I managed to keep mine for 3 years and they never got over 10" I was told they are "dinks" but I found no other sources that corroborated that either. I went through some financial repercussions and had to move several times and couldn't put them in the large tank I had planned. I sti...

14 inches? Wow he is growing well, I have a brown, a scientist friend of mine who specializes in NA freshwater fishes identified it. He says sometimes where it was caught is the best way to really identify them. mine was Caught in greenfield lake, in North carolina, no black bullheads in that lake s...

Can anyone tell me what kind of catfish this is?

I had one I got from a fish store that was traded in, it had been kept in a ten gallon tank and was around 10" long. I kept it for several years and it never seemed to grow even though it was kept in an outdoor pond in the summer or a 125 in the winter. I feed my fish mostly live food and it ne...

Epigenes can do some odd things like make your grandchildren more susceptible to obesity if you grow up with less food than you need... or something like that! It would be interesting to see the process of breeding these fish and compare captive bred with wild populations. I would like to see what t...

I know little to nothing about why fish don't grow to their potential, I do know that expecting a fish to grow to it's maximum recorded adult size is unrealistic. I'm not sure how big we should expect a fish to get, the variability is difficult to pin down. I have been considering the possibility th...

I doubt you'd find anybody, at least on here or MFK, who would support or at least be indifferent to an intentional stunting of a fish. Many people do it unintentionally left and right and then get unpleasant comments for it. Intentionally doing so is considered probably by most or all an animal cr...

My experience and my take on this is that there appears to be two large groups of IDS in the trade, ones that grow big and quick (~1.5' in the first year, 2'+ in 2 years) and ones that grow slow and to a small size, usually 8"-10". These I think are the dinks and runts, just as your paddl...

Jools wrote:I've seen balloon forms, which might be what they are. Or they could just be regular ones being mis-sold.

Jools

They weren't the balloon ones for sure, I know the one I had wasn't, I would still have him if not for a heron I hates me some heron

I am currently planning a large tank (750 gallons or so) and I plan to put lots of small fish like Cardinals in it as well as lots of non aggressive catfish. There in lies the crux of my issue, like most people when I begin to set up an aquarium I do as much research as possible by scanning online f...

I am a white headed old man! My white hair reaches down my back almost to my... well nether region...;) MY beard is white and so is my mustache. I have been hair color impaired since I was in my late 20s. BTW I've been keeping breeding and collecting fish for about 50 years..

Does anyone know the name of this fish?

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Agree with Jools. Many thank-you's for the info again. So, am I understanding this right that the little paddles might have been still alive today if it was not for the herons and the plums? I understand you are citing the 3-year lifespan but everyone's mileage varies. The main problem was having t...

Thanks to everyone for the great ideas! This will be a several hundred gallon tank. Actual gallon size is still up in the air. I am rather fond of this fish as well. http://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=1010 non aggressive free swimming catfish will be a major part of the inhab...

I am looking for catfish that free swim and school, much like debawii (sp?) cats. Any suggestions are welcome, fish must be compatible with small tetras like cardinals.

Some sort of search parameters to find these catfish would be helpful.

hehe Marc, I saw this coming a from mile or more. by now it's becoming a cliche. there is a certain type of personality that goes for personal attacks (it's the smear tactics) when the argument cannot be won on facts or knowledge it's the old "kill the messenger" method, when the messenge...

Good to hear from you! My health has taken another turn for the worse so the tank build might be postponed until next year. Lots of surgery and long recovery time is going to dominate me for the rest of 2016. But I have the glass and delays will not deter me! (positive thinking) It has been quite a ...

I know this is a day late and a dollar short but my paddle fish lasted three years, I moved and had them in an outdoor vat and a heron ate them. They are easy to keep, eat floating pellets and small minnows and will pick up live ghost shrimp and small crayfish off the bottom. They do need a big tank...

Ok guys! Big opportunity for anyone who has a desire for paddlefish! The guy i got mine from has some available for shipping. This is a very unusual opportunity, he has several "dinks" left over out of his usual crop of fish and is going to sell them. They have 3 to 5 inch dinks, $30 dolla...

BTW, these fish also grab and swallow small fish they come across, so far they have wiped out several black banded sunfish I put in their tank... paddlefish 5" sunfish 1", 7 adult and 5 tiny sunfish eaten, i watched them being swallowed. i to am in contact with people from public aquariums...

Well Jools, so far I have 10 weeks of actually keeping these fish under my belt, if you hadn't jumped on me with both feet I would have given this forum all the info I've accumulated so far. The fish did not come from the wild, they came from captive bred fish for caviar. So far no one knows why din...

But are they true? Yes. Your fish should live several decades. Post pictures of them here every month in three years and I'll send you $100. I don't like to be the bearer of bad news, and it is not my intent to go off post but I can't see misinformation posted here without reply. Sorry. I've not be...

If it can be done in a reasonably easy way I am all for it but I'm not sure heaven and earth should be moved to do it....

I was told the same thing, paddlefish are unmanageable as aquarium fish. Paddlefish only eat plankton, paddlefish will beat themselves against the sides of the tank until they die, paddlefish get huge and will outgrow their tank almost immediately. The list of things I've been told goes on and on. B...

Well I've been away from the catfish hobby for a while due to problems and I am getting back in ( I have paddlefish now, they used to be called spoonbill cats, lol) It sounds like a good way to use the data to me... My you-tube video of my paddlefish 6r6jX8Zfe10 [mod edit: Jools: Fixed youtube tag]

Ageneiosus cf. atronasus comes a little closer but neither fish rates very high on my shark meter. Maybe I expect to much but then again maybe demand will eventually get through to the people who breed iridescent sharks and we'll get a dwarf type or maybe one of it's cousins that really do stay smal...

This book is great for identifying any fish from the East coast of the USA. Freshwater Fishes of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware by Fred C. Rhode, Rudolf G. Arndt, David G. Lindquist and James F. Parnell, 1994. I am friends with one of the authors, Fred C. Rhode, and we collect fish t...

I don't want to start another "discussion" about keeping large fish in small aquariums or if keeping a large fish in a "too small" aquarium will keep it small because small is a relative term for Pangasius hypophthalmus. Even at 12 to 18 inches an Iridescent Shark still has to ha...

Sure dude, it's a long swim but it sounds like a great outing! seriously i wish i could be there. For some time I've been thinking about and talking to various folks about an organized visit to Pier Aquatics in Wigan. There's maybe enough folks in Scotland and indeed in the central belt specifically...

The whole idea is to have lots of small fish in a large aquarium. the tank will be set in the wall, nothing will be between the tank front and the veiwer. Giving the fish a place to hide is what this aquarium is all about. Fish will be able to go in and come out of hiding at their own will. Being ab...