The Bagrichthys hypselopterus thread

[Jools]

So, I have long sought this species and now I have a good-sized male swimming around at home. First experiences are that

Bagrichthys hypselopterus

is very odd fish.

It is very mobile, paddling around its tank but it often stays near the surface. I've seen it eating small sinking food, but it is far from gregarious. It is not like its congeners at all. Its barbles and how they are used is interesting. When they contact a flat surface like the glass or substrate, they start tiny vibrations as the fish searches for food.

After lights out it swims more around that tank put it is active during the day. It seems in decent shape, with the occasional slightly worrying body flick, but its behaviour is at best eccentric. I'm still on edge about it, but I am making regular water changes and trying new foods from time to time. Something is eating the food overnight.

Tankmates are

Panda Garra

s,

Harlequin Rasbora

s,

Danio choprae

,

Khulii Loach

es and some tiny

Yunnalis

loaches (I think). Tank is 48x24x24, semi-planted, have raised temp to 80F from 76F as I got edgy, plan is to lower it a little. pH not tested but about 6.5 usually and limestone in the tank just to stop pH 4 happening fast!

Anyone else keeping this species?

Cheers,

Jools

[bekateen]

Very nice. Congratulations on getting one settled. Are more in the offing?

Cheers,
Eric

[Silurus]

I have dissected specimens purchased from fish markets in Sumatra before, and their guts were full of very fine detritus (looks like substrate from large rivers). They probably ingested the substrate for the small invertebrates buried in them. The size of their mouths suggest that they can't eat anything larger than small invertebrates (by comparison, the guts of B. macropterus purchased from the same markets contained loads of small mollusks).

I have to say the Garra flavatra looks a little out of place in the tank, though.

[Jools]

I have dissected specimens purchased from fish markets in Sumatra before, and their guts were full of very fine detritus (looks like substrate from large rivers). They probably ingested the substrate for the small invertebrates buried in them. The size of their mouths suggest that they can't eat anything larger than small invertebrates (by comparison, the guts of B. macropterus purchased from the same markets contained loads of small mollusks).

Excellent, thank you - this is entirely consistent with its completely different behaviour, barble structure and use. They "dance" their barbles along the surface/sides/substrate like some of the feathery barbled

Synodontis

. Also, like Synodontis, it seems to consider eating from the surface as much as anywhere else. The inner mandibular barbles (and maybe outer, but less so) are a corkscrew, not feathered design. I will try to get a good picture. The fish moves with its mouth well clear of the substrate with the barbles finding passing food. It eats in a forward dabbing movement and seems to gulp at what it is trying to eat.

Legend says these are deep water fishes. I am not sure, but they do have small eyes and indications so far are poor eyesight. There is no left-over food in the morning, but there is during the day, for a while at least. Certainly, they do not go (hunt) where the food is, but he is visibly more active when food is in the tank. All small cyprinids accounted for this morning, so it chimes too that this is not a piscivore, even an opportunistic one.

I have to say the Garra flavatra looks a little out of place in the tank, though.

They're pretty happy but their inclusion was an unfortunate combination of my impatience (couldn't get SAEs or Flying Foxes) and lack of knowledge!

Cheers,

Jools

[naturalart]

Such a cool fish. Jools can you say how you procured this 'most excellent of catfish'?

While I've not been able to find scientific evidence to support it, I would bet Bagrichthys employs some type of weak electrical field to navigate. My B. macracanthus seem to prefer to keep their body fairly 'straight' like a knifefish, and can sense a small pebble of food falling thru the water column next to the fish's lateral line.

[Jools]

Sure, I bought it from Wharf Aquatics after seeing it online. I'd expect it to be between $300 and $400 if ever in US. Roadtrip with my son to pick it up which was nice too. They were really good at the shop but did say it had been a really odd fish to settle in. It was the only one on sale, the other the shopkeeper took home. Both males - given the size difference between genders in congeners, a mature female must be a sight to behold. It was feeding a smaller, sinking pellets, it's a slender fish but it was clearly eating something. I paid for it on discovery and it was in the shop for well over a month before I could get a tank set and collect it.

That chimes about the lateral line and I wonder if this species senses food on the surface that way too. Having kept three other spp. of lancer, this one is easily the most "out there". Like, different genus different. Behaviourally and physically.

Like rays, it doesn't seem to understand the water surface in the way other fishes do. Perhaps it never interacts with the surface in nature - I don't know. This weirdness manifests itself in the fish treating the surface like a barrier (e.g. a clump of plants) as opposed to something you swim up to and down from. It often breaches the surface with its pectoral or sometimes dorsal fin.

All danios and rasboras accounted for this morning!

Cheers,

Jools