Is this Silurus meridionalis?

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Fallen_Leaves16
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Is this Silurus meridionalis?

Post by Fallen_Leaves16 »

Apologize in advance for the (quite likely) irritating nature of these posts; not sure of anyplace else to ask where I'll have a near certain chance of a definitive ID, though.
Anyways, onto the backstory: I was browsing the fish store for some interesting catfishes (as one usually does) and stumbled upon this (image below the text) little-ish fellow, that looked awfully different from the other catfishes, Shilbe intermedius (or a similar species). Reminded me of an emaciated Siluris meridionalis that had just swallowed a rock, so I got it. Fish vomited three pieces of recently-swallowed krill (reason why it looked so round initially) in the bag, but other than that seemed to be alright. Brought him home, tossed into a small-ish hodgepodge of a community, and witnessed it trying to eat half the inhabitants within the first couple minutes of introduction. The "big bosses" of the tank, a group of four random geos, then decided that bullying the new guy was a fun idea and proceeded to do so, which led me to extricating the fish to a bare 20G long. Tried feeding it a silverside; it viciously mauled it and tried eating the organs with some failure. Still quite skinny, even though I watched it inhale a half-frozen blob of bloodworms with zero hesitation. Now spends some time bumbling about before casually meandering back to its righteously-claimed PVC pipe. Wonder if that behavior will ever change; hopefully not, for it's quite nice to watch.
Anyways, would really appreciate an ID on the fellow so I can know more about it. Honestly don't mind whatever it is; the fish is quite the fascinating individual and seems remarkably charming (for a catfish, at any rate).
Here are the pictures (not very ID-friendly, but oh well). I can probably fish the young lad out for a photoshoot later, but I'm a bit hesitant to do that for fear of stressing him out too much.
catfish2.png
catfish1.png
"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's probably some sort of mutated goose, in today's day and age..."
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Silurus
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Re: Is this Silurus meridionalis?

Post by Silurus »

Do you have a photo of the caudal fin? Based on availability alone, I'd say it's more likely to be .
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Fallen_Leaves16
Posts: 60
Joined: 09 Sep 2022, 17:04
My cats species list: 30 (i:9, k:16)
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Location 1: Charlotte, NC
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Re: Is this Silurus meridionalis?

Post by Fallen_Leaves16 »

Silurus wrote: 26 Apr 2023, 13:22 Do you have a photo of the caudal fin? Based on availability alone, I'd say it's more likely to be .
Unfortunately, no, but it has a reasonably shallow fork; the S. asotus I kept some while ago had somewhat truncate caudals, but that might've been due to age or damage or the fin never being visible while flared. I can probably grab a picture of the fish in a separate photo tank in a couple hours; it seems to now prefer hiding completely during the day.
Is the fish definitely Silurus of some species?
What's odd is that I haven't ever seen small S. asotus (despite some extensive searches) available within the last couple of years in the U.S. (also getting harder and harder to find available in S. Korea), only meridionalis, which is why I assumed it was meridionalis. Would be awesome if it were indeed asotus, though.
"If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it's probably some sort of mutated goose, in today's day and age..."
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