Mystus canarensis care

[jam]

can someone help me i've had this catfish since november and recently found out it's a Mystus canarensis his around 3-4 inches and i've searched the internet posted on other forums and no body knows so can someone please tell me the avaliability and care for this catfish

[The.Dark.One]

You might be better contacting Shovelnose. He keeps quite a few Indian Mystus, including canarensis

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/memb ... le&u=12981

[Viktor Jarikov]

Welcome! Yep, Balaji (Shovelnose) is one right guy. There are others too. If you'd be interested in a second ID opinion (IME always wise) or just wanna share some pics of your fish, that'd be great... and appreciated too.

[Shovelnose]

Hey jam,


Lovely species this. Quite hardy and adapts to a range of water parameters. Care is quite simple actually. A good number of hiding spaces, good quality sinking food (Hikari,JBL etc), regular water changes and vacuuming the gravel during water changes will keep your fish happy and healthy. Water temperature is not crucial. My

Mystus

tanks stay between 26C (monsoon) and 33C (peak summer).This is a very peaceful species too. Is this a biotope tank??? What other fish do you have in it???


I haven not collected Mystus canarensis in the wild as yet. The closest I came was a severed head (probably the work of an otter) a few years ago. This was a hill stream with lots of pebbles and rocks. The water was around 25C and fast flowing. There was leaf litter towards the banks plus over hanging vegetation and large logs of wood.

The biggest specimen I have is around 6" TL.If you want to reconfirm the ID, just post a picture as there are a few other Indian species that look very similar. Care however, will not vary too much.

[jam]

his in just a general community so just the normal fish like farlowellas, a synodontis petricola, a elephant nose, bamboo shrimp, Columbian tetras and a few more fish and for hiding places is a big piece of bogwood and some plants ok

[Shovelnose]

He might eat the shrimp and the Tetras if they are small enough to fit in his mouth. A few more hiding places will be best IMO. Even pipes will do (although I prefer using only rocks for this purpose as it looks more natural).

[MatsP]

Balaji,

Any particular reason this species isn't in the Cat-eLog?

--
Mats

[Shovelnose]

Any particular reason this species isn't in the Cat-eLog?

The neotype designation is not accepted by everyone.

[jam]

well the shrimp are a similar size and the tetrasare deep bodied and are full grown

[Richard B]

his in just a general community so just the normal fish like farlowellas, a synodontis petricola, a elephant nose, bamboo shrimp, Columbian tetras and a few more fish and for hiding places is a big piece of bogwood and some plants ok

The big piece of bogwood and plants should be great for the mystus to use as cover. Colombian tetras should be too big and therefore safe.

I might suggest that an elephant nose and a syno petricola are not really normal community fish: the syno would prefer a rocky, hard alkaline water set-up and are very susceptible to nitrate build up. The elephant nose really is more specialised than a lot of people think. It needs a fine sand substrate (mud would be ideal)and a ready source of live/frozen foods. They are also easily harrassed by any bottom dwelling fish that take exception to them. What do you use as a substrate? What sort of elephant nose is it?

[jam]

well soon im going to add a few rocks and his just a normal elephant nose i feed him bloodworm and i have sand and im not sure if this is normal so could you say if it is he comes out nearly all of the time swimming round the plants and when his not out its because i moved his bogwood or replanting his amazon sword plants is that normal then

[racoll]

Jam, how did you identify your fish as Mystus canarensis?

This ID seems odd, given it's nomenclatural status.

[Shovelnose]

Hey Rupert,


This species appears on Indian lists frequently along with malabaricus in addition to others. Although, I also think it is best if jam can post a picture to help us confirm the ID.

FWIW, this is what this species looks like.

[jam]

yeh he looks exactly like the one in the pic and i found out he was a mystus after seeing a similar fish on the pfk mag website so then in looked up mystus and then i found his name

[Silurus]

Sure you didn't confuse it with

Mystus castaneus

?

[jam]

im posotive

[racoll]

so then in looked up mystus and then i found his name

jam, where exactly did you look up your Mystus? Just wondering how you identified it, as M. canarensis is not represented in the PC Cat-eLog.

[jam]

i found this site http://www.scotcat.com/articles/article65.htm and what does nomenclatural mean because i have never heardof that word

[The.Dark.One]

That is my article jam. Not everyone follows my way of thinking, hence canarensis not being in the clog.

recognising canarensis means accepting that armatus isn't a valid species (junior synonym of oculatus IMO).

Either way I'm sure the care information Shovelnose has given you will help.

[Richard B]

http://www.planetcatfish.com/general/ge ... cle_id=439

Nomenclature - the scientific method of naming things - see link to PC glossary above

[racoll]

i found this site http://www.scotcat.com/articles/article65.htm

I'd not seen that. Thanks for the clarification.