PlanetCatfish.com

hi ppl.
im new to this website and keeping catfish.could some one give me some info on the perruno catfish,or if anyone has some photos of it could i see them,iv looked for some info on the net but there is not much about them i could find.
thanx.
jay

This is usually what is called a perruno catfish.

thanx very much,,that is the one im after,,a 6x2x2 tank should be ok for this catfish,,?

HI Jason,
and welcome to planet catfish.

,a 6x2x2 tank should be ok for this catfish,,?

IMO Not really, the fish will outgrow this size tank, and as it grows larger than 2 foot; then a 2 foot wide tank is not going meet the needs of the fish.

BTW have you read the "the big cat sticky!" to this forum regarding large catfish?
http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hp?t=10494

how fast dose this fish grow,,he is about 14" at the min,,,i would up grade to a tank for him when he is bigger.
thanx for the reply.

If you look in my gallery you will see the picture of our longibarbis which we origionally thought was a perruno.

All i would say with this type of fish is that they are very skittish. Ours goes suddenly spooked for no reason and he smashes into the glass, it`s a good job it`s strong because he stands a good chance of smashing through it.

He went through a period of fasting too, 9 months to be precise without eating anything at all. His colours never faded or anything and the advice I got was that in the wild, they would get cut off in small ponds for times during the year when the floods receede, and be without food, so he was probably doing what was natural.
He eats fine again now, he is just over 2 foot and you must provide them with a tank wide enough so that their barbels don`t touch the sides of the tank.

Hope this helps you!!
Clare

clare wrote: He went through a period of fasting too, 9 months to be precise without eating anything at all.

Really? ... I don't know anything about these fish, but 9 months is really a long time.

You have some serious tanks BTW!

Yep, I know 9 months is a long time but that`s no exaggeration. It really was that long.

Jason, I think I have seen you Perruno!!!!! Is it in Wharf still? We went there yesterday and I was telling Richard about you posting on the forum about getting him.
There was one, one the right hand side of the fish house down at the bottom labelled sold, is that your fella?

He is defiantely a Perruno. The guys there do really know their stuff but even the best fishkeepers make mistakes, and ours is a Longibarbis.

Their African Catfish as you walk into the fish room on the right is gorgeous isn`t he?
Did you see the Silver Arowana just near your Perruno with the hybris redtail? We bought him, along with some 3 spot snakeheads.

A gorgeous fish you are getting, and he had a bit of attitude there too, swishing his tail around!!
Let me know if that is the one you`re getting!
Clare

Hi Claire ..its Mary here just posting on forum cos i didnt know if my reply would get on here or not and also to let others know I'm hereeeeeeee lol. Yea that perruno is ours just waiting to be picked up. He is going into a tank with our Arowana. The tank and cabinet and lid has all been made by Wharf, and it will be getting delivered in approx 2 weeks. It's a 6ft x 2ft x 2ft and b4 i get lots ov posts sayin they will out grow this tank "I KNOW". Like all the fish we keep we always expect to have to upgrade and we will be moving in april so we are gonna build a fish house where Jason has already got his mind on a 10ft x 4ft x 3ft (i think thats the size )From now on we are just gonna buy "TANK BUSTERS" I have always prefered the bigger fish and since we have had our Arowana i know this is the start ov something "big" byeeee folks Mary

I have sent you a pm Mary. We are into tank busters too, look on my gallery. Yep, we all know they get big. I don`t think people mean any harm in warning that they will get big it`s just that we don`t all have brill shops like Wharf to advise us and sometimes people are ill advised, or not advised at all!

Then people 'intend' to get bigger tanks but circumstances change or they necer get round to it.

Obviously you are well prepared and fishkeeping can be great fun can`t it? Although hard work. We spend all day Thursday doing water changes in our 13 tanks, then Sunday afternoon and an hour on a Monday.Not to mention syphoning out all the uneaten food each night.

We have got our fish room built, just not insulated out. The floor cost £3000 extra to take the weight of these tanks and it set us back a bit so they are all in our overly large sized lounge at the minute.

It`s the big tank which will carry all the weight. We`re looking at a 15 x 5 x 3. Did you know that if you keep the height under 3ft it`s cheaper, lots cheaper? Most fish need a big footprint so the height at 3ft is okay.

Anyway, I`m rambling now!
Clare

"Perruno catfish" is actually a trade name for the species Perrunichthys perruno, a species not commonly found in the aquarium trade and one that is easily confused with it's closely related cousin - Leiarius longibarbis, the fish you most likely have.

