anyone have info on the freshwater "Blue torpedo shark"?

Try out in a species tank first... and then slowly add tank mates..

scotcat.com;1381046; said:

I would suggest a minimum size of Aquaria to be 72” x 24” X 24” if you are going to keep these catfish until they attain adult size. There is no real preference of substrate when keeping these catfish however; I would suggest good quality aquarium sand such as BD Aquarium Sand, or very smooth rounded gravel.

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http://www.scotcat.com/factsheets/cetopsis_coecutiens.htm

Found this info, tho I have no personal experience, I think its a neat fish, and the price sounds pretty reasonable to me. IMO it's a fish that requires a really big tank to be living all alone. But if it's worth it to you then go for it.

I like how they refer to it as a parasitic feeder, by taking bites out of its victims. Sounds pretty mean.

We got some in last week and are selling them for 29.99 in nor cal

unannon;1381046; said:

found more info on them on here, and i think i saw a show on them on the discovery channel as well a while ago.
I guess my remaining questions then would be does anyone have expierence with them, minimum tank size, and what suitable tank mates would be as well, other than armored cats. As I was reading that they should be a species only tank due to thier eating habits, but then found people that raised them with other fish. Also, as a carcass eater, do they do this mainly to injured or dead fish, or are live healthy ones equally susceptible?
Sorry to bother everyone again, its just that I can't find much through research about them.

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Are you 100% sure that the fish labled "Blue torpedo shark" is C. coecutiens? I ask this because there are other Cetopsids and a Trichomycterid that that are labeled this frequently. Care in these fish is very different and so is their behavior. Be very sure to accurately ID the fish..

For C. coecutiens:
55 gallon is fine for a group of small fish. they grow quickly so expect to eventually house them in something like a 120 / 150. While they can get quite large in the wild, however it is rare that one gets over 6 inches in captivity.

They should be kept in a shoal of 4 or more fish for best results in a tank with heavy water flow.

They eat anything...I personally feed mine a variety of frozen and prepared foods. I do not suggest feeding them live fish as this will wreck your water quality quickly with these fish. They will not eat them whole they will rip them to pieces leaving all sorts of difficult to clean inerds and fish pieces floating around your tank to rot.

I do not advise tankmates as these fish are far to unpredictable. Larger corys and loricarids may be ok though.. I would not put any fish in a tank with them that you would miss should it be killed.

unannon;1383590; said:

Mystus Redtail, thanks for the link, and Polypterus what would be the best way to differ them from other mislabeled I.D.'s?, they look exactly like the other pics of them I found online, however I know this is not the best route to go, and would like to know if there is any tell-tale signs to make sure of verifying the i.d.
This fish store is good, and I would like to trust them on it, but once again would just like to make sure.

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If they look like the pics regularly assigned to C. coecutiens then thats good. The two fish that also get this name are C. candiru and Pareiodon microps

This common name "blue torpedo shark" is actually more common with the above fish and not C. coecutiens which is more often called a "blue whale cat"

Pics of both C. candiru and P. microps follow:

unannon;1383692; said:

yeah, its definately cetopsis coecutiens, like i listed above then.
thanks for keeping an eye out though, as had that turned out differently, it would of been horrible to ask about one fish only to find out its another which acts and is completly different.
Since finding out they prefer to school, I'm short of funds currently to house multiple, even more so seeing how they should be in a species tank, I am going to have to pass on them for now.
Thanks for the replies though, as next time if I see them and have the funds then, i am def. going to pick them up.

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Trust me on the fact you will not regret keeping them when you can do so.. Awesome fish.... they just need special attention to keep right.