Did you know fantastic help is an anagram of Planet Catfish? This forum is for those of you with pictures of your catfish who are looking for help identifying them. There are many here to help and a firm ID is the first step towards keeping your catfish in the best conditions.
I got it at petsmart... it's about 3" long with tiny fins all over it's body. It's very reflective. The little bugger wouldn't stay still, he's very active, and not just on the bottom, he swims all over. The pictures don't show the amount of reflectiveness at all, I would say it's as reflective as the bala shark.
Sorry for the poor pictures, my digital camera got stolen and I had to use my phone camera. Hopefully I'll replace the digital cam soon, but no in the budget yet.
Well, it looks kind of like that one.. but it's wider and the fins are much smaller? Is it possible the fins got bitten off? There were probably a dozen in the tank and they were all had tiny fins like this one. I'm working on getting better pictures.
The first picture has a bala shark in the background... that is not the fish in question.
Then all of them (there were at least a dozen) in the tank I got it from had theirs fins bitten off? This guy's fins are completely gone compared to these pictures. Other than that he does look like them. I assume they will grow back with time? He really has to jerk around to swim around, but he does it so naturally I just though he must be naturally like that. Is there anything I can do to help him recover? Also, how long will it be before he outgrows a 55 gallon aquarium?
I sure wish they'd stop selling these fish to people that have no idea what they're getting themselves in for. His fins are definitely nipped, and he's most assuredly going to get huge in no time at all. I'd say a year maximum before he's too big for your 55, depending on your feeding and maintenance schedule.
The fins could have been eroded from the poor water in the (overcrowded) conditions the fish were kept at the pet store.
It's really not easy to see from the pics.
I still haven't gotten access to a good camera to get decent pictures, but his fins are starting to grow back already! This guy is a pig too, he eats a lot. We've decided to keep him, even if he does outgrow the tank... within a year or so perhaps we'll have a bigger place to keep him, but if not, I've found a chinese food place has a large outdoor pond that will take him in.
I've found a chinese food place has a large outdoor pond that will take him in
Are you sure the fish will not end up on the menu someday?
Just kidding. Even if it did, it would have been far better than leading a miserable life in a tank too small.
Yeah, Chinese restaurants have a thing about having ponds and/or tanks from which customers choose the live fish they want cooked up for them. Dogs, cats and much else in cages too, depending on the restaurant and the country. Civet cats are back after being temporarily kept under wraps because of the SARS epidemic.
I'm told that herpetologists make field trips to restaurants in China just to see turtles and such from all over the world that they cannot see in the wild.
Personally, I think the only kind of tank in which it makes sense to keep Pangasiids is a Chinese restaurant tank. And if you're going to eat Pangasiids in a Chinese restaurant, I'd recommend it highly spiced, as the flesh tends to be a bit dry and insipid on its own.
Nah nah.. well.. I don't think so at least. It's my friend's family restaurant, and it's not like a holding area for them to cook, it's a decrative pond that goes from out front to the inside, it's actually quite nice. They mostly have things that look like big gold fish. I'm not even sure if they'll take the thing for sure, but he told me if it actually grew big enough they would keep it. We'll see I guess, I'll keep you updated.
