Lima Shovelnose

[necrocanis]

oh since it was asked of others I guess I will say that I just started mine out on blood worms straight from day one, then krill, then shrimp, night crawlers, cichlid pellets, ect. They took it straight away. Not much of an issue with the 4 I had.

[thebiggerthebetter]

Also should i add a powerhead to add some current. There is a decent current now but i was curious if they like alot of current.

They are more of the still water fish. Their main mode of hunting is floating in the vegetation and driftwood in the vertical position, head down almost motionless, thus imitating a stick, and waiting for a less careful minnow to come by. Strong current would interfere.

[thebiggerthebetter]

I know they have a slow growth rate, but monthly wise would they grow like 1 inch, more or less.

It depends on the species. Sorubim elongatus and Sorubim lima are almost indistinguishable for a layman, IMO. Elongatus, which only reaches 1', has a slower growth rate. Limas top out at 2' and grow perhaps roughly twice faster.

Should i give him some feeders?

With this fish, there is no need whatsoever to risk their health and the health of the tank... and waste your money at that too.

And i am going to start feeding him some shrimp, I know about deshelling and detailing the shrimp...

Raw and shell-on are the best for any fish. Perhaps it is hard to keep the shell on when cutting in small pieces, but at least give him a shrimp tail (with shell on) every now and then - they need roughage just like you need fiber for proper bowel movement; also for some minerals, colorants, and a little bit of vitamins. Their crustacean prey does not get deshelled in the wild As for "detailing", IDK what that means - if cutting in pieces then this has been addressed already.

[thebiggerthebetter]

I really wish that I could say it was normal. As I hinted to the other 2 that were in the same tank always ate maybe 1 shrimp each and that was it. I had one that I kept longer than this one and it would eat maybe 1 shrimp every other day, and only grew to 9 or 10" in 5 years. This one eating massively like this, and even pushing various TSN, JAU, RTC out of the way or snatching food out of their mouth as I moved them through various growout tanks. I really miss this LSN. In the pic I posted it was maybe 13", when it was dead at 16" it had maybe 2" streamers off the tail. This was definitely one of my all time individual favorite fish and could be hand fed as well. Never flighty either...

So, we may hypothesize that

(1) either this was a unique fish, not representing the "normal" elongatus/lima or
(2) that it was a lima (since it reached 16" TL; elongatus reaches only ~12" SL, which roughly translates to 14"-15" TL http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog...species_id=697 ........but both numbers are too close to be clear) and the other 3 Cliff had and the 7 of mine were elongatus - flighty and moderate eaters, topping out at around a foot.

[thebiggerthebetter]

I have never been able to get mine to really take pellets, not that I had a good way of trying before - my old 7 were always in a community tank so they always had a choice and always chose fleshy foods.

Now I'm trying to get the new ones to take mascivore. The 5 I have just got from snookn21 are quite thin (were thin when I got them) but have not eaten yet (has been ~10 days). One or two of them taste mascivore every now and then but spit them back out (their tank mates, three 5" TSNs clean them up well). I really dislike their thinness. I think I will try 1-2 times and then start offering fleshy foods - I'll have to cave. Such experiments should be started with nice, robust, healthy fish.

[boosteshemi]

I meant detailing as in cutting the tail off. And i would not have thought of the shell as being roughage but it does make sense. Thanks for the info.

[boosteshemi]

Your crew looks awesome.

[archers]

What type is more common elongatus or lima?

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[thebiggerthebetter]

Your crew looks awesome.

Thanks. They need bulk, a couple of them rather desperately.

What type is more common elongatus or lima?

I tend to think elongatus mostly because I have never seen a 1.5'-2' lima live and even on photos, I've seen perhaps only a few specimen. The caveats, of course, are improper keeping = stunting and malnourishment and a tiny, miniscule rate of survival to adulthood for large cats... and fish in general. The larger the fish, the exponentially smaller the rate of survival.

Some European keepers report seeing 2' limas rather frequently, like in Netherlands.

[pcpolo111]

Beautiful fish shown so far. I have 3 Lima and I have to say they are one of my favorite cats they shed about once a week and its pretty cool to watch them shake it off and snatch it back into their mouth. I got all 3 of mine in terrible condition the worst one was missing an eye along with all of its fins, and its guts hanging out of its belly. He was just rolling around the bottom of one of the display tanks at a small pet store with some pacu and cichlids. I got him for free because they thought he was already dead. Now he just swims with one of the other limas on his blind side and he keeps a barbel on it almost as if he is leaning on it. Those 2 are same size about 7in. The third is estimated about 16in.


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