PlanetCatfish.com

I just brought home a cute little baby 6" platysilurus malarmo but it somehow has gotten quite the tangle at the end of one of its longest filaments. Should I attempt to untie the knot or just let things unravel as they will? I expect the knot to rot and fall off at best/worst and the extension to either heal, or infect. Thoughts?

I'd leave it be. At the very worst, the affected part will rot/fall off and should grow back quickly with proper husbandry.

Knifegill,

Could you answer the PM I sent you please.

Jools

A knot? Sounds unusual..

Is it a knot or a lump/swelling in a straight tail filament. I'd definately leave things to see what happens naturally

I'd leave him be. Stressing the fish by catching and handling may be more harmful.

Take a picture?

Jools, I don't see any links that suggest a PM folder exists. How do I find my private messages?


Richard, it's not a lump. The filaments were straight and free before the LFS netted him and bagged him. Now the knot is there. Although it looks looser now, so perhaps it's untying itself.


Viktor, I agree. My first reaction was to untie it, but then I thought about the stress and decided to ask how detrimental this knot could be. As Silurus has suggested, it will hopefully resolve itself, perhaps by falling off and growing back.


I can take a picture. It will be hosted on MFK, though.

If you look at the top of the page, it says "User Control Panel (x new messages)" in the second row of the blue box.

--
Mats

I found it. Thanks.


I just went to take a picture and the knot has undone itself. The filament is a little kinked but otherwise looks great.

Any advice on the specific care requirements of this species? I'm not finding much beyond the profile info. Anybody know the best diet, etc.? Do they require high oxygen? Any other details specific to this species?

Mine two 6-inchers TL have been in a community tank with babies and juvis and in another community tank with larger fish. Did not bother smaller fish, not even cories. Stood their own with bigger fish - never a damage on them. They love meaty foods but if hungry, take pellets. Very pretty but very, very slow grower or maybe it's just me... Their 4 filaments on maxillary barbels and on the tail lobes are amazing, almost all of them can grow to 2-3 times their body length!

I did not set up anything special for them, no powerheads, everything just average.

That's great news. I'll be sure to provide a good sampling of the omnivore palate for him, then. You keep yours around 78 degrees? Do yours ever appear stressed after a water change or if nitrAtes get above 20ppm?

Tried to upload a pic, Says the file is too big. Don't know how to fix that, so here's the link to MFK thread:

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... p?t=385184

Are there any easily distinguished traits that delineate p. malarmo from p. mucosus?

For those without an MFK account, have uploaded one of the pictures (hope the OP doesn't mind): Martin

knifegill wrote:You keep yours around 78 degrees? Do yours ever appear stressed after a water change or if nitrAtes get above 20ppm?

78 summer, 74 winter

no stress after WC but they have plenty or room to hide (is yours bare?)

my NO3 are almost never above 5 ppm and never above 10 ppm and I have not noticed any stress in them ever since I got them 1/2 year ago

mine look much like yours and PC experts ID-ed them as malarmo...

here is the ID thread, http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... t=+malarmo

you can also see the glimpses of mine in various photos here, http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... t=+120+gal

knifegill wrote:Are there any easily distinguished traits that delineate p. malarmo from p. mucosus?

Nope. However, you don't really need that with this genus. The only one found in the trade is P. mucosus (Amazon and Orinoco). P. malarmo is distributed in the Lake Maracaibo basin, not exported. P. olallae is found in Ecuador so might be exported but very, very unlikely. If I were exporting fishes from these areas, a big pim that looks like another commonly available big pim from a more accessible area would not be high of my list of commercially viable species.

Jools

Martin, thank you for moving the pic here. Much appreciated. Feel free to add and keep any of my pics if you think they are worthy.

Viktor, thanks for the info. Yes, the tank is bare now. I think I will give him a piece of black PVC today. He ate his blackworms overnight so I have high hopes for him as far as health goes. Just did a 25% water change and will likely do them every day until I get my 125g resealed and can restock it. Also thinking of adding sand to his tank for the time being. What's the best sand for a catfish like this?

Jools, those are really good points. Am I correctly inferring that you are saying this is likely to be p. mucosus? If so, do the available max lengths I see around the web hold true? Around 7" for p. mucosus as opposed to the 27" for malarmo?

Well, I can't recall exactly, but I think there is only a inch or two reported difference in the size between the species in their descriptions. The data for here is below par. The size is wrong and the images are all P. mucosus which is what I reckon you have too.

Jools

Can some kind person either report this error or fix it?

Wow. Well, can you tell me all you know about whichever fish you think I own? If it were the smaller species that would be great.

Fishbase says 70.0cm TL for P. malarmo. Do you have any other reference with a better size?

I can move the pictures, if you are sure they are correct for P. mucosus

--
Mats

I've just been doing some digging around to see if I could change the datasheet for the P. malarmo and fishbase does say 70cm. Looking further the only other place I could find any reference to length is this paper here

http://www.saber.ula.ve/bitstream/12345 ... iculo3.pdf

My spanish is awful so I'm not entirely sure what it says however google translate makes it seem like part of it refers to "average size of very old fish called asymptotic length" which is 74cm in the P. malarmo's case.

Could somebody who can read spanish maybe take a look?

I'd put it at 28" SL. I have an original copy of the 1944 paper at home which would be useful if I wasn't 600 miles away...

Jools

28" is 711 mm - we currently have 700 - close enough?

--
Mats

MatsP wrote:I can move the pictures, if you are sure they are correct for P. mucosus

Yes, and I'd nuke he crappy one of mine taken two decades ago.

Jools

MatsP wrote:28" is 711 mm - we currently have 700 - close enough?

Yes, sorry, I was being confusing. 20" for P. mucosus "feels" too small, and I also "feel" many images of larger specimens elsewhere are P. mucosus. I have zero evidence it gets any bigger. So I think we leave it as is but move the images. A descriptive note suggesting what I've said above about locality might also be useful as well as adding the Ecuadorian species for completeness?

Jools

20" is much larger than the 200mm SL that Fishbase says. I'm happy to change it, but I want to make sure you mean 20" (500mm?)

I'll add the Ecuador species, and move the pictures (including "nuking" your old image).

Edit: But there is no way that I can actually "nuke" your image - the "move image" doesn't control the order, and the "reorder images" don't allow removing images [as far as I know].

--
Mats

Sorry, 200cm = correct even though I "feel" it's too small. Maybe knifegill will tell us in the future what size this fish gets.

No you can't nuke images directly, just replace/archive them with all those new l-numbers you have.

Jools

As long as it survives the ich it brought home, yes, I'll be sure to update you within a couple of years as to its size. I suspect I will still have questions before then, though. I emailed the supplier to find out if they know the point of collection to help figure out which species I have.

The exchange above left me pretty confused as to what to expect from my fish. I think I should just wait til Mats and Jools will reform Cat-eLog.

Just to clarify my concern: I thought I had two malarmos (based on PC experts IDs), which could top over 2 feet. Now I read (Jools says) it is nearly impossible mine are malarmos and are likely mucosus, for which Cat-eLog says under 8" max length. While this would be disappointing to me, it would explain why my 6"-TL guys have not grown any in 1/2 a year I've had them. But may be the max size for mucosus is wrong in Cat-eLog. As I said, I should wait til the experts are happy with what Cat-eLog states and then press for answers if I am still unclear.