inherited catfish any ideas?

[miniloo]

hi new to the site i've had a tank now for 4 yrs but have recently inherited a catfish but after searching many sites i can still not identify this fish, any help greatfully received.

catfish.jpg (50.33 KiB) Viewed 5523 times

[MatsP]

Platydoras armatulus

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Mats

[crkinney]

O love that fish !
Where is Cumbrea?

[MatsP]

I think (pretty sure) Cumbria is a part of Northern England. But I do agree that the address would be better if it was updated, as this is an international forum, and not all members have a good understanding of international geography.

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Mats

[miniloo]

my appologies i should have put north of england, or cumbria uk, its also known as the lake district and can be found below scotland.
may thanks for identifying this fish i will now be able to find out further info on it.

[MatsP]

You can edit your location using the "User Control Panel" near the top of the page.

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Mats

[Ozcattie]

INHERITED!?!?!?
Zomg- they're worth a fortune in Sydney....

[Bas Pels]

A fortune?

One can get them for 10 euro in Europe - that is less then 15 Aus $

nice price for a fish which lives 20 years or more - in fact, mine live 23 years now

[Richard B]

Cheapest i've seen recently was £3.99 for little ones..

[Ozcattie]

Aus prices for what we call a Striped/talking Raphael (??You too??) start from around $25 if you're the luckiest SOB ever. Average is closer to $50 getting up-to $250 for fry....
All depends where you shop & how long you wait...

[MatsP]

I take it that's because they are not legally available for import? So the ones available for sale are either smuggled or "second hand"?

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Mats

[miniloo]

i have never seen one at the stores that i have visited, i inherited most of the fish and the tank, the filter everything other then the stones and orniments that i have added myself,
can anyone tell me what other sorts of fish are good to keep with this catfish, and if there is anything special that he would like to eat,
my daughter calls him dead fish as he never seems to do much.

[MatsP]

"dead fish" is probably not that far off. They come out in the dark - they may be tempted out from some suitable food at times, but in nature they eat at night. I think they eat just about anything, but of course live food and frozen worms and such is probably the most "tasty", so the most likely to tempt them out.

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Mats

[Viktor Jarikov]

for roughly ten bucks, one can get a 6" trade-in around here; 2"-3"-ers are usually $5 a piece - sounds like there is a marketing hole in Down Under...
OP: ... i inherited most of the fish and the tank, the filter everything...
VJ: you must have had lots of older relatives keen on fish keeping

OP: can anyone tell me what other sorts of fish are good to keep with this catfish
VJ: hard question, too general, requires a 2-h-lecture - experts will come back and ask you what fish is available to you in your size range?

OP: and if there is anything special that he would like to eat,
VJ: anything indeed

OP: my daughter calls him dead fish as he never seems to do much.
VJ: dark but cute, in a way... he will come out for food during the day when really hungry and/or with a gang of other gluttons (IME) but not initially.

[MatsP]

for roughly ten bucks, one can get a 6" trade-in around here; 2"-3"-ers are usually $5 a piece - sounds like there is a marketing hole in Down Under...

I think it has to do with the fact that they are not legal to import into Australia...

See the list here:
http://www.environment.gov.au/biodivers ... t-list.pdf

Australia has some of the strictest import rules in the world, when it comes to living creatures...

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Mats

[Ozcattie]

Yes, Australia likes to keep the nasty's out...
Great list MatsP, although I look & see half the list are fish I have seen in aquariums...
Must be just brought in as "freshwater fish" & get past customs

[MatsP]

Well, that list is the species you are ALLOWED to import, so I would expect most of the species on the list being available at least sometimes in Australia. But anything not on the list is by definition not allowed. It is a "white-list", not a "black list" (meaning a list of forbidden "things"). The Brazil export list is also a "white-list", meaning that it doesn't list everything you can't export, just the things that you can. I think this approach is actually clearer, as newly described species, L-numbers and other species that aren't available at the time of list-writing are automatically made clear where they stand, rather than being in some "grey area" of "not quite sure".

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Mats