PlanetCatfish.com

Here are some scenes from the Grokeroom.

The Grokefish
http://media.putfile.com/The-Grokefish-29

L350 'coal Plec'
http://media.putfile.com/L350

http://media.putfile.com/L350-19

Panaque
http://media.putfile.com/The-volkswagen-fish

Corydoras
http://media.putfile.com/corydoras

L047
http://media.putfile.com/L047Glypto

The Groke Lair
http://media.putfile.com/The-Grokelair

you like?

Matt

Yes, I like very much.

Always a pleasure to see a nice big tank 'in action' as it were.

although the authentic fish room trickle soundtrack does not sit well with the three cups of tea I've drunk this morning, please excuse me for a moment...

I have always wondered why the Grokefish is called that.

Hi Matt,
I could not load the pages unfortunately. Timed out even with retries.

Its great Matt,congratulations!!!
Beautifull catfish and very outgoing i would say...
Only one note i would like to make,the Panaque doesnt look in the best shape...Are the other fish hurting him or do you bought him like that and hasnt healed yet?Because if you dont bought him that way,it would be best to move him to another tank till he grows a bit more and is able to take care of himself...

Kostas,
I have had that panaque for years and he is in great shape. Any fin damage is usually the result of his own obnoxiousness and he is well capable of looking after himself, but thanks for the concern.
Chrysichthys,
Have you ever seen the old fuzzy felt moomins?
That is where the grokefish get their name from.
Matt

grokefish wrote:Have you ever seen the old fuzzy felt moomins?
That is where the grokefish get their name from.
Matt

Which character is that, as I've seen those in Swedish (with finnish accent), and I'm trying to figure out which character could have been translated to groke(fish)...

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Mats

Try this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Groke

Thanks.

--
Mats

Matt,
It was just the fact that his fins are bitten in many places that concerned me,not his overall health,he otherwise looks in perfect condition...
I see...Being his owner you certainly know much more about him than one can understand from a video...
By the way,he is a beautifull Panaque Wish you see him big...

Yes, he is a very slow grower that one, he eats loads though, especially wood. He has whittled his favorite big bit of Oak down to a stick over the years.

Matt

Matt,
How on earth do these Colombian Tetras survive the Trachycorystes????

Yeah,its very interesting to see how they destroy a piece of wood...I have mine 3years now and i have seen certain branches of the woods become toothpicks... And the two coconut shells that are in the tank have many many holes on them now...Soon there will be nothimg left from them...

Marc,
I think that I have mentioned the Columbian tetras amazing ability to avoid predators.
The only fish that I have had trouble with them is Lima shovel nose catfish.
They go for the ambush approach and are lightening quick.
The Grokefish II has really calmed down he even shares his hidey hole with some doradids without complaint.
I said it before and I shall repeat myself again, I think that Trachycorystes is almost exclusively an insectivore rather than percivore, I have witnessed the eficiency with which the GrokefishI ate crickets from the surface without hardly disturbing the surface, the sort of upturned mouth would suggest a surface feeder also if you watch this:-
Click here to watch The-Grokefish
Although he doesn't actually take the food in this short clip you may see what I mean, his barbels are skimming the surface like they are designed specifically for that application, when he senses a cricket it disapears gracefully into the chasm like gub.
However if you watch this:-
Click here to watch The-Grokefish-29
You see an ungainly fish struggling to eat from the substrate.
Are trachys not amazingly interesting fishys to observe, I think that I find only observing microganis more fun.

Matt

What magnificent looking fish ! Can I ask are they all yours! If so when do you find the time watching them, let alone the caring of them?

I think that Trachycorystes is almost exclusively an insectivore rather than percivore, I have witnessed the eficiency with which the GrokefishI ate crickets from the surface without hardly disturbing the surface, the sort of upturned mouth would suggest a surface feeder also if you watch this:-

Perhaps they also eat floating fruits and seeds?

My also seem very happy feeding from the surface, as they have a similar mouth arrangement.

A is rather like a giant .

Great clips and very beautyfull Trachy...
Its very funny to see such a fish searching the surface with his barbels...

racoll,
Yes possibly fruits and seeds as well I shall try him out when he is moved back into his own tank, he is a lot less shy when there are no Uarus around.

Dawn, yes they are all living at my house, and just recently I have not had much time to watch them really.
As for the caring for them I have to admit that AquaKat does more of that than me because I am very rarely in the house these days, one of the reasons I am looking to move to Ireland, change of career.

