Actually, the dorsal fin is too short to be <i>C. nigrodigitatus</i> (which has a much taller fin).
There's a fact sheet for this on http://www.scotcat.com.

I noticed that the German aquarium literature circle has an inordinate fondness for loricariids and callichthyids (they also slightly favor large pims). Don't think there'll be a book by them out on African/Asian cats soon, given the fact that they don't ever seem to be done with the groups I just m...

Nope, these are myths (probably to scare the daylights out of people going for a dip). The largest animals found to have been eaten by wels are water voles (even this needs to be substantiated), and I highly doubt that they are capable of attacking and eating swimming dogs (as some stories would hav...

Actually, it may have been <i>D. depressus</i>. Not too sure about the id. Looks like a regular banjo (<i>B. coracoideus</i>), except that the body (but not the caudal peduncle) is much shorter and more slender, the eyes are closer together and the coloration is much lighter (a rich medium brown). F...

I have a <i>B. verrucosus</i>, and it's only a little tad more active than the <i>B. coracoideus</i> and the <i>Dysichthys quadriradiatus</i> it shares the tank with. Although it is the only banjo cat that would actually move during feeding time, I still don't see it come out as often as I would lik...

This will give you some idea:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_FA010

I don't think you can breed channel cats unless you have a very large aquarium or a pond, because they are fairly large by the time they are sexually mature. They are bred commercially for food in ponds anyway, so why would you want to do it in your aquarium ?

Here's a zamora cat:

And here's a channel cat:

HTH

The only problem is that none of what is referred to as <i>P. leopardus</i> in the aquarium trade is actually sympatric with the real leopardus, unless some of these fish actually come from Surinam/Guyana.

There are no catfish native to the British Isles. Wels (<i>Silurus glanis</i>) was introduced to Britain from Europe in the 1860s, while the Miller's Thumb (<i>Cottus gobio</i>) or Bullhead (not to be confused with the North American catfish) is not a catfish at all. Cottids (sculpins) are a predomi...

The picture in the original description shows a fish with a pattern of medium-sized spots on the head and a reticulated pattern on the body (kind of like in photo 1, except that the spots coalesce into reticulations). The dorsal and anal fins also have this reticulated pattern, and the pelvic fins h...

It doesn't look like a <i>Cochliodon</i> to me, as they tend to have deeper bodies.
You can try using Jon Armbruster's loricariid key at http://george.cosam.auburn.edu/usr/key_ ... e/key.html for identification.

When in doubt, consult the original description....
Right, it ISN'T <i>C. steindachneri</i>. The head of <i>C. steindachneri</i> is more rounded.
So this is another one of those travesties being bred.

What is commonly called <i>Mystus armatus</i>(an Indian species) in the aquarium trade is actually <i>M. castaneus</i> (a Southeast Asian species).

Looks like a somewhat pale <i>C. steindachneri</i> to me. And a male at that.
Then again, with all the weird stuff they're doing to <i>Corydoras</i> nowadays, it might well be a long-finned paleatus (if such a thing exists).

Looks more like <i>Chrysichthys brevibarbis</i> to me. I noticed that the fish in the third photo does not appear to be the same species as the others. Cattiex, do you have more than one catfish in the tank?

There are unsubstantiated claims that the enlarged teeth are used for digging snails out of their shells.

Then you'd probably need an indoor pond, given that you are putting two catfishes that have the potential to grow really big and will need lots of room for comfort.

You can choose from temperate region catfishes such as ictalurids (madtoms are a great) or <i>Silurus</i> spp. (if you can get your hands on them), or hillstream catfishes such as sisorids. All of these guys will do very well in cold water, since that is their natural habitat. I've had experience ke...

If you're worried that the pygmy cories aren't getting enough to eat, just crumble one of the catfish pellets. They'll do fine.

The book has lots of text, but not many pictures. It's not meant to be an identification guide. More of a scientific work.

Wouldn't that be the lower lip that is different ? I was referring to the upper lip.

On looking at the figure in the original description of <i>P. leopardus</i> (Fowler, 1914; can email it to anyone interested), it seems that the color pattern of <i>P. leopardus</i> is closer to that of L114, but the dorsal spine sems very much longer than those in any pictures of L114 I have seen. ...

That's not a bullhead. Looks like a <i>Chrysichthys</i> sp. to me.

<i>Rita rita</i> ? Some of those I have seen look pretty purplish to me.

The earliest use of the term "Siluriformes" (or its derivative) was by Cuvier (1817) who coined the term "Siluroides" for all catfishes. The term was probably derived from Silurus , which is generally acknowledged as the first catfish ever named in the Linnean system. I'm not sur...

What about all those ACLF (Australian Catfish and Loach Forum) people ?

I think they are called spermatheca (plural: spermathecae). I might have a cool scientific paper describing sperm ultrastructure and fertilization in auchenipterids somewhere.
Email or pm me if anyone is interested and I'll go dig it out.

All~ A small annoucement to alert you to a few new pictures detailing methods used to sex a number of different catfish genera. The following species are presented... <i>Auchenipterichthys thoracatus Batrochoglanis raninus Mystus vittatus Pseudopimelodus bufonis Schilbe mystus Sturisoma barbatus Stu...

Looks more like the change in the color pattern is a result of growth. Color patterns in fishes don't generally change except as a result of growth. Color intensities may change due to environmental factors but seldom color patterns (flatfishes are an obvious exception).