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This is one family I have always loved ever since I kept my first Bunocephalus verrucosus ten years ago.

Beside the common Bunocephalus coracoideus, which often is another species...what genus and species do you keep!!

Currently I keep 2 species: Ernstichthys megistus and Pterobunocephalus dolichurus

Unfortunately I lost my verrucosus a few years ago and I haven't been able to find some again...I still managed to keep these for 7 years and I am pretty sure I had a pair as both fish were looking different in morphology in the abdomnen region one was really rounder while the other had more a triangle look when you were checking them from above

so what do you keep??
Cheers
Yann

I have some (to the best of my knowledge).

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Mats

Hi!!

2 pictures of bith species

Ernstichthys megistus


Pterobunocephalus dolichurus


cheers
Yann

at the moment, zero; but I used to have a pair of Platystacus cotylephorus a few years ago





the male has the light patch on his back. very active fishes, quite different from Bunocephalus.
also: voracious gluttons!
these 2 would eat as much as the rest of the tank combined.....

Platystacus cotylephorus - I'm adding this (or similar) to my wish list .
Hopefully Neil at Pier might read this thread

Hi Yann
So you got some Ernstichthys! Lucky you, mine didn't turn up. How many did you get?
I've got B. verrucosus (both 'forms'/subspecies), B. cf. aleuropsis, B. amaurus, B. coracoideus
A. hypsiura, P. amazonicus, P. dolichurus.

is fantastic - do we even have some pics for the catelog? I'm keeping the common species, like Marc and Richard are very fond of and I have some too.

Jools

The.Dark.One wrote:Hi Yann
So you got some Ernstichthys! Lucky you, mine didn't turn up. How many did you get?
I've got B. verrucosus (both 'forms'/subspecies), B. cf. aleuropsis, B. amaurus, B. coracoideus
A. hypsiura, P. amazonicus, P. dolichurus.

HI Steven!!

I got 5 and expecting to receive 6 more which would make a nice little troup!!

Lucky you to have both subspecies of B verrucosus.
I considering also into getting A. hypsiura...

Jools wrote:

Ernstichthys megistus

is fantastic - do we even have some pics for the catelog? I'm keeping the common species, like Marc and Richard are very fond of

Platystacus

and I have some

Pterobunocephalus

too.

Jools

it is, but just a few "blury" pictures!! I ll upload some.
Yes these , guys are fun, still a bit small...
well breeding would surely be something but since this is quite uncommon for this familly except a few reports of spawn of the "Bunocephalus coracoideus"

I like those fish, I only wish they were a bit more common just like Auchenipteridae

There so many interesting cat beside the Loricariidae and Callichthyidae...which have become to much popular to my own taste

Cheers
Yann

agreed!

10-15 years ago there was even a small chance to get non parasite Trichomycterids in the trade; fun fish like Eremophilus, Ituglanis and Trichomycterus.
really nice, not hard to keep and very interesting; but also completely overlooked.

the Asphrenidae in the trade are mostly Bunocephalus coracoides and sometimes Platystacus cotylephorus and the odd Agmus verrucosus (or whatever they're called today)
I have only once seen Amarailia's and those were in pretty bad shape; emaciated, fungused.

I have what has been ID'd as , and the ventral view is of my fish.
The original ID thread is HERE.
Martin

Yann wrote:

The.Dark.One wrote:Hi Yann
So you got some Ernstichthys! Lucky you, mine didn't turn up. How many did you get?
I've got B. verrucosus (both 'forms'/subspecies), B. cf. aleuropsis, B. amaurus, B. coracoideus
A. hypsiura, P. amazonicus, P. dolichurus.

HI Steven!!

I got 5 and expecting to receive 6 more which would make a nice little troup!!

Lucky you to have both subspecies of B verrucosus.
I considering also into getting A. hypsiura...

I'm now the green eyed monster, not the red one!
Craggy Heads - Yes, I did think of selling some off but changed my mind as you don't seem to be able to buy them recently and they are one of my all time favourites. I have a female hypsiura and my friend a male. They always come in emaciated and are quite difficult to feed but will usually take bloodworm and chopped earthworms - eventually! Images of my species are in my link in my signature.

sidguppy wrote:agreed!

10-15 years ago there was even a small chance to get non parasite Trichomycterids in the trade; fun fish like Eremophilus, Ituglanis and Trichomycterus.
really nice, not hard to keep and very interesting; but also completely overlooked.

the Asphrenidae in the trade are mostly Bunocephalus coracoides and sometimes Platystacus cotylephorus and the odd Agmus verrucosus (or whatever they're called today)
I have only once seen Amarailia's and those were in pretty bad shape; emaciated, fungused.

HI Alex!!

Yes Trichomycteridae are really rare but you still can find some once in a while if you search correctly and if you have a good fish network...this is how I got my Trichomycterus alternatus...or at least ID as such.

