how about catfish-in india

fishnfeeds · Post by **fishnfeeds** » 27 Sep 2005, 15:20

dear & near,
how many cat fish lovers are there in planetcatfish members circle.
how many varites of cat availlable in india
which are rare amoung this
is there any such variety known to be as
most precious,amoung aquarium cats.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 27 Sep 2005, 16:14

"how many cat fish lovers are there in planetcatfish members circle."

If you look at the bottom of the Forum screen, it says how many registered members there are, if that's what you're after. Some 3-4000 if memory serves me right.

"how many varites of cat availlable in india"

Depends on what you mean by "available". To purchase from fish shops? Haven't got a clue, but almost certainly hundreds.

Or how many species are native to india? If you look at http://www.fishbase.org, they have a "information by country/region", where you can enter India as the region. Doing this, and looking at families Siluridae, Sisoridae, Bagridae and possibly a couple of others, I found that there are a few dozen different catfish native to India.

"which are rare amoung this"
I can't answer that, but I'm sure someone else can.

"is there any such variety known to be as most precious,amoung aquarium cats."

Again, this depends on what you refer to: From the ones native to India, or across the world? In the world, there are about 2500 different species of catfish, some of which are very sought after in the market. For example, Hypancistrus Zebra will fetch prices that are in the hundreds of US dollars, even for babies. This is because it's a rare (not available in wild-caught due to export restrictions from Brazil), and it's got striking colouration which makes it a very attractive fish in the aquarium trade.

There are certainly other fish that are both rare and sought after, although I'd have a hard time enumerating those. I don't think many of the Indian native species would be among the "top 100" of most sought after in the aquarium trade.

Several of the native species are certainly unsuitable for the regular aquarium, and will require rather large volumes of water to be kept. Others are very small, and can be kept in aquariums, such various Hara spp.

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Mats

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 27 Sep 2005, 16:59

As an Indian native you can get Chaca chaca wich is one of the coolest cats to keep and one of the weirdest as well!

Chaca's have all the charms of a piece of wood, but one with appetite....

There are many species of Mystus and the like, the smaller ones should be great to keep.
India doesn't export very often, not like South East Asia where many fish are traded to around the globe.

you should be able to get a collection of 'natives' wich will be the envy of many a planetcatfish-visitor.

Ask Silurus about Indian catfishes, he's been dumping hundreds of pix on this site of his catches.....

Post by **Silurus** » 27 Sep 2005, 17:43

Value is relative. The native species you catch in your rivers and eat may be worth hundreds as aquarium fish somewhere else in the world.

retro_gk · Post by **retro_gk** » 27 Sep 2005, 17:47

Silurus wrote:Value is relative. The native species you catch in your rivers and eat may be worth hundreds as aquarium fish somewhere else in the world.

Very true... Most Indian "ornamental" fish are food fish back home.

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 28 Sep 2005, 09:14

Silurus wrote:Value is relative. The native species you catch in your rivers and eat may be worth hundreds as aquarium fish somewhere else in the world.

Very good point. I think it was Shane that said that locals in Columbia would much rather keep imported Clown Loaches than native catfish. And I think the reason is that they are more "exotic" if the fish isn't just a few miles away in a local river.

Also, a fish that is natively plentyfull will not fetch a great value locally, even as food-fish, but if it's a large-ish fish, the cost of exporting it alone will make it expensive.

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Mats