Sneaky Acrochordonichthys

[Silurus]

I had quite a massive die-off occur in the tank at my office while I was away (all of the

Akysis prashadi

I had left died), so I decided to redecorate my tank. Luckily, the two

Acrochordonichthys rugosus

in the tank were still alive. I severely reduced the number of plants in the tank, which led to the Acrochordonichthys sitting out in the open.
I dumped a couple of smallish platys in the tank because my experience with trying to add small dither fish to the tank in the past led to the untimely demise of numerous small tetras. At that point, I had fingered the

Pterocryptis berdmorei

in the tank as the most likely culprits.
I saw a platy sidle up in front of the Acrochordonichthys, and to my surprise, the platy disappeared in a snap as the catfish snapped like a Chaca.
Beware of the idle catfish, I say.

[amiidae]

I may be getting some this week.

Learn that they are difficult fish to keep. Any advise ?

[Jools]

I didn't find them hard too keep, they don't feed well in bright light but other than that no real special reqs.

Jools

[amiidae]

Thanks, Jools,

What are the general water parameters & tank setup do you have yours in ? Also, whats their diet ?

[Jools]

This was a while back. I had them in a long low tank 36x12x12 with gentle power filtration, no extra aeration. Temp would have been about 78F, substrate was sand and no additional calciferous material added, so pH around 5.5-6. I fed them frozen bloodworm, I couldn't get them to eat anything else but didn't try live foods. I suspect they needed to be fed more often than my once a day of frozen bloodworm, so I think keeping something like a bunch of tank raised guppies or suchlike above them might help.

Jools

[medaka]

I too have kept these, but, sadly it has been a while since I last found any for sale in my area. The foods that I fed them on were: Live & frozen bloodworm's, live & frozen adult brine shrimps and earth worms other than those they didn't seem to be interested in commercial foods such as flake, granular and pelleted type feeds and I stopped offering such to them as I got fed up with having to syphon out these types of feeds every evening and morning.

Jools, I am interested by your sentence

Temp would have been about 78F

I found that mine seemed to have a more rapid gill movement, than when being kept at temperatures lower than 75F. At the time I theorised that mature specimens had been found in the deeper parts of the main river channels by collectors and that whilst the surface and upper levels may be quite warm the deeper one goes down the cooler the water becomes. I know this is the case here in the UK (when we have a prolonged spell of sunshine) and as you have been out that way with HH, I would be interested if you & HH found that this is also the case in the tropics.

[Jools]

It depends on the dynamics of the river. In faster water the temperature is more even, in still water you get the cooler toes, warm chest effect. I am not sure that 78F is the best temperature for them; just what I used.

Jools

[amiidae]

Thanks for all the input.

Got them tonite.

[amiidae]

Their favorite spot.


They are doing well feeding baby mollies.

[amiidae]

btw, will these cats morph / change in their markings as they grew ?

[Shovelnose]

Thanks for all the input.

Got them tonite.

They look absolutely stunning!!! Is there any interaction between the specimens???

[amiidae]

They stay close to each other most of the time but maybe just trying to find cover.

Expecting them to feed like Chaca (create vacuum by opening their mouth) but I observe they launch forward to catch their prey instead.