These fish grow quite larger 3'/36"/90cm. I have a 28"er. A very fast growing robust catfish that will quickly outgrow most tankmates.

Easy to care for, the only issue is the issue of space. Plan for a tank/pond with a floor plan of atleast 8x3.

Jiellen_27 wrote:"Perruno catfish" is actually a trade name for the species Perrunichthys perruno, a species not commonly found in the aquarium trade and one that is easily confused with it's closely related cousin - Leiarius longibarbis, the fish you most likely have.

These fish grow quite larger 3'/36"/90cm. I have a 28"er. A very fast growing robust catfish that will quickly outgrow most tankmates.

Easy to care for, the only issue is the issue of space. Plan for a tank/pond with a floor plan of atleast 8x3.

Theres someone who already postively ID'd the OP's fish a true Perruno not the Longibarbis. I would have came up with the same conclusion until I read the entire thread.

Proteus wrote:Theres someone who already postively ID'd the OP's fish a true Perruno not the Longibarbis. I would have came up with the same conclusion until I read the entire thread.

And the whole thread is five years old. And I'm qutie suspicious about the correctness of the ID, no offense to anyone. Lake Maracaibo fish is extremely rare in the trade. I'm not holding it as impossible, but it would be quite a rare fish - unless it's a fish that was imported MANY years ago.

--
Mats

I've had discussions on other sites in the past about p. perruno I.D. Aside from being native to the Lake Maracaibo Basin they are also said to exist in the Rio Negro in Venezuela, Colombia and presumably, Brazil, according to FishBase. They used to infrequently show up in LFS' back n the 1970's as I kept and raised one to 14" then. The most obvious differences between l. longibarbus and p. perruno were that p. perruno had a smaller dorsal fin, a more elongate body shape, slightly different shaped adipose fin, and somewhat smaller, more closely grouped reticulated markings. The differences being more pronounced in juvenile specimens. Photo's shown in the Burgess-Atlas of Catfishes show some examples. Behavioural characteristics were akin to that of l. pictus in most ways. Some insist they have never been exported but who would know for sure? I haven't see one anywhere in decades but if I do...

I had a look in Burgess, and I'm uncertain as to the correctness in the ID. From what I can tell, it looks like the dorsal fin has 9 rays - but the pictures is about 2 x 3", and not exactly the very latest printing technology...

And you do realize that Rio Negro in this case is not Rio Negro that flows into the Amazon, but Rio Negro on the western side of Lake Maracaibo. Both museum specimens of P. perruno are from the same place, Rio Negro in the Lake Maracaibo basin. If you have some reference (I looked at Fishbase for this information) that shows a wider distribution, I'm happy to have another look.

--
Mats

It was from a search weeks ago where I found reference to Rio Negro and p. perruno and at the moment can't find it again. In FishBase, checking listings of Freshwater Fishes by Country, they are listed as native to Venezuela and Colombia, for what it's worth. Without detailed maps at hand, I wrongly assumed the Rio Negro in question was the Amazon tributary. These species are admittedly very difficult to identify being so similar and most searches reveal obvious misidentifications of both genera and without any way to confirm I.D. from available sources or photo's, I suppose their true identity will remain unresolved for the time being...

I have very very fond memories of our Perruno cat "Bigboy". We had him from the size of 4-5 inches to 36 inches; about 9 years. He was as big around as a 5lb. coffee can, and never,ever bothered any other fish in his custom 6x3x3 foot tank. That is as long as he wasn't being fed algae wafers! That's all he ever ate was algae wafers.when he grew to about 12 inches, his marble pattern began to fade to all black. It was hard to even see his "marbling" close up with the lights on. He was the most gentle and wonderful catfish we have ever owned. Now i know that all fish, even fish of the same kind, have different temperaments; but "Bigboy" was truly a gentle giant. He ate algae wafers from my grand daughters little fingers and never even nipped her! His only fault was getting too big. Our local public aquarium could'nt take him. It was hard to even find a LFS to take him on consignment. I don't know whether to be upset with myself for purchasing him or getting rid of him. I think at 36inches his growth was probably all but over. I do consider keeping him a success; but my "big pim" days are over.once i decide whether to keep our redtail, I'll never buy another one. I'm still angry with the genious @ our LFS for putting biggie in too small of a tank. He jumped out of it sometime sunday nite and the store, being closed on monday found him tuesday morning on the floor. All in all it was a great 9 years keeping him; but like all good things i guess it had to end.i just hate the way it did!

[Mod edit: Remove "shouting" all-caps in this text --Mats]

That sucks