Matt

Hi Matt. As you're hopefully moving to Ireland, who will be taking care of them or will you be parting with them (that would be a real shame )

grokefish wrote: I think that Trachycorystes is almost exclusively an insectivore (rather than piscivore)

Agreed and I even think this goes for many Auchenipterids. Their nocturnal behaviour is certainly surface orientated. Hence not only their mouths but also the way their barbels are curled upwards in order to skim the surface.
But as your video showed, they are also easily capable of getting their food from the bottom or somewhere in between.
I've never tried feeding fruit or veggies, so I can't tell you anything about it, except that they aren't interested in the cucumber I use to lure the snails with.
With regard to the Trachycorystes: I think this one is quite opportunistic when feeding is concerned and just takes what it is able to grab. Which in your case means crickets for they are much easier to catch than Colombian Tetras .

Amazing fish, that Trachycorystes

shame it didn't work in Marc's tank due to territorial issues I think?
it's still sitting at the LFS.

looks like without any other Auchenipterids it's a very nice fish, and visible.......wich says something given the manners of Driftwood Cats.

if it was from Tanganyika, it would be here in my showtank!
but I'm not dumb enough to assume it'll be really cool at pH8 and DH 12+.

As it goes there are 5 jags and two false jags in there with it at the moment.

sidguppy wrote:it's still sitting at the LFS.

Actually it isn't. They imported two specimen. "Mine" was relatively quickly sold to Germany. The other fish indeed hasn't left the building since it was imported.
At least it's still on their stocklist.
It didn't work out over here because I was unwilling to allow this swimming Rambo a period to calm down. Instead my fishes and myself needed to calm down.
But when reading the observations of other people, it's too bad I got such a nasty specimen and if I have had the possibility I'd have put it in a separate tank...I think.

Why is it all the good fish always seem to be in Europe?

I'm still waiting to find a Trachycorystes to add to my collection. Was a real shame that Groke 1 didnt make it down that day but your new one looks fantastic.

I'll have to put some pictures of my new fish house up soon, i've got the tank builders in on the 20th to put in a new big tank so i'll start a thread after that. Who knows i might even get some decent photos since the lighting is so much better.

To me the UK is also Europe, but more importantly, apart from Germany, I got the idae English peaople have something with catfish, so I would assume we would have to cross the channel to get nice ones

Perhaps it's just the seemingly greenness of the grass?

CFC wrote:Why is it all the good fish always seem to be in Europe?

No, don't be jealous. You are living in catfish country, not us.
Imo the UK is the place to be in that respect. Germany is by far not as good as it used to be. Sweden seems to be the runner up; hence all the fishes that Daniel60 can get his hands on....

I think this is sometimes a "grass is greener the other side of the fence" syndrom. I'm sure there are good suppliers in several countries, and that it may be easier to find good catfish in some countries than others, but it's not like you just walk in to the nearest fish-shop and find rare and exotic catfish here in the UK. You need to travel to find the specialist shops - even if that's easier than travelling to another country, it's not necessarily easy.

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Mats

I have to say that in my years of 'collecting' catfish, like baseball cards, I have found every single one of them at some time in this country, really I've had that japanese book with the funny translation for years and one day I circled all the fishys that I wanted to find and have ticked them all off.
Like Mats said you really do have to travel to find them but they are all there if you are quick enough and patient enough (hmm... does that make sense I wonder). I waited for years for my Jags, and had to travel miles to get them.
The only ones that I have had a real problem with are pepermint pleco (parancistrus), of which I only had one that died, and I still want to get hold of a few of these but have only ever seen the one, and the larger cheatostoma species which I have never ever seen anywhere or heard of anyone having.

Matt

Btw: for obvious reasons I didn't mention Japan. That has been catfish importer number 1 for several years now....

I also have a feeling that the exporters are most likely not "just selling to japan" or "just selling to the UK" [particularly the latter]. It is more a case of the importers choosing to import certain fish, and choosing to NOT import other fish. This in turn is based on what they expect to be able to make a profit on. In Japan, there's obviously a fair number of catfish collectors that are willing to spend money on exotic specimens. This means that the Japanese importers are more willing to pay a high price than the european importers, for example. I have read that there are staff from Japanese importers in for example Brazil, selecting fish from the exporters. They don't get to do this simply because they are Japanese, but because they are paying good money to the exporters. It's all about "you get what you pay for" and demand/supply relationships. The exporters run a business, not a "fair distribution of fish campaign", so they will sell to the highest bidder.

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Mats