breeding asian catfish

kwalker · Post by **kwalker** » 23 Sep 2003, 07:21

though this question is really geared to HH, i would appreciate any info from all pc participants. here in america i do not see many asian catfish being bred. in fact i currently know of no-one even working with any.

so i would like to start trying to get some of these species going.

first what do you recommend as a good starter catfish and what water parameters is best suited for the species?

second, has anyone worked with any of these catfish and if so can you pass along any information that you may have?

thanks in advance
ken walker

Achim · Post by **Achim** » 23 Sep 2003, 08:41

Hi Ken,

in fact i currently know of no-one even working with any.

Well, i am.

There have been imported lots of interesting catfish from south east asia recently (mainly from Myanmar) and finally the interest in these fish seems to awaken.
Heteropneustes fossilis has been regularily bred by german breeders. H.-J. Franke and others (Chechs) mostly have bred some MYstus species. All articles are in German im afraid. Hara jerdoni has just recently been bred here.
I had just success breeding Akysis sp. "Ataran". Article will follow as soon as i have sucessfully raised the youngs.

Greetings... Achim

Post by **Silurus** » 23 Sep 2003, 08:58

I think bagrids offer the best chance of success, since they are the most easily available and people have had modest success breeding them (although some of the breeding reports were hormone-induced). Your best bet would be to pick one of the smaller Mystus species and then do the rainy season thing.
May be a bit tricky, depending on the species you have. Mystus bimaculatus is a blackwater fish and trying to bring the pH down right might be tricky (the normal pH of its habitat is around 4).
Shane might have some thoughts on this. I am not sure if he managed any breeding successes when he was keeping bagrids, though.

Post by **Dinyar** » 23 Sep 2003, 15:37

Seems to me that the main reason Asian cats have not been bred is that very few people are interested in them. Just take a look at the number of posts in the Asian Forum compared to the other geographical forums, for example. But it probably works the other way as well, as Achim pointed out in a post some time ago: fewer people are interested in Asian cats in part because they are harder to breed. This has to do with size (many Asian cats get large) but perhaps especially with habitats ranging from blackwater swamps to extremely fast hill streams that are difficult to reproduce in aquaria.

On a different note, many Asian cats that are important food fish are commercially bred in aquaculture programs. Even large fish like Wallago and Bagarius are stocked in what Indians call "tanks" (large ponds, perhaps better thought of as little lakes), where they essentially breed themselves.

Dinyar

Post by **Silurus** » 23 Sep 2003, 15:55

I always thought the main reason Asian cats were not interesting to aquarists is because most of them have such dull color patterns.
If you think about it, large pims (like Pseudoplatystoma and Merodontotus) are not interesting because they are easy to breed, but because they have striking color patterns.
You don't usually see people getting just as excited over say, a large Mystus, because they just come in different shades of gray or brown.