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I picked up this guy at work today. I am thinking ageneiosus sp. 3 but then I have also heard that a. vittatus is striped. The only pictures I see of a. vittatus are on unreliable sites so I am not 100% which it is.

You're correct in your identification.

According to the notes for this species in the Cat-eLog:

This species is commonly misidentified as A. vittatus. Ageneiosus sp. (3) has a much more flattened head (A. vittatus' head looks more rounded like A. magoi). Ageneiosus sp. (3) lacks the typical mottled colouration of A. vittatus (similarity in pattern is said to be superficial) and A. sp. (3) lacks the two very prominent caudal fin spots (one on each lobe) of A. vittatus.

Thanks! Do you have any idea on if this catfish likes to be in groups? Mine will be going in a 165 gallon tank by December and I may try to get a small group if they will all be fine.

I'd say yes to the groups question - am sure it will be more active in a group than as a lone fish.
Nice find - I had three but lost them soon after they arrived, can I suggest some floating plant for cover, and lots of open water for swimming but with twig style bogwood and maybe lose the green gravel!
Martin

I despise the green gravel lol. The tank he is currently in, is kind of my "whatever was left" tank. It has a bunch of decorations I don't really like and whatever gravel I had left. I have just been using it for holding fish for short periods.

I would look to something with medium lighting, several bunches of amazon sword type plants, with maybe aquatic lilys for surface cover, sandy base and any bogwood being more twig like than the old style heavy set pieces, this will give the fish places to shelter without being totally hidden, and the shade from the surface cover will help keep them from hiding away all the time. Soft acidic water with no aggressive tankmates, and nothing small enough to end up as a quick snack, so maybe congo tetras as an example.
Feed live river shrimp, earthworms (chopped if too large), and try them on sinking pellets and tablet food. Alternatively, you could use frozen prawns (the small variety) and/or mysis/krill etc.
Martin

Martin S wrote: maybe lose the green gravel!
Martin

Totally agree but it looks blue to me

They will adapt to flakes, but this may take a while. Occasionally I give them some live fishes.
I see mine constantly these days. They like cruising the open water and rest on the sand or in plants in plain view. Very nice and visible species that doesn't grow too large.

Thanks for all the information!

I will make sure to post some pictures of his/her new tank once I get it set up.

Industrial wrote:I will make sure to post some pictures of his/her new tank once I get it set up.

For gender, see data sheet under "sexing" .
It's a little more complicated than in normal auchenipterids.

So the males do not have the modified anal fin like other auchenipterids? I would have to wait until they are ready to spawn for the males dorsal fin to curve?

They should have both now (over here I can distinguish without any problem), but after the breeding season the modified anal fin and enlarged dorsal spine disappear.
A picture of your specimen swimming (side view) would be good enough for me.

Update: My catfish hasn't eaten at all since it was shipped. My boss said that it looked kind of weak. I had tried feeding him rosy reds (I thought he ate one, but it actually jumped I just found out), convict babies, guppies and even a betta thinking the fish were too fast. I added a powerhead since they like current and he is more active at night now. I also tried live blackworms and frozen bloodworms and he did not go for any of that.

Is there anything I can do to entice him to eat?

How long has it not fed for? Is it still in with the green/blue gravel? Not because I don' like it, but because it is not an environment where it can feel comfortable, and maybe this is why it is refusing to feed. Try and feed with the lights out, maybe just the room lights on. I'd try live food, though you say that has had no response. I would have tried something like female guppies, but you've tried those. What about live river shrimp?
Hope it pulls through, you need to get it feeding before it gets too thin and weak.
Martin

He is still in with the gravel. Last night in desperation I dumped a bunch of rosy reds in hoping with enough rosys in the water he is bound to eat one. I witnessed him eating one and another one is missing too.

So he did eat yesterday. He did not eat enough to have a little bulge in his belly though like most predators.

I don't really want to stress him out too much by changing up everything, because I plan on putting him in a 165 by December, probably a lot sooner though. So I want to give him a decent time to rest after he was shipped and moved around.

He hasn't eaten for almost two weeks (provided he was eating at International Pet Resources).

