PlanetCatfish.com

Out of the 5 banjos purchased at the terrible lfs chain near my home, 4 have made it and are doing great; they are eating like pigs even with all lights on in the room, and have no problems munching on pellets.

My trouble? I think I have monsters to be.

As shown in the last photo (the head shot) from the COTM, http://www.planetcatfish.com/cotm/2002_11.php, that looks to be a near perfect match to my four.

Somehow I am thinking the 20 gallon tank is not going to work now. o_O

Is there a chance that this headlong shot is a similar look for most banjos? At four to five inches long right now, none of them have mottled skin or the telltale eel tail...

It is likley that your cats are not the eel-tailed banjo of the cotm article, but more likley the 6" sized "common" banjo.

Or, perhaps they are something else all together. Is it possible to get a photo up?

Even if they are a common banjo that max's out a around 6" I think they are going to need a bigger home. Forty gallons would probably be a minimum. Are they in with many other fish?

You may have Pterobunocephalus (that's my WAG sans photo), which would reach about the same size as a regular banjo.

Maybe you have these??

Platystacus cotylephorus

They look like a huge Banjo with a long tail (and underside a very elongated anal fin)
the one thing that immedeately separates them from Banjo's is their behaviour; this is a very lively fish, moves around a lot and it's a voracious feeder, a pig as you say

I've seen mine swell to golfball dsize when I made the mistake of feeding spirulina-tabs
They ate them ALL!!!
there must be about 40 catfish in that tank (small ones) but my pair of swimming woodpieces eat as much as the rest combined.

Gotta figure out how to work our digital camera...

The thing is that all my banjos are active now, since I have a nice leaflitter on the tank ground (and thank you SO MUCH again to those who sent me leaves! ) and they all eat great. No golfball swelling yet.

I picked these guys up at a PetCo some weeks back; did anyone else happen to see them at said establishment elsewhere?