, solo or in a group several times.
but despite that every catfish I've seen ith whiskers stuck on overrates any Loricariid every single time.....

I trade you 500 maccus for a small nice breeding colony of Trichogenes anytime.

[Jools]

This has gone a bit quiet hasn't it?

I think it's because to get a good conversation going, the fish has to be something controversial and/or highly desirable so that people care enough to have a post. P.maccus probably isn't in that category.

Maybe Jools should just decide which species is up for discussion next in Clarksonesque fashion?

Well, you've all been going a bit fast. I want to record all this and set-up the cool-wall in the real world, but I have to be at home with some time to do that. I've not been home since Monday.

Meantime, I see we're having a good old debate around l-numbers (Hype L70 I dare you!), so hopefully that will keep us "spraffing" until I chose another species to lay bare.

Jools

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

L70?

i don't have to hype that; the fact that it looks like the gazillion other Hypans just with another paintjob is quite sufficient to get sold aplenty once it'll hit the stores

L numbers hype themselves these days.
even if they're pink and veiltailed or dyed in awful colors; if it's got amour, the run-off-the-mill Hypancistrus/peckoltia/panaque shape and a sucker; it'll sell like hot cakes

ESPECIALLY if it hasn't ot a name, only a number and it's expensive.

regrdless of how ugly it is or how pretty or if it eats only babies for breakfast s sole food; if it's a suckermouth armored catfish with a hefty price and a number-tag, it'll sell. period.

[MatsP]

That may be true in the Netherlands, but I bought some Hypancistrus sp(L411) recently for £15 each. Sure, that's more than double what I paid for the Synodontis alberti that I bought a couple of weeks ago. And the L411 had been in the shop for at least a year.

--
Mats

[sidguppy, posts: 3827]

bargain prices and alberti has never been for sale in the netherlands whatsoever.....not in the last 35 years that I know of.

that hypan that you linked does double or triplke here and always sells to the last one.