cool catfish

[walshy317]

Hay started up my tank a few months ago and i love catfish and just wanted to know what catfish are unusawal and wired catfish i have alot of normal onces like corys, and such and i want diffrent once. please suggest some please.
thanks
Marc

[L number Banana]

Hi and welcome!
My favourite weird ones may not be weird where you are but take a look at banjo cats

Bunocephalus coracoideus

and all the skinny guys like

Rineloricaria parva

,

Farlowella vittata

. Cool behaviors. The tiny

hara jerdoni

'anchor cats' are neat too.

I'm sure you'll get a flood of interesting cat suggestions. Some of the posters would also have a better idea of what you may find in your area too.

Cheers

[MatsP]

How weird do you want them?

Chaca

are pretty close to crazy, rather than weird.

Glass cats

Kryptopterus minor

are a bit more unusual in their looks too.

Cool comon name: Pac-Man cat

Lophiosilurus alexandri

Another cool, scientific name:

Otocinclus batmani

Most members of the

Auchenipteridae

(woodcat) family are a bit less common and have interesting behaviour.

But with 2000+ known species of catfish, there's something for everyone.

--
Mats

[Richard B]

Lamontichthys filamentosus

and

Neblinichthys pilosus

are a couple of wierd plecs - chances are you might find the first one if you are lucky.

What about

Hemisynodontis membranaceus

which is a fish that swims upside down & has a big moustache?

or maybe the tiny

Hara jerdoni

which is aavilable frequenly

There really is too much choice.....& one man's wierd is another man's ordinary!!!

[walshy317]

yer they all look good. im aslo looking for easy breeders i have breed corys before and im going to breed albino bristlenose plecs.
what other cats are easy to breed? i aslo want prices ranges aswell with them
thanks marc

[Richard B]

Sturisoma, rineloricaria, & maybe

Tatia intermedia

, perhaps

Centromochlus perugiae

are all breedable & might suit your needs.

[MatsP]

Giving prices is always very difficult, as it depends on so many things. One shop may get REALLY good size, healthy fish from a good wholesaler, stocks all sorts of odd fish that is hard to get. Another shop has small fish, sometimes not in good health, only stocks stuff that sell really well. Which shop do you think will have better prices, and which fish would you raterh buy? Prices also vary depending on season. Fish that aren't captive bred (in large volume) will have seasons when they are being caught, and seasons when they are "remaining stock" - so prices will be better at times when the fishermen are catching lots of the fish.

Note also that UNUSUAL fish doesn't necessarily mean expensive - that's DEMAND that causes high prices. Size obviosly affects the price, as one fish that is 10" long will take up a whole box, whilst 200 neon tetra goes in one box. Cost of shipping is per box, so the cost per neon tetra to ship is naturally 0.5% of the shipping cost of one 10" fish. And of course, the cost at the exporters of one large fish is quite likely higher than that of a small neon tetra that the fishermen catch by the thousands. But shipping is a very large portion of the price. The fishermen get peanuts for the fish. One figure mentioned was $6 per 1000 cories. That's not a lot.

If you want good selection, good quality fish, I'd say Pier Aquatics in Wigan is a good place to go (and I know Richard agrees) - and I live 200 miles away from that shop, but it's STILL a place I can't wait to get back to [my bank account may not agree with that! ;)]

Having said that it hurts the wallet - it could be worse: I went into a local branch of Maidenhead Aquatics on Saturday, and they had L128 at about 2" SL. They wanted £49. Let's just say I could have got 5-6 of the L128 at 4" SL for that price at Pier. But the only way to know that is to have been to a few different shops and checked their prices for the same fish. [Add to that, Neil who is the manager/owner at Pier is able to pick out male/female from the 4" fish, I doubt that 2" fish is sexable, and finding a branch of Maidenhead Aquatics where they are able to tell the difference even at 4" size fish will be hard].

--
Mats

[walshy317]

ok
you know any more werid but wonderful fish lol?
i just want something intresting catfish in my tank.
thanks
Marc

[MatsP]

It is VERY hard to give others advice on what THEY may like. It's like window curtains: Some people like one style, others another, some have nothing, and others have black plastic bags to cover up the windows and keep the light out.

The same applies to fish - some fish are very nice to some person, another person may think they are ugly. And in the end, you are the one keeping your tank, paying for the fish to go into it, and hopefully enjoying it.

I adore

Corydoras robineae

- they may not be weird, but I sure like them. I like all the other fish that I keep too, but they are my latest addition, and I'm very happy to have them - you can see what someone is/have been keeping in the "my cats" section to the right of the persons post. That may not be your kettle of fish...

--
Mats

[mod edit:Jools: corrected clog tag spelling[/clog]

[evesonevo]

I'm mainly into corys but i've got a trio of parotocinclus jumbo(LDA 25) which are just great to watch, they've also been available in your area as well.
A group of Scleromystax Barbatus are very enjoyable to watch as well.
Hope this helps.
Col.

[L number Banana]

Hi Mats,
Your link above is wandering to the index page 404 shows for a second and then it goes to the index page. Feel free to delete this when you see it

[Jools]

Hi Mats,
Your link above is wandering to the index page 404 shows for a second and then it goes to the index page. Feel free to delete this when you see it

I have fixed the link, Mats' Cory was named after Robine not Robin!

Jools

[MatsP]

Hi Mats,
Your link above is wandering to the index page 404 shows for a second and then it goes to the index page. Feel free to delete this when you see it

I have fixed the link, Mats' Cory was named after Robine not Robin!

Jools

Darn finicky computers, expecting spelling to match precisely ;)

Sorry Jools. I should have checked it.

--
Mats

[Phyllonemus]

Hi Marc,
What do you think of

Phyllonemus Typus

Are very cool catfishes with very long barbels and are breedable too.
They are Bi Parental mouthbrooders, and very special Cats for me !

greets, Riny

[fischkringli]

Or one with unusual behavior: Synodontis nigriventris. It swims the wrong way round.

[Richard B]

If you want good selection, good quality fish, I'd say Pier Aquatics in Wigan is a good place to go (and I know Richard agrees) - and I live 200 miles away from that shop, but it's STILL a place I can't wait to get back to [my bank account may not agree with that! ;)]

Having said that it hurts the wallet - it could be worse: I went into a local branch of Maidenhead Aquatics on Saturday, and they had L128 at about 2" SL. They wanted £49. Let's just say I could have got 5-6 of the L128 at 4" SL for that price at Pier. But the only way to know that is to have been to a few different shops and checked their prices for the same fish. [Add to that, Neil who is the manager/owner at Pier is able to pick out male/female from the 4" fish, I doubt that 2" fish is sexable, and finding a branch of Maidenhead Aquatics where they are able to tell the difference even at 4" size fish will be hard].

--
Mats

I can wholeheartedly agree that Pier is one of THE places to go in the UK - it is one of the few shops that have species i've never encountered before in 30 years of fishkeeping, every time i go.

Not only is Neil able to sort out pairs, trios etc - the most important thing is that he is a bloody nice bloke too!!!