I agreee moving him isn't in his best interest, and good that the fish are being eaten, if slowly. You don't want it to gorge itself as that can be as bad, so suggest you leave the rosy reds (sorry, don't know what these are) in and keep an eye on numbers.
Does it have any cover? Bogwood? Plants? If no, then you could easily add some plants and/or a piece of bogwood. Try and feed the rosy reds with some good quality flake, the proteins etc will get passed through to the Ageneiosus when it takes them, though I wouldn't recommend feeding only live food going forward due to the risk of disease transfer. Have you tried earthworms? Cut into a decent size, and dropped in front of the fish, the wriggling may push it to feed. Remove if not eaten within say 12 hours.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Martin

Martin S wrote:I agreee moving him isn't in his best interest, and good that the fish are being eaten, if slowly. You don't want it to gorge itself as that can be as bad, so suggest you leave the rosy reds (sorry, don't know what these are) in and keep an eye on numbers.
Does it have any cover? Bogwood? Plants? If no, then you could easily add some plants and/or a piece of bogwood. Try and feed the rosy reds with some good quality flake, the proteins etc will get passed through to the Ageneiosus when it takes them, though I wouldn't recommend feeding only live food going forward due to the risk of disease transfer. Have you tried earthworms? Cut into a decent size, and dropped in front of the fish, the wriggling may push it to feed. Remove if not eaten within say 12 hours.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Martin

Rosy reds are a kind of minnow. I set up a brine shrimp hatchery and I always squirt a little infront of the powerhead in his tank so the rosys gut load and are much more likely to be kind of knocked off balance infront of the catfish from the sudden current.

I had rocks in there, but the tank is only 20 gallons and he seemed to stay out in the open anyways so I took them out. Maybe I can take a driftwood log or something and put in the corner so he can hide behind it if he wants.

As for earthworms, I have never had luck with them as they always bury themselves in the substrate and I can never find them again. I was debating putting krill on a string and holding it infront of the powerhead, but then if he did eat it, it would still be attached to the string .

After a quick head count, it appears that he may have eaten one more.

Update: He ate the rest except for two that died.

I am a little worried though that he will not be able to compete with a vampire tetra for food though when I put him in the 165.

Industrial wrote:I am a little worried though that he will not be able to compete with a vampire tetra for food

You should, if the vampire tetra is Hydrolycus scomberoides. The Ageneiosus won't be able to compete for food. Worse, I even think it may end up as food......

Marc van Arc wrote:
You should, if the vampire tetra is Hydrolycus scomberoides. The Ageneiosus won't be able to compete for food. Worse, I even think it may end up as food......

The vampire tetra is a hydrolycus tatuaia. They grow very slowly to 12-15" and at 7" he has never even tried to eat my 3" blind midnight cat . The only vampire tetra that I believe would attack a fish half it's size or larger would be a hydrolycus armatus. I would say the ageniosus would probably end up eating my midnight cat so I will have to move the midnight cat. I may just end up feeding that tank a lot of food everyday, or better yet the ageniosus may let me spot feed it in the future.

According to FB this tetra will grow to 50 cms TL and given their behaviour I'd say your Ageneiosus (which doesn't grow beyond 15 cms) might be in danger then.
As long as they're small things should be okay, but stay alert.
Wrt the midnight cat: if you mean A. coracoideus, you shouldn't worry at all. I've been keeping these together for years now and they ignore eachother completely. The Ageneiosus are able to swallow only small fishes; because of that I now have an unintended extra shoal of 5 cms long Hemigrammus caudovittatus in my large tank

Marc van Arc wrote:According to FB this tetra will grow to 50 cms TL and given their behaviour I'd say your Ageneiosus (which doesn't grow beyond 15 cms) might be in danger then.
As long as they're small things should be okay, but stay alert.
Wrt the midnight cat: if you mean A. coracoideus, you shouldn't worry at all. I've been keeping these together for years now and they ignore eachother completely. The Ageneiosus are able to swallow only small fishes; because of that I now have an unintended extra shoal of 5 cms long Hemigrammus caudovittatus in my large tank

They can get big, but I have never heard of one over 15" in captivity, however I plan on doing the best I can to give him a large and healthy environment so he isn't stunted.

Maybe if the coracoideus would be safe, I should pick up a few more so he can have some other midnight catfish buddies.

On a side note: my Ageneiosus males are "growing back"(*) atm, so within a few days/a week they will look like females again. Their swimming behaviour is a bit awkward and rather unfluent; it's somewhat like a Sorubim when it is shedding its skin (if you know what I mean).

(* thickened anal fin tip and enlarged dorsal spine are disappearing)

Btw: I'll refund any Zamora (of 2" and larger) that gets eaten by your Ageneiosus. So yes, I'm that confident it won't happen. Offer stands for the species you currently have. So when you'd buy an A. polystictus and call it "your Ageneiosus" (which would be true), I'm off

Industrial wrote:As for earthworms, I have never had luck with them as they always bury themselves in the substrate and I can never find them again.

Snip off the head with your thumb nail/blade/pair of scissors, they are then unable to bury themselves.