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I recently purchased a group of Trichomycterus punctatus (Blue eel catfish) and was wondering if anyone had any information or experience with them. I do believe they are newer species but I was not able to find much on them.
Thanks,
Matt

I am jealous. I think Trichomycterus are among the most enjoyable catfish there are.

Hi there

First of all I'd try to find out if your fish really are what you bought them as. Many Trichomycterus and Ituglanis are sold as "punctatus", but only few are. The identification is not easy though if the origin is unknown.

However, for most species it's important to close every gap and every hole which is big enough to escape from the tank. They can climb as hell and will definitely find every hole to get outside. Most species I have collected and observed in nature so far need a strong current, lower temperatures (22-24 °C) and a high oxygen-saturation.

Life and frozen food will be your best choice to get them feeding fast. Mine don't accept dry goods after years of keeping them.

cheers,
Daniel

I'd say the first thing you need to do is post a picture of them so we can confirm it is even close to . Note spelling, it's another small clue it's been sold without a huge regard to ID...

Jools

Hey guys, thanks for getting back to me. How might I go about posting a picture of them?

I can certainly see how they are good climbers as while netting them from the bag to the holding tub they were quickly climbing up the net as if it were a ladder. I have the water level dropped by about 4" from the top along with a egg crate cover just in case.

I'll soon be moving them into their 55G home for the time being to start to grow out. I should be able to get some sensible pictures of them then.

CatWhat wrote: ↑24 Oct 2020, 15:28Hey guys, thanks for getting back to me. How might I go about posting a picture of them?

Reply to the post (NOT quick reply), under the text box, click on the attachments tab and upload your pics!

Cheers,

Jools

I'd say the first thing you need to do is post a picture of them so we can confirm it is even close to Trichomycterus punctulatus. Note spelling, it's another small clue it's been sold without a huge regard to ID...

Jools, I too am suspicious of the spelling, some of the larger specimens I have are showing the small spotted pattern but they seem to look more blue. The juveniles lack to this pattern at the moment but you can make it out in the undertone of their current skin it seems.
I'll try to get a decent picture of both the juvi's and sub adults.

Here is a picture that was provided to me by Below Water which whom I got them from. These are the smaller juveniles but there are two larger ones, around 6" or so that display only a spotted pattern with a blue skin tone.

Well, if it's from BelowWater, they'll likely have good info on where it came from - you could ask?. This might help with ID, but, as Daniel said, these are not easy species to ID as there is a tricky combination of similar-looking species and little amalgamated information on them.

Jools

Actually now that I think of it, I believe Oliver (BelowWater) did mention the collection point, I'll have a look back through the e-mails. Below Water is indeed an excellent source for rare fish. I have order several times from them and always very pleased with the out come. I have mostly been getting Cetopsis species but seen these guys and thought they would also interesting to keep.

I was doing some filter maintenance today and come across 5 fry, I would guess they are around 10 days old.
Well no doubt they are egg scatterers. Maybe I'll have to do a proper breeding setup for them.

Wow

Congratulations! Were you the person posting pics on Facebook?
Really neat.
Cheers, Eric

Turns out the fish came from the Rio Pisco, Peru. It's pretty amazing that they spawned - would love to write it up / store the details here.



Jools

Jools wrote: ↑08 Nov 2020, 18:49Turns out the fish came from the Rio Pisco, Peru.


Jools

That pretty safely narrows the ID to punctatus.

Cheers, Eric

T. punctulatus you mean? Yes, assuming it's described...

Jools

PS It was collected with Andinoacara stalsbergi, too.

Jools wrote: ↑08 Nov 2020, 19:05T. punctulatus you mean? Yes, assuming it's described...

Yes, I made the classic spelling mistake... AND I failed to include the generic initial. Double fail on my part.

Cheers, Eric

Jools wrote: ↑08 Nov 2020, 19:05PS It was collected with

Andinoacara stalsbergi

, too.

Ummm...

Ah, sorry for the broken link, thought that was in the database...

Jools

I looked for a link to add it, but apparently AR works differently than PCF.

Cheers, Eric