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There have been questions on this forum like: "what's your favourite catfish" and "what's your oldest catfish".
As far as I can recall - and I've scrolled back some years - there's no such question as What was your first catfish? . Which species has started it all?

In my case it was a . I was 10 or 11, into guppys and swordtails, when an uncle of mine bought me one while visiting an LFS. Never seen such a thing. A swimming skeleton! It has been in my tank for several years. One specimen. How could I know it should be in a group? Books came later.
The tank measured 30x20x20 cms, which is a stunning 12 liters.
A lot has changed since then. But I still have Glass cats in one of my tanks


BTW: Mods, if I missed this question in an earlier thread, pls remove this post.

It must have been a good old for my three foot goldfish tank when I was about 9.

He even spent the odd summer in the water butt in the garden with the goldfish. He used to treble in size after a spell in there.

The goldfish were all killed by cats in the end. Can't remember what happened to the plec.

Must have been Corydoras, I think paleatus. In those days (over 30 years back) other catfishes were either not available, or considered very, very difficult to keep.

I hoped for a tank such as Marc mentioned, but a colleague of my father suggested to let me tak care of the family tank, an unbelivable 80 cm long tank. i never got the opportunity to thank the man enough

The question is, who had the coolest first catfish?

Heteropneustes fossilis of course

It's also my favourite and the oldest (27 years) catfish.

racoll wrote:The question is, who had the coolest first catfish?

No, that's definitely NOT the question.
Not the coolest, ugliest, most expensive, largest or whatever.

Pls stick to the topic.

I'm not sue i can remember 100% but a brown bullhead (Ictalurus nebulosus) has got to be one of the first i ever owned.

My first one was a Hypostomus of some sort. Called "Algot", which is a pun-name on "Algae, Good" in Swedish.

Unfortunately, he (she?) starved to death because I didn't know how to feed him/her.

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Mats

I purchased (3) Corydoras aeneus and (3) Corydoras paleatus 5 years ago. I think they're still growing.
Amanda

My first purchase was a which strictly speaking was a gift to my youngest brother, although I fed and looked after it. Its name was Sparky.

And I still have a Platydoras costatus (but not the same one)....

racoll wrote:
The question is, who had the coolest first catfish?


No, that's definitely NOT the question.
Not the coolest, ugliest, most expensive, largest or whatever.

Pls stick to the topic.

It was more of a sub-question really.

My first catfish was a rineloricaria of some sort, 18 years ago. It was also my first fish and the reason why I got interested in aquariums in the first place.

My first tropical tank was a 20-gallon with metal frame when I was about 10 years old. I think that my first fish were a couple of angelfish with a green cory for the bottom. I also collected fish from a local lake during the summers as a kid, so my first catfish may have been baby Ictalurus. Can't remember details from several decades ago.

I don't remember for sure, but it would almost certainly have been a Corydoras, probably C. paleatus and / or C. aeneus in albino form.

However I do remember what fish first got me interested in catfish. I started off with goldfish and was taken by other, more interesting cold water fish. Firstly a Chinese Algae Eater a.k.a. Sucking Cat (not a catfish, nor an algae eater) and then Weather Loaches, also not a catfish but they were the hook to an obsession with our whiskered friends

My first catfish were peppered cories followed by a synodontis who I still have 16 years on.
Alison

My first one was my Hypostomus Soniae. It was supposed to be a Hypancistrus sp., but it was sent to the fish store instead so I snapped him up!

Hi, my very first plec was a Scobinancistrus aueatus (or sunshine plec, if I've not spelt it right ). He was the size of a Zebra Plec when I had him 5-6 years ago, but he's (well I think it's a he, could by either sex ) is over 9 inches in lenght . He/she loves to dig up the plants and stirs up the sand a treat, so we never have any trouble about any gunk in the bottom of the tank!

I can remember this one fairly well; it wasn't 1 fish, but 2: 1 Corydoras aeneus and 1 Corydoras paleatus, bought together.

I was closing on my 10th birthday and just started to keep fish: my dad wanted to do away with the living room tank (a 50x30x30cm tank) and I wanted to keep it. it was populated with livebearers (I remember at least platy's and black mollies), some zebra- and chinese danio's, a kuhli loach and a chinese algae-eater.

Mine was the Pimelodus Pictus

Just the bog-standard BN for me which I still have and love.

My first catfishes was a couple of Ancistrus dolichopterus, thath I keep for three years. My favourite catfish...Panaque and Hypancistrus are my favourites, but I like Chatostomus and Agamyxis so much!