Same thing applied for the other catfish families such as Doradidae, Aspredinidae, Auchenipteridae and so on...I won't even talk about the asian cat which are even harder to get.

I have noticed that one it comes to such fish, it is really a matter of fashion to make it more or less available...at least around here

Cheers
Yann

The.Dark.One wrote: I'm now the green eyed monster, not the red one!
Craggy Heads - Yes, I did think of selling some off but changed my mind as you don't seem to be able to buy them recently and they are one of my all time favourites. I have a female hypsiura and my friend a male. They always come in emaciated and are quite difficult to feed but will usually take bloodworm and chopped earthworms - eventually! Images of my species are in my link in my signature.

Hehehehe
I wouldn't sell such fish...
I did sell a group of Bunocephalus labelled coracoideus which were something else, possibly 1-2 species involved and wasn't much in the mood to try to ID or seperate each individual...as it would be as much of a headache to try to find some more individual after that.

A. hypsiura has been a long time favourite as well...I might give a go but the one I saw where rather expensive...

Cheers
Yann

Hi!!

Well the Ernstichthys story is over...all 5 individuals are dead.
Obviously from what I know the whole group that was imported is dead also.
2 persons in Germany who had ordered it also ended up the same way and the group left at Glaser is lost also...a lot more sensitive that initially thought...

wonder what went wrong, they did received frozen food and it seems they were eating...so what is wrong...

Maybe they were too small...

Cheers
Yann

Sorry to hear, Yann.

Nathan Lujan I think were catching Ernstichthys in Peru earlier this year. Maybe he can tell you about their habitat. 44

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Mats

Hi Mats!!

Yes I should have ask Nathan...I will in case the species appears again...lets' hope so!!
Cheers
Yann

Let us know what Nathan says!

--
Mats

Yann wrote:Well the Ernstichthys story is over...all 5 individuals are dead.

Sorry to hear Yann. I take it it was an "Ernstichthys" thing and no other fishes are affected?

There's been too many victims lately. No good.....

Hi Marc!

Yes it was just an Ernstichthys thing...the only thing that helps swallow it is that all the other person who had taken this fish had the same problem...so it is definately a "keeping" problem.
I hope they ll show up in the trade again!
Cheers
Yann

Might also be an export problem. I mean, they probably all were caught together and came from the same exporter right? Shame, as the care of unusual banjo cats is very poorly documented.

Cheers,

Jools

Yann wrote:...so it is definately a "keeping" problem.
I hope they ll show up in the trade again!

Me too, but I hope for the sake of the fish that the "keeping problem" has been solved by then. Otherwise it would be quite useless.
It may be a good thing to ask Mr. Lujan before any new Ernstichthys arrive.

Hi!

I have asked Nathan and awaiting his answer

Sure it needs to be solved before.
Jools, you are quite right, they were likely all caught together and all came from one single import...no disease could be observed...
Cheers
Yann

From the information I have on them (IIRC) they live in fast flowing waters with pebbles etc. I have it at home so can't check it at the moment. If correct they will probably need a high water turnover, plenty of oxygen and perhaps cooler water?

My thoughts were exactly that they come from higher altitude and cooler/faster flowing waters. But Nathan would be a much better source. This thought was a combination of "all fish in a shipment survived for some time, then died", which is probably a keeping conditions issue, and the fact that Nathan's Peru trip was targetting the difference between fish at high altitude and lower altitude - so at least some of the fish came from high altitude.

I'm sure you'll get an answer from Nathan soon, and we're all interested to hear what his thoughts are.

--
Mats

Hi!!

Nathan answer:

Hi Yann,
Yes, we collected Ernstichthys on this past trip to the Madre de Dios and I also collected them in the Marañon in 2006. They're typically found in piedmont zones, in swift water with cobble-pebble substrates embedded in silt or fine sand. Water chemistry at one site where they were collected was as follows:
Temp: 23.1ºC
pH: 7.1
SpCond (µS/cm): 49.4
DO% sat: 70
DO (mg/ml): 6.0
Turbidity: 313
Hope that helps!
-Nathan

the T° was a bit higher (~3°) than this but not by much, the flow was descent as well, still not sure it would affect the fish that fast...
Well next time I ll try to make it stronger and cooler and cross my finger.

cheers
Yann

It would be good if one of you guys could record this data in the catelog. Meantime, I think this is more to do with what the fish is exposed to from river to importer rather than from importer to home aquarium.

Jools

Hi!!

I don't mind doing it but it has been a long time since I last did such thing so not sure where to go and how to proceed, but obviously it is not in the same admin pages than for the images or I haven't seen it correctly

Go to the species page and then click on the "edit species data" link...

Jools

Hi!!

Here are a few pictures of my little group of Pterobunocephalus dolichurus




Cheers
Yann