PlanetCatfish.com

When I was a kid, I went to this petstore called Scott's Petshop (It has gotten bigger since, and is a very nice store for fish, Westchester, IL), and they had this fish labled as a freshwater shark in a tank with some Flordia gars. One of the workers said it was in the catfish family, and came from the Amazon. The fish didn't look exactly like it, but it sorta resembed a great white shark.... just smaller. The guy also said they only grow to be like 5-6" long.

Years later I went back to look at them again, and they didn't have any. I asked about them and they looked at me like I was crazy. Maybe someone here might have some ideas of what kind of fish that was.

Thanks!
Steve

There are several "shark"-like catfishes.

is one. is another.

FWIW, the bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) is regularly found in freshwaters worldwide.

maybe you saw Hexanematichthys seemanni, wich is a brackish-marine catfish from South America and quite sharklike, silvery grey, white belly, pointy snout, large triangular dorsal fin with a black tip, active swimmer.......young ones are fairly common in the trade, but they don't reach 6 feet; 1.5-almost 2 is more like it.

There ARE however a few rare larger Pimelodids wich have a decidedly sharklike appearance, at least the metallic or greyish silvery coloration, the sleek outline and the way they swim as well; Luciopimelodus pati and Platynematichthys notatus.

chances you see these are rare, but they grow fairly large (but not 6 feet, 3 is more like it), and when set up in a large tank, they look in way of movement and shape very "sharklike" to the not-so-diehard catfish-fan. esp the first has quite large whsikers, so it's visible it's a catfish though, not a shark.

snm wrote: The guy also said they only grow to be like 5-6" long.

Cheers, Whitepine

Turned names into links for better viewing.

SNM, check m out, maybe they're in there.

my money's on the seemanni ftw.

There is a the Bala/Tri-color shark that is freshwater and the Red-Tailed blck shark. Can't guaruantee they are actually sharks cince I found out ID Sharks are actually Catfish about 3 yrs ago. And that the brakish water 5-Fin Shark(or so it is called here) is actually a cat fish aswell which i learned from reading this post. I will do some research on those two sharks I mentioned to see if they are actually sharks or not.

Ok I pretty sure they are Sharks. This doesn't mean they are from the exact strain of sharks as Great White and other large sharks but they are classified within the shark catagory. Anyways one other type is a Rainbow shark. These are all freshwater sharks and have an Albino counter part for them aswell.

Here in Belgium, I know fish stores that sell pangasius as freshwater shark or blue freshwater shark. It's a shame...

Phathead6669 wrote:Ok I pretty sure they are Sharks. This doesn't mean they are from the exact strain of sharks as Great White and other large sharks but they are classified within the shark catagory. Anyways one other type is a Rainbow shark. These are all freshwater sharks and have an Albino counter part for them aswell.

Not sharks at all but actually Cyprinids, the same family as goldfish.
The closest thing to any member of the shark family that can actually be housed in a freshwater home aquarium are FW stingrays.