PlanetCatfish.com

Does anyone have experience with old indian/asian catfish? I have a sun cat that's between 13&14 years old and seems to be in pretty good health. He/she has not been as active in the past few years but will come out when hungry and eats pellets well. I am very pleased to have come this far, however the tank looks pretty bare with a solitary catfish sitting in the corner of the tank. I am thinking of adding a few common goldfish to "brighten up" the tank. I figure that goldfish are big enough and docile enough not to stress or harm my catfish. I guess the question at hand is should I try this or just leave things as is. The tank is planted with java fern and has several hide outs in rocks and driftwood. I'll try to put up some pics when I can.

Thanks to all that reply!

Plenty of people keep sun catfish because they are sold by all big box fish stores, but regrettably few report on them.

I don't know their lifespan. Sun cat of 14 years old is a great accomplishment! Congratulations! Our 3 remaining are 7-10 years old. How big is yours? Ours were/are 14"-18".

If the goldfish are small and can fit in the catfish mouth, it may eat them, sooner or later.

If the catfish has been alone in the tank for a long time, I'd be concerned with introducing new pathogens into the tank with the new tank mates, especially the goldfish who are notorious for carrying bad pathogens because of their strong immune system can handle them for a while.

The longest-lived fish in captivity are the ones that survive the initial tank set up, with or without tank mates, and then experience no new tank mates, plants, snails, etc., that is no sources of new pathogens.

Here is our journal thread on 8 sun cats: https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/posts/8265682