Excuse me, but all I said was "I guess you didn't see my link." In case you missed it. I read your post and was trying to help you. Maybe you are the one that needs to take your own advice.
Calophysus macropterus (Vulture Catfish) Questions
- Thread starter Combatshock
- Start date
Modified that and cited the post below. I have one of these, too, and for a long time kept him with fish which would have easily fitted in his mouth (small Pictus cats). I have NEVER seen him attack anything. He seems jumpy, scared of his own reflection sometimes. He still shares a tank with a Bristlenosed Pleco and a Severum. I'm sure if he wanted to he could do some damage, but there's not many big fish which wouldn't... Mine is nice and fat, he probably doesn't need to strip flesh too much...
I'll try to expand on the article when I have time, add photos, etc.
I have 2 together. I got a group of 8 when they were 6" from a vendor that use to be on here. When you grow them up together, they will hang together otherwise they may fight if you put them together later. That is true most of the time for that kind of cats. I thought they would be aggressive because of what I read about them. Actually they are not that aggressive. The ones I sold off to my friends are not that aggressive too. They do eat fast but don't attack other fishes. My friend's vulture cat eats just about anything. Mines take sinking pellets only for now. They used to take float pellet when they were younger. They can be trained to take any food. I put mines with other similar sized fishes. They only grow to about 18" or so. My friend have one in a 700 gallon and it is stuck at 17-18" and mines 2 are in a 200 gallon and they are about 12" but still growing slowly. One good thing about the vulture cats is that they are active. They don't just sit there like the Tigrinus or Jurense.
I dont know anything about these fish specifically, but from my experience with agressive fish, Ive found that the specific fish you choose and its environment is more important than the species. Peoploe say lungfish will attack other, smaller fish, andmine has yet to bother anybody, and he is 2' long. Also, I have had a few different oscars, and some kill other fish, while others are the biggest pansies around. I also have a giant gourami that has become tank boss, even though he is not the biggest fish, nor the most agressive species. So I would say try it out, and the worst that can happen is you have to move hm to a tank with fish bigger than him or make him a specimen fish in his own tank
I have one of these that is around 14". I feed it whole sprats which it takes clinical bites out of like a shark so I can confirm that they can take bites out of bigger fish if they want to. Mine is well fed so has never bothered any of my other fish but I guess if you starved them for a while it may be a different story.
I know of someone that had a small group of 6, he tried to introduce a 12" porthole shovelnose to the tank but the vultures removed its entire stomach cavity in under 5 seconds. They are vicious feeders and go compleyely crazy when food goes into the tank. Mine loves Sprats, Mussels and salmon but also takes pallets from the bottom and even the surface when it feels like.
Like people have said before, they are a very active cat that spends a lot of the time cruising the tank in an almost shark like manner.
I know of someone that had a small group of 6, he tried to introduce a 12" porthole shovelnose to the tank but the vultures removed its entire stomach cavity in under 5 seconds. They are vicious feeders and go compleyely crazy when food goes into the tank. Mine loves Sprats, Mussels and salmon but also takes pallets from the bottom and even the surface when it feels like.
Like people have said before, they are a very active cat that spends a lot of the time cruising the tank in an almost shark like manner.
These are terrific catfish. I'm lucky enough to own a small one around 8".
My previous one however was an enormous beauty.
Very very active fish of around 20 inches!
Always swimming & would hand feed, take pellets from the surface & would eat pretty much anything!
Now the bad stuff.....if it became hungry it would take horseshoe (mouth) shaped bitemarks out of the bigger Cats in the Pond.
This is something my smaller one does also.
When my bigger cats where fed large fillets of fish the Vulture cat would continually bite the flanks of the RTC , Perruno for example until they regurgitated their stomach contents which the Vulture cat would then hoover up! Not pretty
You can probably get round this however by making sure they are very well feed.
Good luck
My previous one however was an enormous beauty.
Very very active fish of around 20 inches!
Always swimming & would hand feed, take pellets from the surface & would eat pretty much anything!
Now the bad stuff.....if it became hungry it would take horseshoe (mouth) shaped bitemarks out of the bigger Cats in the Pond.
This is something my smaller one does also.
When my bigger cats where fed large fillets of fish the Vulture cat would continually bite the flanks of the RTC , Perruno for example until they regurgitated their stomach contents which the Vulture cat would then hoover up! Not pretty
You can probably get round this however by making sure they are very well feed.
Good luck
