Hi I am very New, whats my Catfish?

[Skirge]

Hi all.. very new to this site and to keeping fish, we bought this catfish today was told it was a South American Alley Cat, but cannot find any reference to it online anywhere.
Sorry if the video is not good enough, let me I'll try again, he's little and dam fast lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7x5J-HBQ8Q

[Dave Rinaldo]

Hexanematichthys seemanni

?

[Silurus]

Hexanematichthys seemanni

?

Yes

[nvcichlids]

I absolutely loved keeping these guys.. they are great fish and extremely active.

[andywoolloo]

wow, he gets to be a good size and eventually needs fullon marine conditions ,very interesting.

he is very cute!

he is staying right at the top in your video, is your water alright? level wise? Ammonia and Nitrite? is the tank cycling?

[Skirge]

Thamks for the replies guys, yeah the water levels are fine he was staying uptop int he pet store very very active but seems to like it uptop whent he light is on. our Pictus, Royal Plec, 3 neons Tets and 2 Bala sharks are fine too in the tank.
25% water change every week.. is it an issue him being up there? seems to like to stay behind the heater, the pictus stays at the bottom, hides down in the corner. The Plec likes to clean up everywhere, find hims tuck to the glass or the rock or a plant, the neons and sharks are on the move alover at all levels of the tank.
The Cat is eating well, loves blood worms, they don't even get a chance to sink, he will swim upside down to hoover them up as they fall.

He seems to be more dark grey than silver though

[apistomaster]

Nice catfish but not well suited for the environment your other fish require.
I would think your Neons will be gone soon.

Looks like you might want to consider setting up a brackish water fish tank in the near future; a large one.
I would consider a school of Monodactylus spp. M. argenteus are very nice looking but my favorite is M. sebae
Silver Scats, Selenatoca argenteus are another pretty but different one. Archer Fish are another fun aquarium fish.

Here is a little info with photos on brackish water fish which are all compatible with your new catfish.
http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Brackish%20Water%20II.htm

[Skirge]

Is everyone sure he is a Sharh catfish?
He was not in a brackish tank at the pet store, did a test today went and blew £21.50 on a test kit and all was fine PH level a little high at 7.5, but did a 20% water change anyway. Goign for a new carbon cartridge for my filter tomorrow change that too.
My tank is a Rio 180, using an aquafow 400..

Mind after the guy telling my I was buying an Alleycat catfish and not to sure my fish are what he said they are now

Here's some photo's.. will try to snap the catfish, he is little and very quick

[apistomaster]

You definitely have a catfish which is from brackish to fully marine environments.

Fish shops, especially those which invent fish names are not likely to be right about much of anything.

You did receive an identification from Silurus and correct me if I am wrong about this, is an ichthyologist and specialist in catfish.
Bad advice is rare here. The peer pressure from so many knowledgeable people is too intense to get away with blowing smoke.

Wishing won't make your fish what it isn't. You were misled by an uninformed vendor.

[Birger]

He was not in a brackish tank at the pet store,

Small ones are fine to start in freshwater but will need to move into brackish to survive long term AFAIK.

Birger

[Skirge]

I was'nt arguing the point not at all, just the footage I uploaded of the fish was not the best, wanted to be 100% sure.
I will be taking the catfish back tomorrow, no way am I going to risk its life by keeping it in the wrong water type, they will also be getting some stick off me when I go over.
For such a large store, "Pets At Home" they should know better.

[MatsP]

I'm afraid that "large company" does not good fish-shop make, to put it in a paraphrase.

Pets at home are not a "good company" in my opinion. I'm not saying they intentionally mislead customers to make money - but they need lots of staff, and do not pay very well - guess what happens when you pay peanuts. Yes, that's right, you get monkeys. Staff turnover is often quite high. And as you may know, new staff often doesn't know as much as staff that has been there for many years.

And on top of that, lots of shops do not know what they sell part of the time. They simply sell whatever they have been sent by the wholesaler without adequate instructions and information. In most shops, it also varies depending on WHO of the staff you get. Some know more than others.

Small, independent, well established shops are often the best. Especially if you get to know them. They will then "help you out" when you need help, including giving you good advice on how to care for fish. But of course, with 2400 species of Catfish in the Cat-eLog, and many fish of other types available to the shops, you can imagine that not all staff will know everything about every fish the shop carries. It's just impossible. I have helped my LFS identify catfish - because they know I know more than them about most of the species they carry, and many they don't usually carry.

--
Mats

[Skirge]

Right after mass debate with pet store they are telling me he is an aluminium catfish and he does not have to be in a brackish tank, they can live fine is both so they reckon.
Waiting for manager to ring me back.

[racoll]

Hello.

I'm also pretty sure this is

Hexanematichthys seemanni

, although some better photos would really help to confirm it 100%.

The name "aluminum catfish" applies to several silvery claroteid catfish, usually

Chrysichthys brachynema

,

Chrysichthys longipinnis

or

Chrysichthys auratus

.

On an aside, do you have any bogwood in the tank? Your "royal plec" (

Panaque sp(l191)

) is a wood eating catfish and requires bogwood in his diet, as well as lots of vegetables.

Hope this has been of some help.

[MatsP]

I'd say it's UNLIKELY that it's a Chrysicithys. The number of keepers of ALL species of Chrysichthys in the CateLog is lower than the number of Hexanematichthys seemanni - they are not at all common in the trade. I'd be VERY surprised to see one of these in Pets at home. H. seemanni on the other hand, is raised for foodfish in SE Asia. It's not that uncommon in the hobby, and I'd very much more expect that to turn up in a place like P@H.

--
Mats

[Skirge]

Thamks for all this great help

Bogwood going in tomorrow for the pleco, its been soaking and have been feeding him cucumber, peas,carrot and sweetcorn, he eats better than me.

As for the catfish, they have been onto their supplier and they are certain it is an aluminium catfish (am not convinced)
I will do my best to get some photo's of him now.

will update soon.

[Skirge]

These better?

[Chrysichthys]

Common names don't mean very much. You could call any silvery catfish an 'aluminium catfish' and not be wrong. What matters is the scientific name.

EDIT: Our posts got crossed, but yes, that looks like Hexanematichthys seemanni.

[MatsP]

Yes, definitely H. seemanni [in a bit I will be able to write that without actually thinking about which there is one and two letters of in it's name ;)]

The white borders on the paired fins is pretty much unique.

--
Mats

[Skirge]

Yeah thanks lads, am gutted but he has to go back, I won't be changing to brackish so he has to go, arghhhh

[Carp37]

I've definitely seen Hexanematichthys being sold as "Aluminium Cats" or "Aluminium Shark Cats" in a few shops in the North of England/Midlands. As Chrysichthys said, common names are close to useless in the hobby- I remember seeing dwarf loaches in seven different shops with seven different common names back in the late 1980s!