My bad, I made that post before TBTB had cleared that up
My apologies
Biggest Cat
- Thread starter SouthernMnCatfish
- Start date
My apologies
No problem, guys. IDK how big fowleri grow (because evidently we can't trust the usual reliable sites on this genus for now), so this part I could not clear up
I do recall reading what Renegade is citing about 2' to 2'+ fowleri though... but I think Moe is recalling correctly that
Yellowcat
's fowleri grew smaller or maybe simply slower...Let's not jump to conclusion either on PCF. Their max size citation policy is stated clearly - scientific evidence from a published paper, revision, etc. or an irrefutable evidence in the form of a photo with a tape measure.
There are often no easy answers and max size of exotic, poorly known fish are such. One needs to make a greater effort than looking it up in 10 seconds on PCF and then blaming the PCF. And yes, you are right, sometimes, looking it up on 3-4 sites is not enough. One needs to find threads like this one, buried in a sea of information. Welcome to Earth
Besides, PCF and its Cat-eLog are our doing as well, believe it or not. We can all and should all chip in. If we don't care to improve it with pictures and more correct and updated info, the PCF staff (all volunteers) will keep tinkering at their own pace, the best that a dozen of people in their spare time can do.
There are 3500 described species of catfish and the taxonomists believe this is only about half that's been described. It's very labor intensive to maintain such a vast database with the science constantly marching on, species getting reassigned, and often scientists not agreeing, as is the case, for example, with the TSN genus and Auchenoglanis (giraffe catfish) genus.
And then there are hybrids... let's not even go there. My head is spinning already.
As to the original question, I agree that 18" is the maximum size you would want for a 120-130G tank, (my largest of 7). Without revisiting the whole max. size controversy about cephalosilirus, my 11 year old female fowleri remains at 17 1/2". My former female apurensis that outgrew it's tank at 18", around 3 years on now with her new owner she's grown to about 28". Other species to consider might be a bolt cat, vulture cat, large growing synodontis sp., dwarf giraffe (parauchenoglanis) cats, a rare variety of auchenoglanis giraffe cat that you probably won't be able to find that stays small? Then there's medium sized doradid armored cats, large pleco's and many others I suppose, just depends on what you like after doing the proper research...
Yay! We heard from Captain Kirk! We should name the genus after him, although he modestly named himself after the genus.
I didn't know you still had the fowleri. AFAIK, you are the only keeper we have a chance to learn from on this catfish.
So it's been stuck at 17.5" for ~ 5-7 years now? See, fowleri is hard to mistake with apurensis and nigricaudus... which makes me wonder if the 60-70 cm (24"-28") "fowleri" is an undescribed species, or vice versa - Kirk's is.
And I still don't know how to tell apurensis from nigricaudus. Neither do I know the max size for nigricaudus.
We must trust Kirk's current 28" for his apu. That's probably the only thing we can say we know for sure on this trio. IIRC
Yellowcat
is pretty sure his is apurensis, not nigricaudus.
I didn't know you still had the fowleri. AFAIK, you are the only keeper we have a chance to learn from on this catfish.
So it's been stuck at 17.5" for ~ 5-7 years now? See, fowleri is hard to mistake with apurensis and nigricaudus... which makes me wonder if the 60-70 cm (24"-28") "fowleri" is an undescribed species, or vice versa - Kirk's is.
And I still don't know how to tell apurensis from nigricaudus. Neither do I know the max size for nigricaudus.
We must trust Kirk's current 28" for his apu. That's probably the only thing we can say we know for sure on this trio. IIRC
Yellowcat
is pretty sure his is apurensis, not nigricaudus.Part of the problem with c. apurensis vs. c. fowleri is most people can't tell the difference but to the trained eye there are many clues and easy to tell one from another. Some have tried to pass off apurensis as fowleri out of ignorance or perhaps to create a higher price point, I dunno. I've seen photos of peoples "fowleri's" that were obviously not. Country of origin, if known, makes it easy, I saw the box from Brazil opened in front of me by the importer with 5 fowleri inside, 4-5" fish, I got first pick and paid $125 at the time. Apurensis come from Venezuela and possibly Colombia, I know for sure that mine was imported from Venezuela. C. nigricaudus look very much like apurensis but the mid-portion of their body back to their tail are inclined to be rather black in color from what I've seen. They are native to Suriname and rarely imported here if at all. My c. fowleri did stop growing some years ago...
