New Juruense catfish

[Industrial]

So one of my LFS had this Juruense catfish for a couple months and I become attached and eventually bought it.

The owner fed it rosy reds. The catfish is very calm and eats very well. He looks great and he is maybe 4 1/2" SL.

I know that they love current and I put him in a 40 breeder with a freshwater barracuda and I am hoping to add a vampire tetra as well and create a South American piscivore whitewater biotope. The tank is new, but I am hoping to upgrade to something 2' wide when necessary.

Anyways, I am just wondering if anybody has any other tips on care and how large they usually get (not largest recorded specimen).

[MatsP]

It is a "medium" large predator in the Pimelodidae, and it's listed to grow to 2ft. This is manageable - you need a tank that is bigger than the usual home tank, but something about 8ft long and 4ft wide would be suitable when it reaches full size.

--
Mats

[Redtailrob]

Congrats on your purchase.

These are truly stunning fish.
As already stated on here they max out around the 24" mark.

Like most of the Bigger Pims they require Big Tanks & also importantly excellent filtration & water quality.
Jurense like most of the Brachy species also appreciates a real good flow.
They like to postion themselves on their fins facing the current with whiskers outstretched.

All the usual foodstuffs are readily taken & they can & will after time take dry food stuffs.
Both my Jurense & Tigrinus love Mascivore.
Feed only a couple of times a week once they begin to get larger.
* Note also that as it gets bigger they become more territoral & although most large slow moving tank mates will genarally be ignored they genarally will not tolerate other cats of a similar species i.e. Other Jurense etc!

Good luck with this cracking fish.

[Industrial]

Thanks for the info!

I am thinking if I cannot afford a large enough whitewater tank (or find the room lol) I will be doing an indoor pond. This Juruense is by the far the most beautiful Juruense I have seen. For some reason a lot of the ones that show up at my LFS end up looking like they are trying to swim up the front glass panel all day or are very skittish.

Right now he is in a tank with a falcirostris barracuda, nandus nandus (temporarily in that tank), midnight catfish and spotted raphael. I have an aquaclear 50 powerhead which creates much more current than I bargained for and I also have a backup aquaclear 30 filter on the back as well as a hydor sponge filter. The powerhead kind of forces the other two filters into the current rather than getting disrupted by them.

Now I am trying to make a south american whitewater biotope. The only plants I have right now are amazon swords. He is trying to perch himself on one of the pieces of driftwood, but he has trouble staying on it. Any ideas on any smaller thick leaved SA plants that I could put in there for him to lay on?

[nvcichlids]

if your looking for a "whitewater" tank... i would stay away from plants. Not to many plants will stay rooted in an aquarium with high current.

[MatsP]

Whitewater can be meaning two different things:
1. The type of rapids that people do rafting/canoeing on.
2. Water in South American rivers that is "white" like coffe/tea with milk ("white tea/coffee") - it's just a shade off white with silt. These rivers can be fairly slow flowing as well as fast flowing.

Edit: Whitewater as in "fast flow" will have no plants as nvcichlids says, because the plants can't settle there. In a whitewater "silt" river, there may be some plants in the shallow areas, but as the water is not letting much light through, there will be little or no plants in the deeper sections of river.

I suspect, if the natural habitat of the juruense is "whitewater", then I expect this means silty water, rather than "fast currents". Sure, they will live in water that is faster moving than most fish-tanks, but it's probaly not meaning that they are living in the areas of river that is high current/turbulent.

--
Mats

[grokefish]

Juruense are fab fish and they have a fab personality, much better than tigrinus IMO having kept both.

Good luck and as said they will take dead food and eventually dry food.

[racoll]

I suspect, if the natural habitat of the juruense is "whitewater", then I expect this means silty water, rather than "fast currents". Sure, they will live in water that is faster moving than most fish-tanks, but it's probaly not meaning that they are living in the areas of river that is high current/turbulent.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they do live in pretty gnarly rapids.

Now I am trying to make a south american whitewater biotope. The only plants I have right now are amazon swords. He is trying to perch himself on one of the pieces of driftwood, but he has trouble staying on it. Any ideas on any smaller thick leaved SA plants that I could put in there for him to lay on?

1. The type of rapids that people do rafting/canoeing on.
2. Water in South American rivers that is "white" like coffe/tea with milk ("white tea/coffee") - it's just a shade off white with silt. These rivers can be fairly slow flowing as well as fast flowing.

Indeed, and as already mentioned, you won't find many plants in either habitat, especially where B. juruense live.

Include a few plants if you wish, but it won't be a biotope. Anubias would be a better option plant wise.

A "strict" biotope would be large rocks and the odd branch. Water would be neutral to slightly alkaline.

[grokefish]

I believe so but if the information in the Baensch Aquarium atlas #4 is to be belived they are also found in quite still clearwater habitats.

Acording to the Catfish connection by Ronaldo Barthem and Micheal Goulding they rarely get above 30cm with a maximum of 60cm.

This would tie in with all the specimens I have seen in captivity, but obviously I have not seen them all.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Anyways, I am just wondering if anybody has any other tips on care...

Howdy, Neighbor!

A few tidbits from my, mostly sad, experience:

(1) B. j.'s are not amongst the roughest toughest cats, especially when small, they are rather easily killed by even moderately larger cats (I did not put them together but one of my silly j. (~4-5" TL) got thru a tank divider into the larger-cats section one night and did not live to see the day.)

(2) They appear to tolerate meds distinctly less than other cats - it is, IMHO, the best to keep them alone to avoid the risk of losing them when their tankmates get sick and require meds.

(3) They do appear to love a good flow and swim in it for hours or sit in it for days.

(4) Among a crowd of similarly sized small baby/juvenile pims, channels, etc., they are the only ones that went after live tankmates, like smaller corys and baby synos but this maybe simply because live food was what they were more used to (even though I had weaned them off live foods by that time).